NPR NewsUX Case Study
See the interactive prototype for this NPR News community feature built in Figma after 8 weeks of research, testing, and iteration.
View the PrototypeProject Details
UX Case Study | 8 Weeks
My Team: Marcella, Emily, Kate, Shelly
My Role: UX Researcher and Designer
This was a student project I completed for school and is not a current feature for NPR News, but maybe one day it can be. The objective of this project was to find out How might we provide users with news relevant to their wants and gain their trust? My team wanted to uncover what users were lacking and what they wanted more out of their news applications. Once I discovered through research and insights, I designed a new feature that allowed the users to join a community that followed their common interests.
About NPR News
NPR is an independent, nonprofit media organization that focuses on making local stories national, national stories local, and global stories personal.
Goals
- Create a new feature that would make users want to visit NPR News as their daily source
- Design in a way that would not be difficult to do given any demographic
Design Process
Research
My team first started by looking into other competitors of NPR which included both the traditional and non-traditional sources. Those included C-Span News, Twitter, The New York Times and PBS. We noticed that most were lacking personalization. Looking further online and reading reviews from previous users of these news sources, its users want to be able to have their customizations that suit their needs.
The next step we took was to go interview users to find out some pain points and frustrations before any design decisions were made.
Interviews
The target audience I decided to focus on for my part in the project was the Baby Boomers, those who are very interested in checking the news (checking it more than a few times a day).
Discovery from Interviews
- The majority of the people we interviewed found that the news doesn't seem to affect their daily life. However, they like to check it daily to stay up to date with current events.
- Professionals whose jobs are impacted by world events seem to check the news more often and are more likely to pay for a subscription.
- Most people do not know if the news they read is reliable. However, they check info sources if they find it interesting.
- Most people surveyed do not find the news trustworthy and they are aware of biases.
- Most people seem to assume reputable news channels deliver reliable information.
Outcome & Reflection
Overall, I'm very pleased with the outcome of this project. It's gratifying to know that users enjoyed the features and expressed interest in having them integrated into this app and potentially others. This feedback indicates that my research and understanding of user needs were on target. Working on a widely-used app has been a valuable experience, teaching me how to enhance the user experience for both new and existing users.
However, the focus on "personalization" presented a challenge. I had to carefully develop ideas that would resonate with users while also addressing the core question: "How can we deliver news that meets users' interests and builds their trust?"
Ultimately, creating user communities enabled individuals to trust articles shared by others with similar interests. Additionally, allowing users to select preferred topics before presenting a wide range of group options made the news more relevant and engaging.
There is still more I'd like to explore, such as refining the UI design, which I didn't have time to complete during this project.