As the world of news and content consumption moves forward from traditional media, new and unpredictable user consumption behaviours emerge. This case study showcases how Germany's news giant Bild overcame a great viewership challenge by envisioning a forward-thinking solution that answers the ever-changing demographic content consumption trends and habits.
The challenge
A sharp decline in viewership rates among the young audience have been going on for years at Germany's most visited website Bild. The challenge is to identify the leading cause and develop a digital solution that aims to re-attract a younger audience, positioning Bild content as relevant and accessible.
role
A mid-level Product Designer in a team of three designers.
We relied on multiple research methodologies to expand on our understanding of the young audience and to validate our theory in which; the decrease in visit rates is due to changing consumption tools and behaviours and a substantial shift to video content consumption.
Goals
Subsequently, an ethnographic study was also conducted to outline important usage behaviours, news consumption, fears & challenges for the general young audience outside of Bild userbase.
insights
To further examine our theory, we conducted multiple surveys targeting current Bild users. Broad questions such as: How high is the video affinity of the current BILD users? How do they perceive current BILD Live and video content in general?
Competition Analysis or UX Exploration was an important step to deepen our understanding of the video and streaming landscape. What makes Twitch, Instagram, YouTube and TikTok successful? Why do they appeal to the young audience? What can we learn from them?
Insights
Through conducting thorough research, we gained the ability to validate our theory/hypothesis regarding the decrease in visit rates being due to a substantial shift to video content consumption amongst the young audience.
Our task is was to define and articulate the core problems, define the target audience and build consensus on what this MVP will achieve in an effort to align all teams and management on the same objectives.
In a world more dependant on visual digital communication & social media, the young generation is less interested in consuming information through traditional media formats, increasingly adapting to visual & interactive communication channels allowing their voices to be heard.
Based on existing Bild content that is typically geared towards a mature audience, the selected target audience was male and female ages 20 - 35. This also aligns with the business objectives of attracting a younger audience.
Primary persona [passive USER]
Laura enjoys quality time with her boyfriend Wilhelm and their friends and likes to stroll through Berlin neighborhoods with a coffee to go. She casually takes pictures and uploads them to Instagram. Laura uses social media to get information on things that interest her. She follows BILD and Tagesspiegel on Instagram to back up news she hears from her social surroundings.
Laura is big on YouTube and video content. She is a visual person. She follows a lot of different Vloggers learning about fitness, lifestyle, and food. YouTube is where she receives her news about local and international events. With lots of different playlists, Laura takes pride in sharing good YouTube videos with her friends
It was inevitable to solidify what the MVP stands for due to the complexity of Bild. Many stakeholders and different departments need to be aligned on the purpose of this product and its vision. Bringing together Marketing, Social Media, and most importantly the Editorial Department that has to carry the work in curating content, was a challenge!
FOR young adults who are craving authentic, interactive content
WHO are heavy video content consumers
PRODUCT BILD Live App
IS AN all in one event-based VOD & streaming platform
THAT offers users a unique new interactive infotainment experience
UNLIKE traditional broadcasting experience
OUR PRODUCT offers an original, fresh and unique approach to delivering news in video format through an interactive environment while giving the audience a voice to stream and share their opinions fostering and bringing together a community
This process was started with generating a broad set of ideas to imaginate the basic concept. Research and Definition pave the way to create a more clear and concise understanding of jobs that need to be done. Based on the positioning statement, research, and the needs of the primary persona, we are now able to build consensus on the overall concept and functionalities of the MVP.
deliverables
Challenges for both the Product and Design Team arose while building consensus on how to allocate resources to deliver an MVP. The core features are a reflection of editorial needs that deliver existing video content and support a new editorial vision answering to the desired demographic.
MVP core features reflect on editorial needs that deliver existing video content and support a new editorial vision answering to the desired demographic.
The process of developing features was delivered through product requirements, extensive UX workshops and benchmark studies between design, editorial and product. Process details are not included in this case study.
Outcome
After extensive low and mid-fidelity wireframing, we had the basses in which we can move forward to hi-fidelity. The process includes executing the app's art direction, style guide, UI components and Figma Design system.
deliverables
Based on existing Bild content that is typically geared towards a mature audience, the selected target audience was male and female ages 20 - 35. This also aligns with the business objectives of attracting a younger audience.
Based on existing Bild content that is typically geared towards a mature audience, the selected target audience was male and female ages 20 - 35. This also aligns with the business objectives of attracting a younger audience.
For Laura, the app onboarding process is the her first impression of the app. Based on the content suggestion algorithm, picking categories will help us better recommend content based on the user's preference.
The biggest challenge with the first release is the lack of content diversity. Whereby the user-generated content function is not yet available. Thus, Home is a concept centred on highlighting available Bild video content in the first release of the app.
Live announcement+ Single Lane
Video MIX Double Lane
Video MIX Double Lane
Hero Highlight Lane teaser
Hero sections are offered to accommodate multiple editorial needs. It offers Laura the ability to follow, share and get notifications on upcoming live streams and shows.
A fundamental component in answering the research insights is allowing users to become part of the conversation. Although not available for external users like Laura in the first release, streaming will be the bedrock of this app, allowing user-generated content to take the lead in the positioning of the app. This helps us understand how to grow and possibly pivot into a more social media application positioning.
At the time, this was the single biggest product I've delivered throughout my product design career. Building an MVP is a unique challenge that every designer needs to experience. It teaches us the strength of embracing ambiguity in design. A journey to the unknown if I may. One of the struggles I had is self-doubt! Is this going to work? Is Germany going to buy in?
The MVP features are a small presentation of the potential this app has to offer. That was another challenge. Utilizing a somewhat limited development budget to deliver an impactful MVP.
The success of any product involves buy-in from all departments. Marketing, business, design and product. I look forward to downloading this app from the design store soon! And so should you!
next steps
