Non-Commerce Recirculation Sprint
NBC News Digital Team partnered with TODAY's editorial team for a 4-week design sprint to create products that increase the number of unique commerce visitors to TODAY.com. The team would like to improve conversion rates on articles or sponsored products. A total of 3 new digital products were created to help the editorial team meet their goal. Due to the pandemic, this project and my internship were completed fully-remotely.
ROLE
UX Designer
Interaction Designer
TEAM
Julie White | Sr. Product Designer
Julie Gordonson | UX Researcher
Jasper Curry | Product Manager
DURATION
4-Week Design Sprint
Research
For this project, we conducted a multi-method research effort to better understand what defines an engaging experience for TODAY visitors. As a result, we used contextual inquiry by speaking with editorial team members, competitive analysis, and using existing user data. Our goal was to gain insights on how visitors are using the site, their motivations, and how competitors are addressing this design challenge.
Below are insights from our research that helped shape this project:
Scenarios
Based on our research insights, we pinpointed 3 opportunities for engaging with readers:
Deal of the day (Odes), Trending Articles, and Jill's Steals and Deals Discounts.
Ideation
To begin the design process, we used the crazy 8 methods to sketch concepts for each scenario. Popular concepts were designs with a rail setup, interaction, and larger images or slideshows. After agreeing on a design direction, I was tasked with developing a design system using TODAY's branding, initial wireframes, and interactive prototypes for user testing.
INITIAL DESIGNS
User Testing
Our team's UX researcher, conducted 18 unmoderated user tests on my initial designs.
Participants were TODAY.com mobile users who regularly shop online.
Each was shown one of the three types of commerce recirculation products: Deal of the day (ode), trending, or Jill's Steals and Deals. They were prompted to answer questions about how they expect to interact with the advertisement. For ode and trending, users were shown both prototypes.
Our aim was to gain perspective on the products' ease of use, usability issues, and users' overall perception of the products. Below is an overview of the findings:
FINAL DESIGNS
Trending
The Trending layout was updated to include a page fold animation. This animation was meant to create a stronger affordance for the card flip. I created four breakpoints and prototypes to allow users to engage with this design on all their devices. For 1000 px to 12400 px breakpoints, the card flip animation becomes a hover effect.
FINAL DESIGNS
Jill's Steals & Deals
This version of Jill's Steals & Deals included more recognizable branding from the show. Additionally, a brief synopsis of the deals was added in.
These changes were meant to help users unfamiliar with Jill or her show. With these additions, I hoped to instill a sense of familiarity & trust. Four breakpoints were also made for this design.
FINAL DESIGNS
Deal of the Day
This Deal of the Day features a stronger contrast and larger eyebrow text. I looked for secondary colors within TODAY's color system that would make the text have a stronger contrast ratio to improve the accessibility of the design.
