Objective News App
User Experience Project
Are you interacting with news that is politically biased? Do you feel like you can't see eye to eye on important topics with your friends and family?
While studying at Savannah College of Art, my team and I wanted to address this issue by prototyping a news app that uses data to determine the political leaning of news articles to make visible the most middle ground articles on trending topics.
Features
Onboarding
The first time a user opens Middle Ground, they are prompted to enter their personal information and choose the topics that will be populated in their news feed. The app will use this information to personalize the user experience.
Tool Tips
The Middle Ground app has a lot of signifiers for interactivity that might not be apparent to all users. Tool tips introduce new users to the top features of the app and phase out as the user gains proficiency.
Browsing
The user can select topics that are trending on the home screen, or choose from their topics of interest from the For You screen. Larger cards are placed at the top, indicating top trends.
The Topic Aggregate view shows the most credible articles based on political bias and votes from the community. Users are able to filter using a variety of parameters.
Article Details
Every news article provides data to help users determine the credibility of the article including publisher and author information. The user is able to see the article in a timeline viewed articles for more context.
The user is able to comment, vote, share, and add to favorites.
User Data
The profile view contains data on the users viewing, voting and consensus trends while using the app. Aspects of the user interface change color to indicate if the user is interacting with news that is middle ground.
The user can save articles by adding to their favorites. They are notified of any activity on articles they have interacted with.
User Research
Survey & Interviews
Target Audience
User Archetypes
User Personas
Ideation
Sketches
Wireframes
Branding
Brand Color
Bias Rating
User Rating
Persistent Menu
UI Icons
Credibility Rating
Card Design
Home Trending
Topic Aggregation
Author Details
Favorites
Project Details
Group Project
Savannah College of Art & Design
Viki Suslovic, Koan Sun, Jiahua Chen
Work Breakdown
Viki: User Personas, User Archetypes, Low-Fi sketches and wireframes, final logo, style guide, card design, prototype
Koan: Competitive research
All: App concept, user survey, user interviews, secondary research, logo brainstorm, feature list
Project Parameters
This project consisted of two parts over one semester. Part 1 was the design and prototype of the app which Viki was responsible for. Part 2 was the promotional campaign which is Koan and Jiahua lead (not shown here).