Building on my previous success designing social sharing experiences at Citizen Sports, I was selected to lead the design of a modern, cross-platform, socially driven reimagining of Yahoo News. The goal was to rethink how people discover and engage with news in a more connected, personalized way. My focus was on integrating social dynamics into the content discovery experience—exploring how a user’s network, interests, and behaviors could surface more relevant, timely, and engaging stories across devices.
My Role
Principal designer, working closely with a PM and a remote team of engineers.
Purpose
To reimagine Yahoo News as a cross-platform experience powered by social connections for more relevant content discovery.
Outcome
In testing, session duration increased by 122%.
The project began with developing personas and crafting user stories to understand key interaction moments along the user journey. Early design explorations introduced the concept of a layered content hierarchy, encouraging users to delve deeper into topics based on their interests and connections.
Initial designs were very photo-rich, and presented a never-ending stream of content, prioritized by content your friends have already read or commented on. Individual stories could be previewed on a tap or hover, and expanded on click.
Content categories were eventually turned into endless horizontal scrolling "rivers" of individual stories. These rivers were prioritized by explicit interest signals set by the user as well as content read from members of the users' social graph. Interstitial ads within the rivers fulfilled the business need for monetization.
Throughout the design process, we focused on how to integrate social features that felt organic and inviting. The final experience prioritized efficient performance while making it easy for users to share stories and spark discussions with their social circles.
