Overview

NC State’s digital magazine platform was created as an initiative to bring traditional print publications throughout the university into a digital format. In an effort to create an ever-evolving product for NC state, we reimagined how the magazine framework could function and integrate with other digital products, and at the same time, we streamlined the frontend design of the product.

MY ROLE:

I worked on the project as one of two lead UX/UI product designers alongside a development team and project manager.

User research, prototyping, visual design, testing

Problem

My team conducted interviews with clients and users to understand some of the pain points our clients were encountering when working with the digital magazine platform and broke it down into three main problems:

DISJOINTED USER INTERFACE

Most of our clients have several sites that make up their web presence, including a primary marketing and informational site, a news site, and a magazine site. Each of these sites functioned as separate entities that did not communicate with each other.

Additionally, Some design elements within the magazine’s existing user interface looked and performed differently than their sister site counterparts making it necessary for users to relearn actions as they moved through the sites.

LIMITED FEATURES

There are only a few modules to choose from when creating a story within the magazine platform. Far fewer than the main news platform.

OUTDATED BACKEND

The backend site was powered by a version of WordPress that would no longer be supported, so there was an imminent need to convert to the newer Gutenberg version of WordPress. The outdated backend also created issues with communication between sister sites. Most clients were already using the newest version of WordPress for their primary and new site, creating a disconnect between the older magazine platform.

Results

UPDATED FUNCTIONALITY

Rolling the magazine platform into the newest WordPress update allowed us to streamline the platform’s backend. We integrated the magazine into a premium version of the news platform allowing users to create curated magazine issues within their existing site. Adding this integration to their existing site helped smooth the transition between platforms and solved our user interface problems. Now all of the partner’s sister sites are a part of the same product making the transition from site to site seamless.   

ADDED FEATURES

An added bonus of combining the news and magazine platforms into one robust system was that we were able to leverage all of the existing features of the news platform and build upon that foundation with new blocks targeted specifically for the digital magazines. 

At the launch of the magazine platform, we added:

• Alternate cover options that connect seamlessly with story headers

• Alternate story header options

• Functionality for curated article landing pages like Poole Thought Leadership

• Curated landing pages

• Timeline 

• Sandwich Narrative: a block that acts as an informational callout nested within an article. 

• Audio player