BBC News App
Redesign

Under the guidance of my mentor, a Senior UX Designer at the BBC, I have been tasked with brainstorming ways to integrate audio news briefings or podcasts into the existing BBC News app to enhance its functionality. This feature is currently absent in the app, a gap identified in previous research.

The Brief

Online and offline Audio News Briefings:

Integrate audio news briefings or podcasts within the app, allowing users to listen to news updates on-the-go or while multitasking, enhancing accessibility for users with visual impairments or those preferring audio content consumption.

Objectives and Key Questions

How might we implement a new functionality enabling users to access audio content relevant to the news, with the ability to download it for offline listening?

Key Questions

Is it possible to add a ‘save’ button to each news article?

Can saved articles be stored in the ‘My News’ section of the app?

How will saved articles in 'My News' be organised?

Can a feature to download be added to each news article?

Will the download option also be available in ‘My News’ for users to download saved articles at a later date for offline listening?

Research

Currently, no research has been conducted on the brief. It has only been mentioned that these features are a user need from past research.

Competitive Analysis

Several competitors provide superior features in their news apps. For instance, X (Twitter), LBC News, The Economist, Medium, and BBC Sounds offer more functionalities than the BBC News app. These competitors enable users to easily save articles for later use.

LBC News, The Economist, and Medium provide the capability to play written articles as audio.

LBC News, The Economist, and BBC Sounds integrate podcasts with clear access for users through the bottom menu bar.

LBC News, The Economist, Medium, and BBC Sounds allow users to download and listen to articles offline.

Link to Figma

Usability Studies

Users find the BBC News App to be overly simplistic and lacking in features.

More advanced features, such as finding podcasts, saving news, downloading news, or playing audio news briefings, are missing from the app.

Other issues found by users:

The homepage requires extensive scrolling, leading to user confusion during navigation. Some users struggle to locate specific news topics, such as sports, which are buried at the bottom of the homepage, causing frustration.

The search function does not consistently direct users to desired articles, unlike X. The 'My News' feature fails to always locate required topics, such as International News.

UX Design Needed

The solution to this problem is to redesign the bottom menu to include four icons: Home, 'My News', Search bar and Podcasts (specifically linking to BBC Sounds News Podcasts e.g. Newscast, Global News Cast) .

'My News' needs to be redesigned to include an option to categorise and organise topics; with additional features to save/bookmark and download articles. The Podcasts button would link to BBC Sounds News Podcasts.

Play buttons, at the side of news articles, would enhance user experience through the option to be read out-loud by a ‘human voice’. Save/bookmark buttons would also be beneficial for users at the side of each article.

Download buttons should be available in 'My News' next to saved/bookmarked articles - coupled with an option for a direct download on the main news page.

Downloaded articles would be stored in 'My News' alongside saved/bookmarked articles.

Target Sample

A wide range of users would benefit from these features:

Saving/bookmarking: users can save articles quickly for future reference.

Audio news briefings would benefit users who are on the go and multi-tasking as well as those with limited literacy or visual impairments.

Downloading: enhances user access when driving, or for users with poor WiFi connection that want to save mobile data and also for people with limited literacy skills or visual impairments.

Design Decisions: First Iteration

Adding a Podcast Feature

To enhance user access to podcasts, I integrated a podcast button into the bottom menu of the app. This button provides a direct link to BBC News podcasts, currently hosted on the BBC Sounds app. For visual consistency, the podcast icon from BBC Sounds was utilised. Additionally, the main play button was updated to the BBC News red colour, differentiating it from the orange branding used in BBC Sounds.

Original Homepage

Updated Homepage

Direct Link to BBC News Podcasts, which are currently accessed only through the BBC Sounds App.

Adding an Option to Save, Download and Play Articles for Offline Listening

Easy options to save, download, and play articles for offline listening have been added. Each news article now includes components that allow users to access these features with a single click. Saved and downloaded articles appear in 'My News".

Download, Save, Play Components

Play activated

Download activated

Saving Articles

When users save articles the 'bookmark' icon is highlighted red. Users are taken to their saved lists with an option to create a new list or add to an existing list. Articles are saved under 'My News'.

Feedback and Next Steps

The next iteration will be to:

To create a variety of save screen designs
To design a variety of save list styles
To design a variety of component styles
To design various button styles

BBC News App Redesign