Article improvements

***

Overview

With the emphasis on acquiring paid subscribers, it was determined that it would be advantageous to create a premium look for signed-in customers. We also wanted to establish a stronger connection with the user.

Objective

We looked to create the premium experience by decluttering the article through removing the ads and layering in new features. We also felt that promoting our journalists would help the customer feel more of a connection with the product.

We tested prototypes with three main features:

• Larger imagery along with more white space to create a more calming, polished feel on desktop.

• A toolbar anchored in the bottom-left corner which contained a lot of the tools (sharing, audio, notifications, etc) that typically clutter up the top of the article.

• An improved byline experience with a reporter photo that linked to a short bio.

My role

I worked on the UX designs of these features along with other designers on the team. I also conducted the usertesting of the designs using several rounds of unmoderated tests to finetune our approach.

Lastly, I finalized the handoff documentation for the development team of the author bio and the article toolbar messaging.

Outcome

Unfortunately, while the tests showed tremendous user interest, this project was deprioritized, so that development could concentrate on revenue-related projects.