Navigating the news: Insights from the design thinking process of the New York Times App redesign
Redesign of the New York Times App by Johny Vino, Addi Ho, and Ke Hu.
The New York Times app is part of the broader industry shift towards digital journalism, expanding the newspaper's digital presence. NYT app allows users to access news articles, multimedia content, and other features on their mobile devices. As a regular digital subscriber, you get access to all of the stories on The New York Times website and app.
In this article, I will be sharing my insights on the design thinking process from the UX case study on the redesign of the New York Times app by Johny Vino, Addi Ho, and Ke Hu and how they prioritized empathy, ideation, and iteration.
Let’s dive into the problem
The news app was losing the interest of readers of its users due to these reasons—coverage (Users are unhappy about something they read), Life-changing events (moving), Lack of usage, and Irrelevant content.
The proposed solution for this project is to add a subtle and useful feature to that landing page called Timely. That will enable the user to receive notifications at opportune moments throughout a busy day: at breakfast, commute, before a meeting, during a coffee break, or right before bed.
The design thinking process
Empathy
The design project was keen on understanding their target audience (young people aged 20-40 years) pain points, desires, and behavioral patterns through unbiased research. The team conducted a user interview with young users who have busy schedules and do not have time to read daily news and understand their day-to-day challenges. This empathetic approach guided the design decisions, ensuring the project addressed the user's problems. The redesigned New York Times app wasn't just a solution; it was a response to the nuanced challenges users faced in navigating news content. By putting the user first, the designers ensured that every decision made contributed to a solution that focused on the user's needs.
Design principles
The team infused the design process with a deep commitment to design principles formulated for the project to adhere to functionality and good user experience. The design principles were set up after concluding the user research. The goal was to maintain the direct relationship between the interview result and UI design. Here are the principles created: Seamless integration, Simplicity, and Polite.
Ideation, prototyping, and testing
After the research, the team developed 15 concepts to solve the problem from the initial phase. These ideas were tested with the VP of design at the New York Times to know the sustainability and viability of the notion, and then 15 test groups were recruited for usability testing to vote for the best idea that solves the user's problem. Through this iterative process, the team came up with two modes for the final prototype: Manual Mode, empowering users to customize their news experience, and Automatic Mode, leveraging Google Calendar integration for seamless, timely delivery.
Conclusion
In conclusion, the redesign of the New York Times app shows the importance of the human-centric design thinking process which was embraced by the designers.
The focused problem-solving approach was not just about understanding the user's pain points; it was a commitment to crafting an experience that suited the needs of the audience of the New York Times.
The UX case study is a reminder to designers that, in the realm of UX, understanding the user is not just a step—it's a journey and one that leads to remarkable destinations.