informed

informed — The news, curated.

The informed app curates world-class journalism from premium publishers, all available under one subscription. Our experts and editors read hundreds of articles every day, selecting and suggesting only the best.

We believe smart human curation is the key to diverse news without filter bubbles or misinformation, drawing perspectives from small, large, Western, and non-Western publishers. Our readers can escape the algorithm, access excellent journalism, and build rounded opinions on global topics.

Download the app and get informed on current news.

Discipline
Product Design

Role

As the first designer in the company, in the beginning I had to wear multiple hats on my day-to-day tasks.

Some of my responsibilities: talk to different stakeholders, understand technical constraints and business requirements, design and build the whole app bringing the product from the early stages to launch, lead design efforts on iOS, Android, and Website, establish a unique and distinct brand identity, grow the design team, write design specifications and user stories, prototype, review design fidelity etc…

Design goals
Conceptualize, design, and build the app, challenging how people consume news, fighting misinformation and polarization.

Aug. 2021/ongoing

Problem

Users are looking for new ways to consume news, especially younger users - content overload, paywall fatigue or trust issues are widespread.
Informed audiences rely on multiple sources. They're willing to pay, but don't want to be dependent on one publisher.
Users have gotten used to monthly subscriptions. With every media brand having it's own paywall, paywall fatigue is imminent - and a strong need for an aggregated all-in-one platforms is rising.

What were we trying to achieve?

Based on the curation of informed’s own editorial team and the in-app recommendations of leading online creators and experts, readers will be able to explore stories and take deep dives into topics that matter. The curation is done by humans, not purely algorithms, out of a strong belief that smart human curation is the best way to provide different perspectives across the political spectrum.

By doing so, informed wants to create a safe haven for news consumption that is easily accessible.

What was our plan?

Quality journalism is vital for understanding and navigating the world. But people are overwhelmed with online content, making it hard to access the stories that matter. We solve that by making sense of the most pressing issues and delivering them in a digestible format. That’s why we decided to build some of our core features, the Daily Brief, Explore, and Deep Dives.

What users told us

Before jumping into a solution, we wanted to validate our hypothesis with users. So we tested some of our prototypes and collected this feedback:

Daily Brief

Users like the tagline in the daily brief and being welcomed. They could even imagine being addressed directly with their names
Users expect to see topics/reading lists to be curated based on their interests (algorythm that learns, industry they belong to...)
Users look for a product with character! They appreciate illustrations to be welcomed into the flow and also ending the flow

Explore

Users look to find articles the fastest way possible
Users look to understand & consume the information fastest way possible
Users look for ways to consume as many information in a short amount of time and/or while doing something
Users appreciate knowing more and get inspired but at the same time look for a personalised experience

Deep Dives

Bulleted list are perceived as summaries immediately
An introduction and two paragraphs max in a topic triggers interest, engages user to read more and brings the user quickly to the reading list
A 1-sentence summary for the article in the beginning to decide whether to deep dive or not is highly appreciated and most probably 1-sentence summary at the end to present the end result (last assumption to be proved)