Tribune Publishing · Newspaper App Revamp

IBM · Tribune Publishing · B2C Media • IC • Product revamp • 2 months (Jun 2021)

Overview

Tribune Publishing is an American media publishing house. Tribune has a lot of markets which come under it, which have their own news applications and prints. This project including redesigning mobile applications(Android and iOS) and the web applications for all these markets. All the markets followed the same pattern and layout, but different branding.

Problem/Objective

The objective of this project was to redesign and refine the UI of the apps and incorporating some new features for the users, like customisation.

The objective of this project was to give technicians a centralised platform or an application, through which they could identify and track the maintenance jobs in the system.

My Role

In the beginning for the initial few weeks, I was working with a senior UX Designer working out of the US. And then later I was given independent ownership for design.

The process in this project

After we got the requirements for the new features to be added, we would discuss ideas together but had divided the work so that both of us could independently on each feature.

For the mobile applications, the redesign was mostly for the UI and not the layout. So we did not need wireframes for it. We directly worked on the designs and worked on a couple options for each.

Me and the senior designer would review each others’ designs and get feedback.

We also had sessions with the client each week so that we got ideas from their point of view as well.

Scope

This project has been going on from Dec 2020 and is still under progress. So the scope is growing. For the mobile applications, wee have just released changes to the main screens, which form 50% of the entire app and we are working on the rest of the screens currently.

Users

The apps already had a regular user base, which is one of the reasons the clients weren’t keen on changing the app entirely. Since they were using this app for a long time, they wanted to see a fresh look but wanted some sort of familiarity.

Outcome

After the first release of the mobile application, a user feedback survey was done. According to this survey, 70% of participants felt their subscription would be more valuable due to customisation (a new feature) and 65% people would be more likely to use the app in regard to the overall changes. According to the users, the app seemed “well refined” after the update.