Understanding Our Users Needs

To kickstart this process, I talked to 5 young professionals who use today's Philstar app to learn more about their experience. This would give me an unbiased review of possible improvements.

Key takeaways from these interviews:

• News blocks are too congested and hard to comprehend

• Poor navigation accessibility to browse different news sections

• Users want a more personalized browsing experience

• People want to save interesting articles to read them later or easily access them for shareability

Evaluating the current Philstar App

I then looked at our app with these insights and user perspectives in mind. I concluded that the home and article pages both needed modernization and improved user experience.

 Rethinking the Philstar Homepage

In Philstar’s current homepage and navigation system, the user may feel overwhelmed with the small text and article blocks. To combat this issue, my redesign focuses on de cluttering the home page by providing more space per article and a navigation tab that is always visible without filling up the whole screen. Below is my workflow that led me to my final iteration.

The A/B testing was conducted with 200 randomly selected students at Boston College between the ages of 18 and 24. To eliminate selection bias, a google form was sent to 400 random student emails at Boston College. The first 200 responses were recorded above. This helped me decide which design landscape would be more successful in capturing a youthful population.

The final iteration features curved blocks and only 2 article blocks per screen. The horizontal navigation page is a more seamless method that does not overwhelm the user. The share method consolidates the most popular social media applications used by the user to improve the shareability of each article. The bookmark button enables the user to easily save posts they find interesting. This further improves article engagement and shareability.

Ideation of Comment Section

I considered many social media platforms as guidelines for a successful comment section that encourages community engagement. I studied Instagram and twitter in particular as they have the largest amount of comments per post on the internet.

The add and dislike buttons enable user interaction with other members of the Philstar community. It also adds an element of gratification for those who post which incentivizes more people to comment. As a result of this community engagement feature, more users will create account. This will improve user retention and platform traffic.

Implementing Video Page

It is important to keep in touch with trending social media features. For this reason, I decided to implement a video page similar to TikTok and Instagram Reels. This feature can further improve the Gen Z user base who are becoming a more significant audience for every type of company.

The article accompanied by the video blends in the aspect of a video reel with the nature of a news outlet. By doing this, Philstar implements the highly successful reel feature with their news platform.

Furthermore, in order to establish a safe community, the implementation of the report feature enables users to inform Philstar of any wrongdoing or misinformation prevalent in articles. This option will instill a culture of truth where users can feel safe.

Ideation of For You Section

The “For You” section allows users to create a personalized page that is formulated to meet their interests. This section aims to build user engagement by providing the user with a feed that appeals to them. As this is not the primary home feed, the user can still access the top news of the day, regardless of their interests indicated in the “For You” page.

The playful bubble categories aim to encourage the user to participate in the “For You” page. The available categories feature the most popular sections prevalent on global news outlets. The current Philstar app does not have any form of user personalization. This feature is low risk as it is purely optional, but offers potential to build user engagement and loyalty.

Rethinking the Philstar Article Page

The current Philstar article page successfully delivers news. However, there are many flaws regarding additional features accompanying the article. These lacking features range from shareability to user discussion.

The improved share feature and new report feature aim to cultivate a wider array of functionality available to the user. These minor additions can have profound positive impacts as they are prevalent on every article within the database. Furthermore, the ability to save articles and engage with the community through the comment section is a step towards a more modernized and functional app.

Ideation of Opinion Page

The opinions of the writers is a very important aspect of Philstar. However, this opinion page is only accessible through their website. By staying consistent with their website and app presence, their overall brand identity will be more professional and highly regarded by avid users.

Search Page

The current Philstar search feature is a simple bar at the top of the home page. However, many companies such as TikTok and Instagram have experienced success by including the discovery of popular posts. Discoverability within the search page fits perfectly with Philstar as they have a large database of articles and videos. My redesign includes trending topics in the form of curved blocks, similar to the “For You” section, and article photos below for easy discoverability.

Saved Posts Page

The current Philstar app does not have the ability to save articles. This feature has become very important for news outlets as articles often get lost after a few weeks due to the sheer amount being posted. For this reason, it is critical for Philstar to implement this feature to stay competitive in the news industry.

The final iteration incorporates the curved block theme of the home page to stay consistent in design. It also enables the user to seamlessly switch between articles and videos giving the user more control ability to find what they’ve saved. I decided to decrease the size of each article block to showcase atleast 6 per screen. This is because the user is more familiar with each article since they saved it in the past.

Ideation of Account Page

Most successful news outlets such as CNN and BBC have an account page to increase customer loyalty and personalization. However, Philstar does not have this option in their current app. Below is my design process of the new Philstar account page.