BBC News App

Personalizing News to a Global Audience

In 2014, I was honored to contribute to the largest update of the widely recognized BBC News app, working as a central designer in the visual and interaction design of the platform. My focus included crucial features like enhanced ‘Top Stories,’ personalized news topics, video integration, and an upgraded reading experience—all geared towards providing a seamless, user-centered interface.

My role involved defining and shaping how millions of users would navigate the app, especially as we were pushing the boundaries of mobile interaction models on iOS and Android. This included iterative user testing to ensure that every feature aligned with user needs, providing direct insight that guided our design choices.

I collaborated closely with iOS and Android developers, stimulating a productive and motivating environment that encouraged innovation. Together, we aimed to create an intuitive, polished app that upheld the BBC’s commitment to quality while meeting the demands of a diverse, global audience.

Team

Ben Gammon, David Man, Adil Hussein

Skills

User Research & Testing
Stakeholder Management
Product Design
App Design (IOS & Android)

My role

UX Designer, Visual and Interaction Design

Timeline

Q2-Q4 2014

Location

Broadcasting House, Central London

Design Process

Background

The ambition of the News Editorial team was to find the right balance between established user behaviours and the level of discovery.

With the team I worked closely to explore the anatomy of content and therefore visual language, and ways in which we could easily move between what might be fleeting interests, as of by following the constant exposure to world changing events.

Before we got deep in build, we sketched ideas that I was then glad to rapidly prototype, either in after effects or in paper format. We were able to test a variety of them, and iterated on the insights.

Early Concepts

To help understand a vertical interaction behaviour I took on a quick motion behaviour test; this was pitched to all senior stakeholders and engaged interest for this to be explored further.

It later led to the product moving towards a rollerdex as prime navigation, a direction that was tested thoroughly on IOS platforms.

The proposition however was meeting a shift in preference, with some users loving it as very innovative and refreshing, whereas conservative users showed stronger reservations.

Example 1
Behaviour animation to get started.

Example 2
Rollerdeck test with content

Example 3
Developed Rollerdeck with CTA.

User Testing

We tested the designs iteratively before making any decision.

Some of the central themes was if users preferred the radically new navigation (rolodex), whereas others sensed this was a step too far.

With the overall weighing of this feedback we adjusted according to the larger voice, to take a few steps back and explore tab navigation.

Item Page (Article/Video)

I had the opportunity to influence key qualities of the article and video pages, focusing on readability, clarity, and consistency. For articles, I prioritized a neat, reader-friendly layout with clean typography and subtle motion, adding a touch of interactivity without overwhelming the experience.

For the video pages, we applied a darker theme, aligning with the established BBC iPlayer aesthetic to distinguish video content while keeping a familiar feel. This approach helped create a cohesive yet differentiated experience that enhanced users’ engagement with both articles and videos across the app.

IOS Navigation

Working closely with the IOS developers I guided the visual design as well as the nature of the motion design.

The logic to include a secondary navigation, included getting a very high at a glance view of 'My News' as well as giving intuitive access to settings, as not to clutter the rest of the nav.

Global launch

The BBC News App went live in January 2015 for both Android & iOS in a global launch, and has per BBC stats reported to be downloaded at the time 27 Million times.

The News Journalists wrote this article to tell the story why the redesign was important.

BBC News App