Cnn newspulse review

CNN NewsPulse Review

Chris Cenkner1/14/11

The Ask

• Design a new user experience for an existing CNN product, NewsPulse. http://newspulse.cnn.com/

• Define new opportunities and features, communicate your process, and illustrate your design solution.

• Think about the ways this product could be represented across the web and mobile devices.

Process

• Discover

• Design

• Develop

• Deliver

• Optimize/Evolve

Discover

• Why are we re-designing?• What are the motivating factors?– What KPIs aren’t being met? Traffic? Usage?– Qualitative feedback from users? Survey

data?• Opinion Lab

– Usability Problems?• Traffic/funnel analysis & heat maps

• Do we need to make wholesale changes?– Make tweaks and adjust over time

Cursory Usability Review

• Overall, good, clean presentation• Would be nice if columns were

sortable• Time frame drop-down in upper right

seems removed from other UI filters in left-hand column

• Detail View– “hide details” gets a little lost– Is “recommend” button necessary here?

Discover - Insights

• Why are these stories popular?• High page views/shares/comments

implies value, but doesn’t guarantee it– e.g., AP photo has something funny in

background

• What are the more frequent and valuable commenters/iReporters doing?

• How has popularity changed over time?

Discover – Approach

• Add qualitative measurements– “Rotten Tomatoes” approach

• Reward commenters/iReporters that your users respect

• Show how CNN and its user base provide value

• Show how popularity has changed over time– Google Trends

Design

• How can we add qualitative elements to the existing page framework?

• How can we make tweaks without alienating the user base?

Design – Main Area & Filter

Detail View

Other Devices

• Opportunity to show many stories, broken out by topic

Mobile App

Design

• Ideas would be flushed out further in full wireframes

• Wireframes would inform, not dictate, design direction

• Expectation would be to collaborate with the creative design and development teams to devise optimal solution– Aesthetics– Functionality

Develop

• Expected involvement in consultative capacity

• Review at key project milestones

• Conduct qualitative user testing where possible

• Assist with UAT testing

Deliver

• Don’t rollout the changes without priming the pump!

• Test with non-logged in users first (ala Amazon)

• Discuss changes and concepts (top users) on Behind the Scenes blog

Discuss changes with users

Optimize/Evolve

• Analyze Metrics

• Review Qualitative Feedback

• Fine-tune as necessary

Summary

• Uncover rationale for redesign• Opportunity for providing deeper

understanding into item popularity• Display Qualitative Measures• Make tweaks, not wholesale revisions• Extend to other devices• Test and prepare users for changes• Monitor and improve as needed

Thank You