CASE STUDY - 2020

Newsday Live - Redesign

My Role
UX Design, Strategy, UI Design
Time
3 months
Team
1 Product Designer, 1 UX Director, 2-3 Engineers
About Newsday Live
Newsday Live brings experiences to Long Islanders through webinars, local events and more.

Newsday began producing webinars with a higher frequency, during COVID-19, to keep Long Islanders informed.

However their former site structure faced some issues.
Problem
Long Islanders need a site to view webinars that they can register to, are upcoming and have passed because they want to be informed and cannot find these events on the current site.
A look into the past
This is what the Newsday Live site looked like. It was a

Issues to tackle:

1. The page was unorganized and categories of webinars were everywhere.
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2. The upcoming webinars were hidden when viewers needed to sign up for them.

3. Past webinars were heavily focused in the main rail which takes the focus off of upcoming webinars.
Opportunity
By creating a modern site that generously displays current, upcoming events while including an on-demand library aids Newsday generate views and acquire new viewers while making sure all events are organized.
Auditing the landscape
I conducted a competitor analysis, analyzed direct competitors that had a similar service. Few news sites had similar content but were sorted similar to Newsday's current structure.
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So I looked into indirect competitors, webinar focused sites and how they displayed large amounts of content.
Takeaways

1. Horizontal carousels allow for more videos to
be present while reducing vertical space
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2. Carousels allow for multiple
‍categories to be displayed

3. A card layout that contained necessary information
for the user was simple yet informative
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User Goals
I kept user goals in mind, that were gathered by research, all to keep the designs focused and real by how our viewers would use the site.

1. "I want to see what kind of upcoming events there will be"
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2. "I want to find an event of a specific category"
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3. "I signed up for a webinar sometime ago but I'm not sure where to find it"

Med-Fi Designs (1st round)
I created a few different versions with varying types of filters to discuss with stakeholders about my design decisions.
1. Upcoming events carousel would remain at the top and be easily accessible, with only 3-4 events displaying at a time.
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2. All events were created with this 'card,' layout that contained the type, date and information about the event.


The small 'cards,' are like excerpts to these events!
3.The middle section needed a call to action for those looking for past events to rewatch or find one they missed! The select topic dropdown would display the matching event type listed on the event card.

Since there were few events at the moment, there wouldn't be at most 4 cards presenting themselves after an event type is selected.
Initial Thoughts

1. I started off by creating a large call to action
above the fold for highlighted events. To welcome users and introduce them to an event or just about the page
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2. Upcoming events was going to go at the top  
and in view when users opened their browsers. This was a priority to stakeholders but also users that received weekly newsletters to register for upcoming events.

3. Categories and past events would be listed further down to keep only the most relevant and new items at the top.


*After meeting with stakeholders to view the first round, I was informed that the need of a filters wouldn't be needed at this time due to certain constraints.*
Usability Testing Discoveries (Round 1)
I tested a version of the site without a search bar.

Main observations:
1. Average time to complete task: ~15 seconds

2. 80% of participants were able to successfully complete all tasks
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3. 30% of users wanted a search bar in the middle of the page
Updating Designs
After taking into consideration the usability findings, I updated my wireframes accordingly and loaded them into InVision for further testing. Hello search bar!
Usability Testing Discoveries (Round 2)
I tested this version of the site with a search bar.
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Main observations:
1. Average time to complete task: ~43 seconds

2. 100% of participants completed the tasks. 
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3. 40% of participants wanted the search bar to be less visible.
Final Design
Between the designs and testing, I concluded to get rid of the search bar for now, but at least I'd have a better idea where to put it later and it wouldn't be front and center!

The result was a responsive website that introduces users to this rapidly updating section of Newsday!
Takeaways
User Goals!
My biggest takeaway was creating user goals for myself to keep me from designing too broad. It helped me stay focused with realistically how the site will be used.

Great feedback
Stakeholders were happy to have an updated design that welcomed viewers and properly displayed the content in an organized way.

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View the final version here!
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