Background

USA Today currently has desktop author pages that give biographical information about the author of articles on the USAT and market sites. However, mobile users have no way of viewing these author pages. Based on conversations with both the branding team and editorial, the features outlined for the featured authored template are minimal in comparison to the standard author template and need to be better fleshed out.

Goal

Redesign author pages to provide a way to better market for high-profile authors so that our audiences can get to know them and allow USA TODAY to grow its young digital audiences through targeted editorial content and talent promotion. The hypothesis is that by better marketing USA TODAY authors, our consumers would engage more with their content and through social media and increase their return visits.  

Solution

Using our design system, designed a responsive, MVP experience that is fit for all USA Today and Local authors part of the Network. The modular system allows for modules to be added in the future that are created specifically for highlighting featured authors. MVP features were designed based on current requirements from our internal CMS.

Designs for a V2 with a focus on our featured author were also presented with the understanding that brand features may be adjusted in the future. The V2 included different opportunities for filtering content, embeds to the author’s social media feeds, and a “Favorite Things” module.

My Role

• Competitive analysis of how other media sources showcase their authors.

• User journeys and wire framing for the MVP author page experience.

• High fidelity mocks of the MVP author page experience.

• High fidelity mocks of a V2 author page experience specifically for featured authors.

• VQA of final developed pages