Diversity Podcast
I designed a conceptual design solution aimed at tackling barriers that prevent people from developing a habit of consuming more diverse political news.
Overview
Client
GeerGarage
Timeline
2 Weeks
Responsibilities
UX Designer
Skills
UX Design
UI Design
Content Design
Visual Design
Design Guidelines
The Challenge
I focused on integrating behavior change theories into UX design.
Through the design challenge, I delved into various behavior change theories, including the Trans-theoretical Model, Health Belief Model, Social Cognitive Theory, and integrated them into the design process.
Results
I tested the final design solution with various users as part of a usability test. The final solutions were appreciated and loved by various users and received a high usability score of 4.7 out of 5
Research
Group User Interviews
Samples from Affinity Map
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Understanding User Problems
Through 3 group interviews (4 participants per session) I sought to understand what challenges avid and casual news readers face when raising their political knowledge.
I identified key behavioral challenges that ranged from awareness to incompatible use cases to loss of interest.
Through research, I aligned on 3 key challenges that we needed to solve:
Challenge 1: Help users realize their level of political knowledge.
Challenge 2: Help users overcome their perceived lack of time wrt reading news.
Challenge 3: Simplify the process of understanding complex political topics.
Design - Onboarding
Challenge 1: Helping users realize their level of political knowledge.
In our interviews, we realized that users were confident about their understanding of certain political topics, but didn't know the range of different topics that they can or should learn about.
We explored a number of approaches and took inspiration from a theoretical concept "The Health Belief Model".
Part of this model focuses on helping users realize their susceptibility to a threat. In our case, this threat is the lack of political understanding.
Diversity Quotient informs a user about their political IQ via a statistical report generated by analyzing articles and topics the user may have read or interacted with over a time period of 6 months.
Diversity Quotient
While it may be difficult for users to carve out time to dedicatedly read news, alternative forms of news consumption can help simplify this issue.
The Diversity Podcast allows users to easily discover a curated list of articles based on previous reading and topics they may want to expand their knowledge in.
Design - Habituation
Challenge 2: Helping users overcome their perceived lack of time when it comes to reading news.
A major challenge news readers face is the belief that their busy schedules did not allow them the luxury to take out dedicated time to "read" news.
We realized that reading news isn't the only way to raise one's political IQ. It's just that the notion of reading news makes the activity feel exhausting.
Taking inspiration from "Goal Setting Theory", we focused on simplifying the task of reaching one's goal i.e. - growing one's political IQ.
Feature: Custom Timed Topics
The Diversity Podcast adds custom articles based on the user's reading habits and topics interests.
Users can also setup dedicated time limits on their listening duration. The system accordingly updates its content and provides relevant news updates within the stipulated time period.
That means if you have just 10 mins to listen to news, the app will deliver news within those 10 mins.
Location and activity based reminders
Feature: Timed Reminders
Users can set custom timers and reminders that could allow them to tune into the Diversity Podcast during a time or activity when they don't necessarily need to focus on said task.
Design - Evolution
Challenge 3: Simplify the process of understanding complex political topics.
Users often struggled to understand complex political topics that had a long history, multiple perspectives and nuanced details.
Within Social Cognitive Theory, I discovered a concept of self-efficacy. I realized that we need to make sure that users feel like they are getting a deeper understanding of various topics without feeling overburdened or tasked with too many things to do.
The ease of learning about a difficult topic would build their self-efficacy and further habituation.
Feature: Quick Add
Feature: Quick Add
Feature: Deep Dive
Deep Dive is a podcast feature that helps users gain complete understanding of a topic that may have a long historical context to it.
The Deep Dive feature maps out a list of articles that a user can listen to over a span of time to gain a complete understanding of the issue in detail.
Any time a user discovers a topic with deep context to it, they will be offered a "Deep Dive" button that will add all relevant articles to their playlist over the next set of days.
Design - Ethical Considerations
Identifying ethical challenges within the political landscape
While conducting usability, a number of users raised ethical concerns about the service and how it might harm users. I decided to explore two particlua
Boxed Thinking & Stress Mitigation
Through the suggestion of diverse news podcasts for readers to listen to, NYT will have power and influence over many people’s understandings of current events.
Solution - The Diversity Algorithm
The Diversity algorithm will ensure that articles from various writers from different political and social beliefs are shared with the user. The user can see the profile of every writer and understand their background and beliefs.
When a user has ceased using the NYT’s platform, enticements to return are made through the lure of cute, funny, and happy news items. However, if users who are experiencing mental health problems move onto tragic stories that exacerbate their condition, they could be pushed further into crisis.
Solution - Content Reporting
NYT will offer the users who are triggered or affected by any particular piece of news the option to report or provide feedback. This way the algorithm optimizes its recommendations.
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