2023.11 (2 weeks)
Survey, Heuristic Evaluation, Persona, User Journey Mapping, UI Design, Prototype
Individual Project
Flipboard app is an RSS platform that allows users to collect and share news articles from diverse publication sources, creating personalized magazines to catch up on news and stories shared by others.
I send out the survey to 20 people, understanding their general purposes of using Flipboard app in daily life, what features they usually interact with, and any inconvenience and advantages they’ve found in the app.
Search Specific Topics and Related Articles
Find Certain Articles & Flip into Magazines
Retrieve and Refer to Contents Frequently
In the information architecture of Flipboard app, I conducted heuristic evaluation in two sections mainly: searching process and results in “Explore” page, and curating and organizing content in “Magazine” page.
When searching the title of a certain article, search results only show topics, sources, magazines, and profiles. Users lack the ability to control their content discovery process, reducing efficiency.
One curated magazine usually has lots of articles from different sources, but articles are listed without order and search feature, making it harder to find the certain content back.
An article tends to include various topics, but preview page only show one topic tag and simple headline, causing users trouble to categorize it into their curated magazine.
Original search results often show inaccurate topics, sources, and magazines. A new tab “Articles” and “See more related articles” option can help users get more relevant content.
Related Articles are sorted by:
Most Related, Popularity, and Latest
Initially, users feel difficult retrieve certain articles back if they are not flipped into magazine.
The feature to directly search specific article can prioritize previously read articles based on past 90 days browsing history.
Search options in Filter include: Title, Source / Author, Publish Date, and Topic Tags
Search and filter features help users retrieve specific article and organize great numbers of information more quickly and intuitively.
AI-summarized subtopics refer to other related key points (#Topic) in the article besides its overarching topic.
For users who research and plan in Flipboard, filter features like multi-selections and editing topics order can help them more easily organize content they have collected.
