Problem

The Guardian, a leading news publication, noticed a significant increase in mobile content consumption and wanted to evolve their Live News Coverage format to capitalize on the growing trend of spike in usage during major live news coverage. The existing format was not optimized for mobile-first, contextualized, and personalized experiences that the audience demanded. To address this issue, The Guardian initiated a project to explore selected formats, interactions, and user engagement.

However, the project faced several challenges. Firstly, there was no clear direction on how to evolve the Live Coverage format. Secondly, the team lacked expertise in mobile-first design and development. Lastly, there was a tight deadline for delivering the new format.

Learn more about the design approach with The Guardian Innovation Lab here.

Solution

To address these challenges, we formed a cross-functional team comprising of UX designers, developers, and researchers. We started by conducting extensive research on user behavior and preferences regarding mobile content consumption. Based on our findings, we identified key areas of improvement for the Live Coverage format.

We then developed several prototypes for testing with users to determine which design would be most effective in delivering a mobile-first experience. Once we had settled on a design concept that met all requirements from both users and stakeholders alike (including accessibility), we began developing it using agile methodology with regular feedback loops between designers & developers throughout development cycles until completion within deadline constraints.

Process

Through a series of iterative collaborative sessions and design exploration, The Guardian Innovation Lab wanted to make experiments around the future of mobile live news coverage — exploring new formats that are more scannable, summaries that adapt to context, including editorial and design treatments, reading experience interactions, and service-based features. Code and Theory was asked to deliver a series of mobile prototypes, tested through user testing sessions, in order to inform The Guardian Innovation Lab’s editorial and technological agenda.

The project started by a phase of user research developed to confirm or challenge initial assumptions. Supported by a series of simple stimuli, created to illustrate potential editorial services and features, we collected feedback from a panel of 10 users, via thorough recruiting, scripting, interviewing, and reporting process. Moving into ideation, and informed by user research, we held a series of collaborative workshops in order to define and prioritize a large series of features and services. In parallel, we developed a visual language and interaction paradigm and initiated a design process to generate a series of interactive mobile prototypes. In the third stage of the program, we gathered feedback on the prototypes, and identified areas for improvements to create a refined collections of 12 services and features.

This program allowed The Guardian to define primary user types, as well as identify key topics that will shape the future of mobile live news coverage for The Guardian newsroom, and the industry at large. The Guardian has now successfully moved into the integration phase and has released the new features on its mobile apps. You can read more about it here.

Impact

The team ran two separate quantitative research studies on the impact of the newly designed features for two major live news events: the Super Bowl and the Presidential Inauguration.

Engagement:
- 11,693 total scroll starts, or an average of 22 scroll starts per user
- 1,895 total swipes between lenses, or an average of 3 to 4 swipes per user
- 404 total taps, or an average of 0 to 1 tap per user
Combined responses from the Inauguration and Super Bowl surveys:
- Users who said the new features were easy to use: 95%
- Users who said the new features made sense: 90%
- Users who would maybe or definitely sign up again: 94%

"This project has had an incredible impact on our audience engagement and satisfaction. We are thrilled with the results and look forward to continuing to evolve our Live Coverage format to meet the needs of our mobile-first audience."

Team

UX Design Team
- Developed several prototypes for testing with users to determine which design would be most effective in delivering a mobile-first experience
- Creative ideation workshops & concept development
Research & Testing
- Conducted extensive research on user behavior and preferences regarding mobile content consumption
Product Strategy
- Worked directly with client and stakeholders to determine goals and KPIs
- Refined concepts from workshops with UX designers
Development Team
- Built the new Live Coverage format using agile methodology with regular feedback loops between designers & developers throughout development cycles until completion within deadline constraints.
- Ensured accessibility requirements were met for all users, including those with disabilities.

AI/UXR: The Guardian Revamps Live Coverage for Mobile