Newsela's Video and Reading Experience

Newsela’s Video and Reading Experience

It’s Newsela’s most accessible and user-friendly reading & interactive experience yet, which increased teacher-to-student distribution.

Role: Director of Visual Design

Before

After

Impact

There was a 4% increase in teacher-to-student distribution, which includes the following actions: assign, present, and print. The goal was to get a 1% increase.

The problem

In the Reading and Interactive Experience, which serves as the central hub for Newsela's curated and created content, teachers can screen and customize activities. At the same time, students engage with articles, quizzes, and vocabulary on a single page. However, despite its pivotal role, teachers encountered challenges with the discoverability and accessibility of key features such as annotations and teaching tools. This section also underwent a visual design overhaul, underscoring its importance as the first area to receive the new look and feel, prioritizing enhancements to this foundational section aligned with the company's goal to improve existing experiences over introducing new features for the next 5 years.

Research and insight

Through interviews with teachers, analysis of data usage patterns, consultations with subject matter experts—many of whom are former teachers at Newsela—and a commitment to employing best design practices. This comprehensive approach provided valuable insights into teacher behaviors, pain points, needs, and common trends. By synthesizing this diverse range of data, we could distill key insights.

Discovery

After a quick brainstorm with engineers, product managers, and designers, we created a list of what would be improved and then designed initial screens.

The new experience

A little over a year after we finished and handed off the design work the new experience was released in waves due to the content migration to the new platform. The first release was to 8% of users with paid licenses during October of 2022, and only the article experience was part of the release, the video and interactive content came after in 2023. The final release of 100% of the content to 100% of users was done towards the end of the 1st quarter of 2023, and the beginning of the 2nd.