USA Today

Brand Redesign

Bring back confidence. 

Today, people get information and news from dozens of sources daily. "Fake news" has led to a decrease in overall trust in many news sites. How can USA TODAY reach out and connect with the millennial demographic and inspire confidence in its reporting? 

Client

Class project; partnered with Partners & Napier for USA TODAY

Role

Team Members

Becky Drexler and Riley Yankowich

Why?

Millennials are the want-it-now generation.

 Now more than ever, we need a reliable news source that speaks to us and inspires us to share, comment, and promote change.

01 User Research

The beginning stages of our process involved extensive research on millennials and their news. We looked through competitive analysis, common ui trends, and behavioral data to produce the most successful solution for our audience.

Millenials

Who are they?

Millennials make up the large majority of our target demographic for USA TODAY Life. They are a generation who see the value in technology through its efficiency and ability to bring people together / make life easier.

USA TODAY wants to be able to better connect with millennials while staying true to their values. How can we entertain and relate to this younger demographic without compromising integrity and legitimacy? 

What do they crave?

They are the “Want it Now” generation, bombarded with more than 5,000 marketing messages a day, only able to hold their attention for 8 seconds.

43% of millennials rank authenticity over content when consuming news. They first have to trust a company or news site before they even bother reading the content that they produce.

Survey Results

We asked friends and family to share and respond to a survey regarding their social media and news consumption habits. 

01

93.0 % responded saying they had some form of trust issues with news depending on where they hear it and who is sharing it. 

02

90.7 % responded saying they do not comment on news but they do form their own opinions.

03

55.8 % of people responded saying they share their news mainly directly to a friend as well as Facebook and sometimes twitter.

02 Competitive Analysis

The Competitors

USA TODAY strives for integrity and reliability for its users. We began research on what the common conversation is between the user and the news platform. After studying the most popular news apps and social media, we recorded repeating patterns across platforms. We found trends in sharing, viewing, saving, and commenting.

03 Common UI Patterns

After researching USA TODAY’s top competitors, we analyzed patterns, both successful and unsuccessful, that appeared among the various sites. We marked which ones we believe are most successful.

We focused on four main objectives: Sharing, Share Options, Article Lists, and Commenting.

04 Current Challenges 

Challenge 01: Sharing

The share feature is limiting. If a user tries to share a photo, it only copies the photo's URL, without the article or even a jpg.

If a user tries to share the whole article, it gives them a URL and the text “CHECK OUT THIS ARTICLE FROM USA TODAY”, which doesn't portray the reliable source it is set out to be. 

Challenge 02: Commenting

The USA TODAY app doesn't even have a commenting feature. Their mobile platform has commenting but it is not directly through USA TODAY, it is only a Facebook plugin that limits participation in the community.

Meet Betty

Persona 1: The Conversationalist

Betty is an outspoken, conversationalist and community builder. She wants to be able to connect, socialize and foster professional discussions.

Meet Ryan

Persona 2: The Inspector

Ryan is a skeptical workaholic, concerned with the facts. He wants articles to share with friends that are trustworthy, relevant, and that prove he is right. 

07 Objectives

Objective 1

Enlighten Instantaneously.

Objective 2

Express opinions & promote conversations.

Strengthen USA TODAY’s community through a custom commenting tool. USA TODAY allows your voice to be heard as well as your peers. Comment on what you want, where you want in the article through in-line commenting for a better conversation.

Client Feedback:

Originally, we were sketching and working out ways for users to comment anywhere. In a round of feedback from the client, we learned that USA TODAY didn't want users to have complete control over commenting. It was too chaotic.

Compromise:

As a compromise, we chose to allow comments only on select portions of the articles - such as pull quotes. The editor/publisher could choose was could be conversation-starters, giving them more of a narrative. It also made conversations easier to monitor. 

Objective 3

Build branded share graphics to enhance USA TODAY’s social media presence. USA TODAY allows your voice to be heard as well as your peers. Leverage the brand’s iconic image into custom share graphics to heighten social media presence.

More descriptive information and imagery by default to strengthen brand identity where it is shared.

It's a Win-Win

Client:

We know that many of the target users are consumer news throughout outlets and sources. Building the branding into the shared links and images allows greater control and brand awareness for USA TODAY. The familiar and trustworthy name is clear and easy to recognize.

Users:

Through limited, curated choices, users can personalize the content they want to share, giving them a sense of ownership over the content. It also makes it easier for users to find the content they shared/saved to their phone through better titles, images, and URLs  associated with the shared item.

Before & After

Thanks for scrolling! 

2023 Becky Drexler