The challenge
Since they sustain on donations, tackling big projects such as this is a big deal. They wanted to make the best out of it because they didn’t know when they’d be able to do such a project again; so the design had to be modular to allow a gradual evolution of its sections and components.
Chequeado is what we can call a niche media, so another big challenge was to increase their base of readers, appealing to a bigger audience while at the same time keep their current users and their formal, almost academic profile.
My Role
The product owner, two full stack developers and myself :) playing the rol of UX researcher, interaction and visual designer.
Research and analysis
There are several teams in the organization and each of them has specific needs when it comes to the website. So the first thing I did was to interview every stakeholder to understand their needs and expectations.
Information Architecture
As it turned out to be an enormous amount of features and sections, I decided that best way to organize all this information was through a workshop with all the stakeholders involved. We gathered at their office and wrote down all the features and sections on post its and arranged them in several iterations until we came up with the draft of the information architecture for the website.
User Personas
After that, I reviewed their Google Analytics data to establish certain demographics for their users in order to start a recruiting campaign. I published a form on social media and after a short selection, conducted some user interviews to understand how users consume the type of content Chequeado is providing as well as other types of content.
- The Engaged Reader (General Public) – A socially active, well-informed user who relies on Chequeado for credible information to use in debates.
- The Journalistic Reader – A media professional who uses Chequeado for sourcing, inspiration, and staying updated on fact-checked content.
- The Donor – A socially conscious funder who monitors project impact and transparency.
- The Public Servant – A government official concerned with public perception and media coverage of their work.
Interaction and UI design
Informed by the interviews and the workshop I set my self to understand how sections and modules can combine breaking news with evergreen content.
At the same time they redesigned their brand, so it was my job to translate the new brand into a cohesive design system for their digital pieces.
What I learned
In this project I think I learned how to deal with different stakeholders that have very specific needs. It was great to interact with the teams and help them come to an agreement. From the UI perspective it was a challenge to create a design that can go from small to big without knowing what “big” means. The result proved to be very innovative for its context and made everyone involved very proud.