CHALLENGE

The overall goal of the project was to better understand users’ behaviour, motivations and needs in relation to local news. Talking to the different stakeholders helped steer the research brief, prioritising objectives and the types of insights which would be most useful to the team.

In particular, we were curious to understand:

• what local news mean to users
• what area users consider being local
• where is the best place for local news in the app
• what is the best way to incorporate different types of news in the app
• what are users’ needs for the News app compared to the News responsive website

APPROACH

I interviewed stakeholders to better understand the research questions of the project. I then collaborated with the designers throughout the project, from writing the research questions to writing the final report.

We recruited 6 participants from small and medium towns, and a big city.

Interviews
We carried out face to face interviews to understand their attitudes, motivations, experiences and needs in relation to local news. We printed out a UK map and a local map, and we asked participants to draw on the maps what local meant to them.

Card sorting
We carried out a card sorting study by asking participants to group and organise 20 paper cards according to how it made sense to them. This helped us understand participants’ expectations and understanding of local news content.

Usability testing
We carried out usability testing of two prototypes to gather feedback on two new designs of the news app.

 RESULTS

From interview notes and video recordings we analysed our data for patterns, themes, and insights relevant to the objectives of the study.

The maps exercise helped us understand that the majority of participants were interested in news related to the town where they live and the town where they work. A minority of participants were also interested in local news of the town where they grew up or where their family live. They told us which type of local news they are interested in: anything from building permission news to news related to opening of a new restaurant.

The card sorting exercise helped us discovering patterns of where users expect to find local news in the news app. Further research with more participants was necessary to have more significant results and better understand users’ mental model.

The usability testing helped us understand which design and features work best for users, and informed our work leading to changes to bring more improvements.

Research techniques: interviews, card sorting, usability testing.