OVERVIEW
The online assistant to make browsing news a safer and more secure experience.
TOOLS
How might we help users safely access social media/new sources with confidence that they are consuming accurate information?
WEBFLOW
FIGMA
ILLUSTRATOR
PROCREATE
RESEarch question
summary
morning paper website
Statistics & information
Society consistently uses social media and online news platforms to access and consume news. However, timelines and content are now being altered and catered for users to keep them addicted and strung on to social media. The main problem now is users across many different platforms will be receiving content that is not consistently accurate due to their personally catered timelines. For this year's capstone project, Morning Paper was developed to act as a moderator and tool for users to safely access their news across any social media or news platform. Whether it be on the website or the assistant, users can access the statistics Morning Paper provides at any time they need.
Morning Paper’s main tool is its news analytics and statistics. For each news topic, Morning Paper will select three of the best news sources from any news platform or journalist. For each of these sources, Morning Paper will provide a brief summary of the source, how accurate the source is and how much bias is present in the source. Users are able to toggle across all three sources to see the variety of how the news topic is being presented across different sources. If the user wants to read more on the source they can access it through the more information button. These sources are also shown in two different sizes. The largest size is breaking news and the rest being regular news.
Users can access and view news easily by hovering over their chosen news article to view statistics and information. Once they have found a source that they like they can click the icon in the top left corner to view the original source. Through analyzing keywords in the article such as headlines, captions and text in images. This data is processed and compared across numerous sources in order to develop statistics. These statistics are used to measure the accuracy and bias of each news source.
mobile assistant
The Morning Paper assistant is a tool meant for bringing the features of the website to social media platforms. Like the website, the assistant analyzes headlines, image and caption information that is compared to other sources. By doing so, the assistant can provide a summary, accuracy and bias on the social media post or message. The user can click the ‘sun’ on their timeline to view these statistics and access the Morning Paper website if they wish to have more information. Through the assistant and the website, users are now able to stay safe by consistently having information related to news topics at their disposal. Through Morning Paper, people should not have to be afraid of consuming false information anymore.
PROCESS WORK
project development
step one - formulating ideas
Using the concept of power as a launch point, I found the issues surrounding social media to be an interesting issue to tackle. Social media has become a living space that influences peoples decisions and mindsets (people’s minds follow trends on social media). By using this idea as a basis I wanted to see how different people interacted with fake news on social media. As I went forward I began to shift my focus to see the behaviour and understanding of people and their experiences with social media.
Research Question: How do users from different age groups interact on social media in order to detect fake/real news?
By using this question as the basis for my research, I found sources and case studies that would support any answers that this question would pose. I found that with the rise of globalization and social media, it served as a tool in furthering our connections with others. In this technological generation, we have now began to interact on a massive scale. Opinions and ideas can now be developed far greater than what they could have been before. Issues that were once secluded to different areas can now be topics for the whole world to be involved in. However, these ideas and issues are shown to people based on their user experience. In an age of endless content, it is filtered differently through different users.
We need to be on the same page.
I wanted to see:
Do people acknowledge the space social media creates?
Has social become a space where issues are more toxic than before?
Have corporations developed a space that controls the minds of people under the pretence of free speech/exposure.
step two - Research & Surveys
Analyzing and making conclusions from survey results
Step one
Formulating topics and ideas that are worth exploring to develop possible solutions.
Step two
Conducting surveys, research and synthesis based on formulated topics and ideas.
Step three
Develop possible methods to address issues that were found in surveys.
Step four
Execute synthesized data into a design that addresses those ideas and problems.
Most used platforms from all ages.
Most used platforms from those older than 32.
Most used platforms in those younger than 32.
Does social media display a variety of opinions?
Which platform displays a variety of opinions?
Which platform displays opinions you would agree with?
A notable insight that was found was that those who are 18 - 24 and 25 - 32 are more socially aware of the issues of social media tailoring their news feed.Older ages tend to have less knowledge about the issues regarding social media. This is widely due to a lack of experience on the platform. However, all participants in the survey enjoy social media for news consumption. Also, awareness of issues regarding social media is not apparent to a variety of those aged 35 or higher. All ages who use social media generally use it for similar reasons but do not have the same understanding as one another.This led me to think of a solution to bridge the gap between different age groups.
Step Three - Design
When Morning Paper was in development, I wanted the aesthetic and brand to represent older newspapers. I used this idea as a building block for this design due to the familiarity it retains with older audiences. I felt that this familiarity would work cohesively with modern design elements to accurate target older and younger audiences. I found present news platforms to be littered with information and advertisements. Additionally, social media platforms solve that issue by being clean and concise but lack the necessary information for the news to be informative. That is why Morning Paper aims to be a middle ground for both of these platforms. While implementing design elements that make social media strong, the platform also includes hovers and gestures that give users access to more information.
Step four - execution
final thoughts
For the Morning Paper Website I wanted to be a platform that is easy to understand and access. Each news headline is given equal sizing based on picture size. However, the most popular or recent headline is larger than the rest to signify its relevancy and popularity. It was also essential for each of the news posts to be sorted by relevancy and category. With new articles coming everyday, having the sources organized this way would allow users to utilize filters to quickly access the sources they needed. For the Morning Paper Assistant it was important that it would not occupy large real estate on your feed but it was there for whenever you needed it. To fit with the branding, the assistant icon pops over the edge of the feed like a sun rising. Therefore, on each news article the user had on their feed, they were able to view necessary statistics and information.
My intentions for Morning Paper was to be a bridge for younger and older audiences to carefully access news safely, whether it be on online or on social media. With clear legible fonts and large imagery, audiences were able to distinguish different news articles and information with ease. Furthermore, the branding for the platform was made to resemble older newspaper advertisements. This hand drawn element enabled me to breathe more creativity into the identity of Morning Paper so it felt less rigid and information driven. This is the one area of this project that I hoped to elaborate more on. Whether it be animations or promotions, Morning Bob and Julia and great potential to turn this platform's branding into a more unique experience for users.
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