WSJ iPad Latest News Refresh

Following the success of our WSJ Mobile App refresh, I spearheaded the effort to do something similar with our outdated, lowly trafficked iPad app. My goal was to extend the highly engaging phone features onto the tablet in order to better serve our audience and to open up space for future innovations, like immersive story templates or commenting functionality. The refreshed iPad launched in the summer of 2019 and increased time spent and increased usage among our audience. Additionally, the launch reduced the amount of time and effort mobile editors needed to dedicate to programming the iPad app.

View and download the WSJ iPad app here.

WSJ. Magazine iPad Edition Redesign

WSJ. Magazine runs monthly with the weekend edition of The Wall Street Journal. The magazine features beautiful design that reflects a well crafted and luxurious reading experience. I worked with the magazine’s print design and editorial team to create designs for the iPad edition that reflected the WSJ. Magazine look and feel.

See WSJ. Magazine here.

CTX Drought Report

In Studio 20, we think about how journalism will look in the future a lot. CTX Drought Report was an exercise in business models - what goes into a business model? what does it mean to have a mission statement? how does one create a strategy to launch a business? I decided to create a mockup and business plan for a non-profit journalism company that focused on the drought in Central Texas. The goal was to create resource for the people of Central Texas (and beyond) to understand the drought affecting the Lower Colorado River and also to incite changes in policy for future preparation.

To explore the full business plan, click here.

Studio 20 + The Guardian US, Engaging Millennials

During the Spring of 2015, I worked on a project with The Guardian US on how to better engage the millennial generation, looking specifically at their technology vertical and off-platform like Twitter and Vine (RIP).

Conclusions:

In order to engage younger audiences, first meet them where they are. And, that doesn't always mean Facebook. Other platforms may not drive as much traffic, but often have loyal users that go to that site for certain topics. For example, Tumblr and YouTube are huge for TV fans. Vine is big for comedy and animation. Second, use personality. In the research conducted, I found that the most popular social media posts are conversational, even playful, in tone. Third, images are essential because they build a better user experience on social and, importantly, on mobile. It's a way catch users attention and keep them engaged with content. Fourth, create and use templates to make experiments simple and reproducible - it means it's not necessary to start from scratch every time.

Studio 20 + Storyful, Agile Newsrooms

Studio 20 teamed up with Storyful to answer this question: what does it take to create a more agile newsroom? We interviewed key people from Storyful's staff to study the company's production routine and see what stood in the way of creating a more agile newsroom. We also interviewed a few folks in media that were big proponents of agile, like Yuri Victor of Vox Media and Brian Boyer of NPR, to understand their experience introducing agile to an editorial environment. Once we had a good grasp of the problems, we put our heads together to create a list of recommendations for introducing agile.

A few key points:

• Incorporate agile methods into training for everyone, not just product teams. This way all employees have a strong grasp of how Storyful operates and their culture.

• Find ways to release from the "hamster wheel", i.e. the never ending news cycle. This could come in the form of Hack weeks, like at Vox Media, scheduled release time or work rotation policies. It's imperative for innovation to have some time to look above and beyond daily demands.

• Make retrospective meetings forward-thinking. Use the retrospectives to reflect on "what can be done better?" and "what went wrong?" instead of only highlighting accomplishments. Use that time to reorganize work and reflect on big issues that impacted work.