VENTUREBEAT:
Media company at the forefront of AI and Bots
TL;DR
CHALLENGE
Creating a new news interface without sacrificing the Creating a new set of brand guidelines for each
TECHNOLOGY / PLATFORMS
Adobe Creative Suite, Optimizely, Google Ad Words
IMPACT
There was an increase of 45% viewership on mobile after my redesign.
SOLUTION
Worked as liaison between cross functioning teams to not only design but also project manage
DELIVERABLES
UI/UX design for site, interactive powerpoints, media kit, marketing and event collateral
VentureBeat is the leading source for news and perspective on technology innovation. Our news, analysis, and events provide the deep context to help executives, entrepreneurs, and tech enthusiasts make smart decisions. We aim to inform and inspire.
My main project when joining VentureBeat was to revamp the branding for their website. My primary focus was to develop an interface that was easy for our site visitors to browse through news, our events, and our research. To do this correctly, the team and I had to conduct user personalities to better design with our users in mind — which was challenging because we had three different types of products.
Besides working on the UI, I worked on the overall UX of the web application, from sign in to the user service, to researching. I am excited to say that I had my design-hand in all the product offerings of VentureBeat.
MOBILE FIRST
Working directly with the Product Manager, we conducted user and persona tests by creating surveys canvassing our existing user base in newsletters. Based off of responses to the surveys, we found that there was a 45% viewership on mobile.
WEB UI/UX DESIGN
My biggest project was to redesign how the channel pages will look by interweaving relevant content that readers' have previously read.
The Channel Strategy.
Working directly with the CRO, VP of Sales and Product Manager, we wanted to create new revenue for the company besides ads and ticket sales that were new and different from traditional network ads such as Leaderboards and sled-mobile ads. We knew the VentureBeat community is not only young and smart but also very engaging with a page per session — we knew companies would want to pay to get right in front of users without paying extra for trial and error.
What was to our advantage was the fact that VentureBeat covered a lot of different categories, from GamesBeat (Games), to AR/VR, Bots, and Entrepreneur, etc... We took a look at our existing ad sponsors like Rackspace, Gillette, Salesforce and Adobe and pictured them intertwined within these news content pieces within each channel.
Thus an idea born: The Ad Channel Strategy.
With the new strategy, we had to layout the content differently to maximize as much content above the monitor/screen fold as possible. We modernized the UI of channel pages by diversifying the font weights and creating tiles instead of a stacked view of the articles.
Worked with Sales, Marketing, and C-level executives to create event collateral such as presentation decks, infographics, datasheets,
client ad units.
Event Signage, Table Top design, and Marketing Collateral at events such as: Mobile Summit, GamesBeat Summit,
MobileBeat, GamesBeat.