Nugget - A News App
Nugget is a news app for busy, young professionals who feel a sense of duty to keep up with current events but feel a lack of control about the way they currently get news.
During my UX/UI Bootcamp course, we were challenged to create an app that could solve an everyday problem. A small group of classmates and I decided to tackle the social issue of news anxiety and created an app that allows users to feel more in control of the news that they receive and the emotions that news can cause.
My Role:
UX Researcher and UI Designer
Technology Used:
Miro, Figma and Trello
The Problem:
Today, there are thousands of news sources constantly bombarding us with information. It feels nearly impossible to keep track and stay interested in it all, but we feel a sense of duty to do so. We are trying to solve this problem of too much information and too little time or ability to focus our attention to keep up with the news.
Our Solution:
A highly customizable news app that thoroughly breaks down notification settings giving the user control to unplug when necessary and encourages users to be mindful about their news experience. Mindfulness allows users to be conscious of the emotional impact of the articles they read. We also provide them with tools on how to respond to those emotions.
Research:
We interviewed 6 potential users located in the United States through a variety of methods including in-person, over the phone and through Zoom. We also shared a short survey that we created through SurveyMonkey through our social media platforms. We generated questions that gave us a better understanding of how people feel about news, what sources they get their news from, and how they receive that information.
User Insight:
During our interviews and surveys, we discovered that many people found the amount of notifications to be overwhelming and have deep concern about the accuracy of information. People need a way to unplug and be in the moment while still staying informed. Users are currently unsatisfied with the way they receive news and that we might be able to help if we allow users to have more control over their news experience.
Definition and Ideation
User Persona:
Meet our user persona, Rita! She is a busy 29 year old Real Estate Agent living in New York, NY with one roommate. She is an avid news reader and feels a deep sense of responsibility to stay up to date with current events but the news can be scary and upsetting for her. She feels guilty if she doesn’t stay up to date with the news because they are topics that she feels passionate about and they affect her and her family. The demand for rentals has skyrocketed and she has been very busy at work but the constant push notifications are distracting. Rita just wants to feel more in control of the information she receives.
Ideation:
Next, we had a brainstorm session for ideas we wanted to include in our app and created the 3 lists, “I like,” “I wish,” and “what if.” We then plotted our ideas on a Feature Prioritization Matrix. Then, keeping our project statement on the forefront of our minds, we voted on the features we felt provided the best impact while also helping the users achieve their goal of control and mindfulness.
We then created a user journey map for Rita that tells her story of feeling overwhelmed and distracted at work by the constant bad news notifications. Rita goes home and meets Nugget, the highly customizable and mindful news app. She sets her preferences and settings and takes control of her news experience. The next day she feels focused and stress free because she is only getting news that she wants, when she wants it.
Sketches and Wireframes
Before beginning to sketch, we created a user flow to help keep us on track. Then we each created paper wireframes separately and then regrouped and synthesized a clickable prototype with what we thought were the most intuitive screens for our users. This was a little challenging because our design choices varied so it wasn’t quite a cohesive product as you clicked through screens. We were nervous that this would skew our user testing and would distract from the usability of the app and its features. So, from this paper prototype we created the lo-fi version you see below.
Prototyping and User Testing
After user testing we realized having the bulk of our notification features briefly explained via one “About” page that the user only saw if they clicked a “?” next to the setting was not doing the users any service. We iterated on this and developed a micro user flow to help develop a logical flow to having our users learn about and set up these customizations. Also, initially, no matter what emotion the user reported feeling we took them to the same page (shown to the right). We realized this wasn’t providing our users with any real tools to help them cope with their emotions so we developed different responses based on how the user is feeling with helpful integrations such as calls to action, breathing exercises and feel good music.
Final Prototype:
Conclusion and Reflection:
In the end we were all incredibly proud of our work from the app’s inception being so timely to our current lives to our creation of the touch base feature which none of our competitors offer. We found an anxiety shaped hole in the lives of news readers that no other news app seemed to address when it came to their notification preferences other than to turn the whole thing off. The three of us were passionate about news awareness and creating healthy habits for news readers, and as we come to a close on this project we wish we had more time and resources to research deeper into the psychology of user’s “healthy habits” and how they differ from one’s political identification.