Concept Rationale
Throughout this assignment I set myself a challenge, not only to re-design Stuff.co.nz’s interface, but to make it more functional for modern users in todays society and create something new and different that doesn’t already exist. I took the six user personae and went through analysing what these people want in a news-site and what would be easier and more functional for them.
From this I came up with two key functions which are different to existing sites we see. I wanted my site, functional with less reading - targeted at the user that wants their objective and wants it straight away without having to read and click through multiple menus.
From this mind set, a map function developed. This function is the first point of contact. A user can press a location button, which draws on their exact location, through their phone or computer. The map zooms to where they are, and the user sees what’s around them, instantly, then clicking in and reading more about what’s going on. Alternatively they can zoom around the world into somewhere they are interested in and find out the current news for this area.
I also developed a function of my mobile site to listen to news articles rather than read them. Continuing the idea of designing for a user that doesn’t want to sit around reading an article; instead they can listen to their news on the go. Mobile phones are portable and listening to the news whilst doing other things is more accessible for everyone. The typical function of reading articles still exists, secondary on my mobile site. On the desktop site these roles are reversed as when on a computer the user is stationary often with full attention towards the computer display. Thus having the listen option secondary on desktop so such as Barry Dawn with vision impairment can still listen to an article, or someone can play the news in the background whilst doing other things on their computer.
