POV News
News For A New Generation
In this case study, I developed ‘POV’ a news app that addresses the issue of doom scrolling and the consumption of negative news. The target audience is Gen Z, who like to stay up-to-date on what is going on in the world but are overwhelmed or depressed by their current method of news consumption.
🌟 Salute Design Competiton – Merit Award winner in the Graphic Design: Interactive category
UX/UI
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‘POV’ is a news app that addresses the issue of Doom Scrolling and the overconsumption of negative news. As Merriam-Webster defines it, Doom Scrolling refers to the tendency to continue to surf or scroll through bad news, even though that news is saddening, disheartening, or depressing. As I have experienced first-hand, this issue can have a negative impact on one’s mental health and overall view of the world. This phenomenon is specifically an issue for Gen Z, who are constantly being exposed to news due to their online presence. For this reason, this app is geared toward college students in their early 20s to teenagers in high school who like to stay up-to-date on what is going on in the world, but feel overwhelmed or depressed by their current method of news consumption. The intention behind ‘POV’ is that it would allow the user to have a more balanced and overall positive experience consuming the news and require them to take a break from scrolling with an engaging activity. My role in this project was to research and then conceptualize, design, and curate content to create an app that could solve the issue for Gen Z.
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Throughout the process of creating ‘POV’ the main limiting factor I faced was having a short timeline for such an extensive concept. However, I did take the time to research in-depth using the methods of archival study, contextual inquiry, empathy map, and impact/effect matrix. In an archival study, I analyzed recent scholarly articles published on the topic of Gen Z’s news consumption which verified my thought that they are more likely to get news and information more frequently from social media like YouTube, Instagram, TikTok, Snapchat, and Twitter. In the contextual inquiry, I then interviewed two students, one a Sophomore in high school and the other a Senior in college to understand the varying opinions and needs of two different age groups within my target audience. From the younger individual, I found that they like condensed news that is interesting to consume and also caters to their interests. The older individual also favored condensed news like they would see in an Instagram post and also weekly recaps of headlines. Interestingly, they both stated they always Google search a topic to verify its truth which lead me to have a button for more info in which they could get a score of how true the article is.
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With the research I conducted, I believe I was able to achieve my intended goal of creating an app that provides the user with a balanced experience consuming the news. I made sure to have a balance of engaging visual material while also integrating critical aspects like news bias monitors and article verification. One of the biggest lessons I learned in the process of creating this app is just how important it is to constantly think about the users’ needs and their experience so that you can create something visually compelling that also functions with ease. Given more time, the app could be further developed with even more features like in-app messaging, and building out the media outlet profile pages to have more information. I could also see the app expanding the types of activities offered in the time-break portion of the app.