About

USATODAY mobile based app- more modernized way to build credibility and reach a larger targeted audience.

Duration

12 Weeks

Spring 2017

Role

Co-Designer with Sara Nuffer

Asset Creation

Problem

USA TODAY strives to include younger audiences, who usually find their news through social media sharing. News has a reputation of being dry and factual, which dissuades the younger generation from relying on USA TODAY for news articles. 

Goals

Build a more credible reputation amongst younger generations and have a stronger social media presence. Allow for ease of sharing, and show relevant articles to the current one.

Process

Moodboard

Looking for #classy, #modern fun that would appeal to newer and older generations of news-readers. The pop of color makes it less dry and more engaging.

Information Architecture/ User Stories

Sketches

Our concept was to create an endless scroll of content to keep readers in the funnels of articles. Each article would be a kind of "card" what would pop up with the body of the article. The hashtags are used to filter content and keep articles relevant to the reader's interests. 

Final Thoughts

Strong Points

The challenge was coming up with a new mobile based news system. This is entails managing content and formatting it in a way a younger generation would be interested in interacting with. I think we took on this challenge well and made it #newsworthy. This modern adaptation is one of our top projects and we responded well to any feedback and adjusted accordingly.

Conclusion

It was great to be able to work on an actual client project as a partnership. We learned what we worked well on and what we did not as individuals. This helped me grow as a designer and helped me to understand what actual clients are looking for. If we were to do this again, I would try to change up the menu slightly to make it less overpacked.

Breanna Marshall, 2023