Brown Daily Herald App
Helped to launch the Herald's inaugural app, through features like: save, curated page, iPhone widget.
Project Overview
Timeline: 6 months, still in progress.
My Role: Product Lead
According to Northwestern Medill School of Journalism (2024), out of 1004 surveyed users, around 620 use their phones to get local news. This indicates a decline in both traditional print newspapers and desktop reading habits. In order to accommodate this new trend in readership, the BDH initiated the production of its first app. During the creation process, we wanted to maintain a professional newspaper presence while prioritizing engagement and accessibility.
The Problem:
Although the BDH has a large reach in the Brown community, we wanted to improve daily usage and encourage more students to incorporate reading the Herald in their daily routine. We took feedback on the user friction caused from navigating through the Herald's online site and focused on building an intuitive app.
Research:
In collaboration with the course ENGN 1931: Digital Nudges, the Herald surveyed students on what they would most want to see from the BDH app.
We found that they wanted:
Brown-specific cultural content
Interactive features (Games, moving icons…)
Customized content
Design Solutions
Onboarding - We wanted to make logging in as seamless as possible by using Google sign-in. This is followed with a preference section that allows for personalization and a sense of investment, as customization makes it more likely for users to return.
Home feed - We set up the home feed to lead with top stories followed by section based content. A Breaking News module features time-sensitive stories with a distinct red label.
Article page - To minimize distractions we put the author, timestamp, and section tag visible at a glance. The save button is kept in the header so bookmarking doesn't interrupt reading flow.
Save feature - Saved articles are accessible from the home feed in one tap.
What's Ahead
The app is still in progress and we're working on adding additional features such as:
iPhone widget
Curated content page
Most popular articles
Design
What I Learned
From this project I learned that you get out of your team what you put in. Although it can be a slower process, having to communicate and gain approval through all the steps, the BDH team was beyond supportive and everyone pulled their weight. Design-wise, I learned how to keep the client-image in mind when building by being selective with what features would preserve the professionalism of the Herald.