Riple
A social news startup offering personalised news summaries and sharing through an existing web and Android application with the current users primarily India, USA, Bangladesh and UK. Our challenge was to increase user engagement and number of signups, prioritising Gen Z - Millennials as the main user base
Time
2 week design sprint as part of the Experience Haus programme
A trio
How is news being consumed?
Starting out in the research phase as a team of 3, we wanted to understand the habits, goals and frustrations of people between 18-42 when it comes to the news. We collectively conducted 12 face-to-face interviews and received 69 online survey responses from a diverse participant pool from 7 countries. As secondary research, I also analysed data from the 2022 OfCom news consumption report.
From this point in the project, we split off to individually continue our design process. To synthesize the 190+ data points, I did an affinity mapping exercise as to identify themes and patterns.
Some of the groups of related to topics such as:
• Sources and credibility
• Industry or work/business related news
• Engagement on online platforms
• Time and convenience
Key insights
Reliability
Breaking news need to be backed major networks like BBC or CNN for credibility, as users are mostly skeptical of news content on social platforms such as Twitter, FB, and IG
Browsing behaviour
75% of users' current formats for online news are text articles or videos, with 53% preferring a reading or viewing time of 2 mins or less
Topic priorities
World news is the most prioritised topic among users, however, staying ahead of the curve on industry specific news is something they also highly value
Diverse views
74% of users place high importance on consuming multiple news sources with different points of view
Understanding the user
Sees
Thinks
Does
Feels
Defining the problem
Problem Statement
Users need a comprehensive news hub tailored to their top interests, allowing them to stay up to date without searching for various information sources.
Hypothesis
I believe providing users the ability to prioritise topics and accessible alternative sources, they will have a more seamless and complete browsing experience, resulting in an increase in session lengths, article views, and positive reviews.
Ideation
I utilized the Crazy 8’s method to sketch potential solutions on paper which allowed me explore a wide range of approaches as the constraints meant I couldn’t focus too long on any individual solution.
I decided to explore a solution based on Jamie’s first use of Riple, from onboarding to viewing her personalized feed and an article, from onboarding to receiving her tailored feed and an article with the goal of offering the user greater control. Even though the existing app employs AI for article curation, presently, users lack the ability to specify their preferences regarding topics or notifications.
User flow
Learnings from usability testing
To evaluate the primary user flow, I conducted usability tests of the low-fidelity wireframes, gauging the ability of users to complete onboarding, browsing an article and viewing an alternative source for the article.
Brand refresh
As part of the high-fidelity prototype development process, I explored a new logo, colour palette, and typography to establish Riple as a brand that's friendly and modern, while also retaining the minimalistic interface of the existing design.
Design system
Prototype
I explored an alternative interaction for onboarding category selections below with animated bubbles with the intention of making the user's first engagement with the app feel more tactile and add a sense of fun. Additionally, a visually oriented feed was selected to provide a more immersive browsing experience.
Presentation
Next steps
If I had more time on the project, I would:
• Conduct more usability tests
• Explore other ways to integrate ‘alternative sources’ in article posts
• Explore different ways the app can deliver content types, for example longer format article