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How The New York Times Redesigned Its App to Boost User Engagement
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The redesign focuses on clarity, trust, and personalization to create a better user experience and drive discoverability of its products.
Newspapers have long integrated games, often as part of their subscription models. The New York Times has found success by incorporating games into its news app, fostering a mutually beneficial relationship with news content.
Emily Withrow, VP of Product and Head of Subscriber Experiences, The New York Times, stated, “We have a large portfolio of products, and we’ve brought all of them into the app – especially games. What we see is a beautiful, symbiotic relationship with news.”
The New York Times tracked the impact on news consumption when games were added to the news app. The data revealed that if people came for games, they stayed for the news – and if they came for news, they returned for games.
This insight guided the publisher to develop the app into a complete platform for news, games, audio, and more. These findings were presented by Withrow and Kristen Dudish, NYT’s VP of Product Design, at WAN-IFRA’s recent Congress in Krakow.
The Guiding Principles Behind The New york Times’ Design
The product team at The New York Times adheres to five user-experience design principles:
- Clarity
- Trust
- High standards of craft
- Accessibility
- Time well spent
These principles inform every aspect of their design process. The recent redesign prioritized clarity, aiming to improve users’ understanding of the journalism’s structure, the business model, and the subscription benefits.
“We wanted something elegant and seamless, but also something that showcased the full scope of our journalism,”
The redesign features a new ribbon navigation at the top of the screen. Instead of adhering to conventional sections, The Times chose to highlight the breadth of its journalism.
Kristen Dudish explained,”We wanted something elegant and seamless,but also something that showcased the full scope of our journalism.” This involved moving away from conventional categories like “World” or “Metro” in favor of more curated sections.
The ribbon navigation allows users to swipe left and right. Swiping right displays The New York Times’ signature journalism,while swiping left reveals its product portfolio,including The Athletic,Games,Cooking,and wirecutter.
The redesign also introduced a new bottom navigation focused on user modes, with a dedicated “Play” tab for accessing games.
“The ‘Home’ tab is about discovering the breadth of our journalism. ‘Listen’ is for audio. ‘You’ is the place that personalises to you based on the interaction with the app,” Dudish said.
To differentiate daily news from other content, lifestyle stories were given a distinct look and feel. Swiping from the Today feed, which is text-heavy and emphasizes the urgency and timeliness of news, directs users to the Lifestyle section.
“The culture and lifestyle content lend themselves to a more visual treatment. There’s beautiful photography, and we wanted to highlight that. It’s also a space we’re continuing to experiment with,” Dudish said. The team plans to incorporate looping video in the future.
Personalization Through the ‘You’ Tab
The team replaced the “For You” tab with the new “You” tab,emphasizing user behavior and editorial curation.
