Often people feel that news stories aren't relevant to them. News consumers are increasingly using mobile devices to get content. It is even harder to reach and engage younger audiences with news stories. Here we present the journey at creating the first of several prototypes tackling the concept of atomised content to deliver tailored, relevant news.
Project in 2014
What we've done
We created audience-facing prototypes that explore new ways to draw our audience (16-24 years old) to rolling news stories delivered on a Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ space and on mobile devices that breaks out from conventional rolling news channels/streams formats.
Why it matters
Online rolling news channels are not interactive nor tailored to user's preferences. They follow a linear format that mirrors the TV version in a digital age where content's consumption patterns are different.
Initial background research has indicated that younger audiences use conventional trusted sources to validate the accuracy of news stories. However, it also highlighted that a variety of other sources are becoming increasingly important to them for finding news.
They learn about events they are interested in, breaking and trending news from diverse sources - social networks, Google, in-game & mobile chats [source: 'Have we got news for them? Serving young audiences in the UK', April 2014, Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ News Audiences Team].
Our goals
This project focused on the user experience in a fast-paced and iterative lifecycle, including user testing with target audiences at key stages. We aim at exploring how a rolling news service could be more personal and relevant to a younger audience.
How it works
Our background research involved getting a better understanding of rolling news and the audience they serve. We looked at what other people in R&D and other Βι¶ΉΤΌΕΔ teams were doing or thinking about engagement with young people and News.
We explored areas of interests by having creative workshops to generate ideas. The key constraints for the concepts were: * on mobile platform * for younger audience (16-24 years old)
The suggested themes were initially around location and short-form news stories while encouraging left-field/forward-thinking ideas.
Outcomes
We explored several concepts, expanded on those ideas creating detailed interaction patterns and end-to-end user journeys for at least 3 compelling ideas. Our outputs were 3 paper prototypes and 1 functional prototype.
We aimed at developing a framework that will allow for other use cases to be explored, prototyped and validated with sample target audience.
This project is part of the work stream
