Nexstar - 197 Apps
Creating a design system for 197 local news station apps
Challenge
What makes local news different from national news
Nexstar who owns 197 local news stations wanted to reinvent the experience of their mobile apps through a new design system capable of accommodating 197 different brand expressions while staying simple and capable of integrating all the features that make an exceptional native app experience.
Approach
3 pillars: Proximity, Community, Relevance
Leveraging Code and Theory’s expertise in the publishing sector, using user research, and analytics from a previous client to identify what mattered to local news users I defined what would matter to the experience in terms of features. These would be organized around the following 3 experience pillars:
Proximity - In your county, in your city, in your neighborhood and even in your street, local news of lesser impact that happens close to the user is more important to them.
Weather / Traffic / Notifications / Neighborhood
Community - Americans want their local news’ journalists to be connected to the community and more globally that the news feel connected to it.
Journalist bios / Local characters / UGC / Polls / Sharing
Relevance - Each user has their own interests, and hyper-local news may feel unimportant on the wrong topics, we have to maximize relevance for each, through customization and personalization.
Navigation & taxonomy / Settings / Personalization based on user behavior / Day-Parting content / Low commitment interaction principles (e.g. long-press preview)
Solution
A rich and flexible design system that minimizes cognitive load and anticipates users’ needs
