Push - an iOS news app designed for the busy
Push was designed as a utility app that enables highly busy individuals to receive pertinent headlines on topics they are passionate about.
It was the first project I worked on from start to finish during my time in Newsfusion.
Concept
Mobile news focused on the busy
Keeping updated on any topic is a task in and of itself. Often highly busy individuals wake up very early (or stay up late) to scour news feeds, websites, and newsletters for valuable information.
We wanted Push to stand apart from other services like Nuzzle, Flipboard, Google Now, Google News,
AP Mobile, etc’, by delivering a more focused news experience with emphasis on quality – not quantity – while falling back less on social intervention.
Most news readers feeds require great attention to find the headlines you're looking for.
Push was designed to cut through the mediocrity and serve busy people with only the most valuable updates.
Design goals and solutions
The challenges
Establish credibility from the get-go.
Allow quick and easy fine-tuning of each followed topic.
Adhere to the utility aspect of the app.
Design a clear and simple news feed experience.
An opening screen that goes straight to the point: Find what you’re looking for.
Or browse trending topics of the day
Fine tune the context of any topic.
Choose in which context you would prefer to receive updates on any topic.
Browse all our verticals and instantly follow any topics of interest.
Following a first channel triggers notification priming for approval.
This flow tested best as users already followed a channel and we now wanted to ensure them we will only notify on major updates. Conversion rate for this flow surpassed 90%.
individually customize notification volume for each channel.
Here users could also mute channels, mark them as read or unfollow them.
Innovate the news feed experience.
Separate the wheat from the chaff: Scroll up for major headlines or down for the rest of the news. Both feeds are ordered by time chronology in their respective directions.
Item view enables sharing, saving and browsing more sources or topics.
Custom Newsletters
One feature we decided to integrate almost too close to launch was the ability to create a personalized newsletter from followed channels and receive them on a daily/weekly basis. One could also send newsletters to peers who were not users of the app.
Slack Bot
The Push Slack bot was considered and implemented pretty fast due to Slack’s excellent bot guidelines. Slackbot was featured twice in Slack’s app directory and has been integrated by over 700 teams around the world, with around 90% retention.
