NBC Local App
Redesigning the news experience to feel modern and timely
The old NBC local news app was plagued with reviews saying the news was stale, with some stories being up for days, if not weeks.
In reality local news stations publish 20+ local & 30+ national headlines every day. Something was not adding up.
This was a design problem, the app consisted of editorially controlled content bucket, pinned by importance with no expiration. Active users believed nothing new was below the fold, and so they stopped scrolling.
In 2021, I redesigned the UX around time while balancing the concerns of the news room. The primary section is a top news tab with editorial control and who's stories would progressively minimize with time. I also added a latest news feed, giving users an intuitive chronological news explorer.
Testing revealed that users found the app easy to use and very clear, and even better, the perception issue of stale stories was resolved. Even after 5 years this experience has remained relevant to NBC local news users.
Beyond news, we also extensively redesigned the local weather portion of the app, emphasizing the top feature users engaged with; the radar map.