Redesigning News Site
Al Jazeera America
Overview
Al Jazeera America website redesign fully accommodates video contents from its television network and is optimized for mobile devices.
User Pain Points
- The UI was outdated and not optimized for mobile and tablet devices.
- The social sharing feature was not readily accessible to users.
- The inconsistent appearance of its television channel, the app, and its website created a disjointed experience.
Business Goals
Al Jazeera America saw video contents as a key differentiator from its competitors. They believed they could drive more users to the website by
- utilizing video content
- fixing disjointed experience between its television channel, mobile app, and the website
- making social sharing more accessible
Old Experience
Their site's analytics indicated that there was a growing number of mobile users between age 18-34. However, it showed a 73% homepage bounce rate with a third of all users leaving without engaging with the site's contents after landing on the homepage.
New Experience
We came up with a several redesign concepts and proceeded with the theater style concept, which treats videos and images as primary contents. Videos and images now take the full width of the page and is optimized for all devices, especially mobile devices. The theater style design also features “events of the day" as fully curated news journeys. The new design also resolved issues regarding legibility for mobile screens, high contents density, and other navigation issue.
Article Page
homepage
Featured Video Page
Result
A few weeks after we handed off the new designs and style guide, Al Jazeera announced that they would shut down Al Jazeera America website along with their TV network. Unfortunately, users did not get the opportunity to experience the new design :(
