DAILY TEA
Daily Tea is an app I designed. I conducted a case study and created a prototype.
Elevator pitch
A social news application that provides young adults with informative articles that are straightforward and easy to understand.
What is this? Why does it matter?
When young adults become eligible to vote, it is a natural instinct to want to familiarize themselves with news and politics. However, learning about these aspects of life can seem intimidating, overwhelming, and simply negative. With The Daily Tea users can familiarize themselves with an important event within a couple of paragraphs. This application helps individuals stay current while avoiding biases and unnecessary input and getting straight to the point. The Daily Tea helps users learn about politics and current events in a simple and easy-to-understand way. Lastly, it makes staying current fun with the ability to follow and share content with your friends.
Tools
Figma
Adobe Illustrator
Duration
January - April 2022
Roles
UX/ UI Designer
UX Researcher
Creator
RESEARCH
User interviews
The research conducted was to create an app that can help users get unbiased, concise news that is easy to understand. The research was used to make this application effective in helping users learn about the news in an enjoyable way.
Background
To make a news app that provides information that is accessible, informative, easy to understand, and encourages users to create their own opinions about what they have read.
Goals
Methodology
1:1 user interviews conducted over zoom with 6 people.
Eligible to vote
Reads the newsweekly
Young adult (age 18-30)
Participant screening
What did you find most intimidating when you started reading the news?
What do you value the most about the news?
Is there a stigma around politics today?
How does the news make you feel?
Sample interview questions
Interviewee quotes
“When I read the news, I don’t feel like I am getting the full picture. I feel like there is always an incentive to not give me the facts.”
“I find the news very intimidating. Every time I read an article there are all of these big political words that are never explained. It feels like whoever is writing it doesn’t want you to truly understand it.”
“The news makes me feel afraid. I dread hearing about the news because they are always trying to write the narrative in an overdramatic way. I feel misled by the news.”
Interview findings
The interviews presented a few obvious issues about the news:
News articles are often too long and complicated to understand.
Depending on which platform you read, the way the news is framed varies.
News platforms are boring to look at stylistically.
News platforms promote a negative stigma around opposing political parties.
The news can be intimidating because it often references previous events that the individual reading may not know about.
Interview insights
From the user interviews it was understood that on The Daily Tea, the articles should be only a couple of paragraphs, contain definitions of any political jargon (if used), and should overall remain as neutral and purely informative as possible. The app should have a style that is nice to look at while not distracting from the content. Lastly, the articles on the app should inform the users about any previous events they may need to know about in order to fully understand the article.
Affinity diagram
Used to identify themes within the interviews.
The themes identified were accessibility, outside impacts, emotional effects, perspectives/ biases, social media, and visual appeal.
Competitive analysis
3 major news sources were identified and checked to see if their platform supported the 7 main features listed on the top.
How might we…
Deliver news in a way that is understandable and concise?
Create a way for users to have profiles with which other users can interact?
Help give news in a way that doesn't create more political bias or labels?
Provide subscriptions that are affordable for people in all areas of life with access to all of the things they are interested in viewing?
DESIGN
Problem statement
Eligible Voters need a concise and unbiased way of getting news because current news platforms are overwhelming, overcomplicated, and tell a prejudice version of the story.
User flow
Low fidelity wireframes
Mid fidelity wireframes
Brand identity
Traits I feel best to describe this digital experience:
Clean
Modern
Cutting-edge
Dependable
High fidelity wireframes
EVALUATION & RESULTS
Peer feedback
Not enough color contrast of blue on a dark background
The outlines are too dark
Needs back arrows
More imagery on the ‘Today’ page
Indicate which buttons can’t be used until something else on the page is completed
Instead of a ‘messages’ page, create a page that includes both messages and a search to find new people
Design changes
Changed the text from blue to white
Brightened outlines
Added back arrows
Added an image to each article on the ‘Today’ page
Greyed-out buttons that cannot be used until something else on the page is completed
Created a ‘people’ page that includes messages and a search to find new people
REFLECTION
Conclusion
The key takeaways of this project were learning design standards, understanding what the user needs, and how to ask questions in order to learn what you need to improve your app. I never realized how much attention to detail and time it takes to map everything out, ensure everything is spaced and sized properly, and the flow looks right. Also, make sure the app has good usability. Another huge thing I learned was the difference between what a user says they need and what they really need. I noticed that what they really need is never just outright stated, but integrated into their answers throughout a user interview. Lastly, how you ask a question can get you from a good app to a great app.