KPCB Flipboard Re-design
I chose to redesign Flipboard because it is an app that I use daily. Whenever I open the app my goal is to get caught up on big headline news as well as tech and design industry news. I spend anywhere from 10 to 30 minutes in the app, so I only have time to read through at most three channels. I’ve enjoyed the recent re-design of the app because information is better curated into categories/channels and easy to find. However, these changes have made the app overwhelming. Every category I’ve indicated that I’m interested in now appears on my home page as a channel, and additional channels now appear in the top right corner hamburger menu.
My re-design is two-part. The first part of the re-design challenges the interaction a user has when he/she “likes” an article or leaves a comment on an article. Currently these actions are only for the purposes of Flipboard and aren’t used in any other capacity on the app. There is nowhere to see all the articles a user has “liked”. Users have been conditioned to expect their “liked” items to appear somewhere on the product he/she is using. If most users are like me, they are hesitant to add articles to their magazines without first seeing all the articles in a category. Users want to be able to indicate an interest in an article but not commit to adding it until all options have been vetted. Additionally, “liked” articles should be visible even after the article is closed. In the channel articles that have been “liked” should have a red hue, indicating that they’ve been “liked” for easy visibility.
The second part of this re-design focuses on adjusting the channels to reduce the noise on the app. Most users only have time to look at a couple channels before their attention is drawn away. When a user first creates an account or adds channels to their home page, he/she needs to be able to rank his/her favorite channels. The top six channels should appear on the homepage and all additional channels should be added as sub-channels to the existing channels. Additionally, “liked” articles should be grouped on the homepage under a “Favorites” channel that is easily seen and accessible.
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I’ve attached a user flow with an emphasis on the process of liking an article with an illustration of concise channels.
lexinteractive 