Brief
To develop an understanding of the design process as applied to website design, including consideration of user needs and usability (the ease of use of a website), user testing, applying relevant style and functionality, and current technology and best practice.
Your task is to design a news website for a New Zealand audience. The solution must enable users to perform the tasks or reach the information that you have identified and prioritised for the audience (user needs). The solution should be visually and functionally engaging, usable, and suitable within current information consumption patterns online.
Consider the relevance of your proposal within the context of informing people about their community and their world. Consider semiotics of your design, its broad rhetorical style, and ease of access to information. Rapid iteration and user testing with a range of audiences will be key in the design process.
The objective of my news website is to cater to a younger demographic, particularly those aged 16 to 25, which includes university students, yo-pros, and older high school students. As a student myself, I recognise the importance of staying informed about current events; however, traditional news websites tend to be overwhelming and uninteresting to this target audience.
To address this issue, I have adopted a layout and functionality for the website that resembles social media. By creating an account, users can access various features, such as the ability to customise their news page by ‘pinning topics’ of interest. The homepage serves as an "explore" page, providing general news updates, while the "my news" page offers a personalised experience to individual preferences.
Stylistically, I have intended to create a balance between the aesthetics of social media and the traditional newspaper format. This is achieved through the use of header typefaces, columns, and predominantly grayscale colour schemes. By blending elements of both classic and contemporary design, I aim to appeal to a wide range of tastes and maintain a sense of sophistication.
The website offers a diverse range of content formats, including articles, podcasts, and videos, in order to accommodate varying preferences. Within each article, users are provided with the option to choose between a summary or the complete text, catering to those who are pressed for time and prefer to focus on the main points.
Each news block prominently displays category tags, along with the date, time, a pin icon, and an indicator representing whether the content is an article, podcast, or video. This design choice is intended to facilitate quick comprehension of the news content for the user.
