I conducted a sitewide content audit to simplify the site’s taxonomy and information architecture, and reorganized our primary and secondary navigation menus; I reduced the number of nav items by collapsing unnecessary heirarchies and combining and eliminating redundant pages. I developed a variable page model to simplify and standardize tertiary page layouts, and I proposed and launched a variant to the persistent header so it reflected user intent: sharing icons when scrolling down while reading, and the site menu when scrolling up, offering opportunities to remain engaged.

The redesign combined characteristics of traditional media sites with social media conventions to encourage deeper engagement among our readers; more frequent visits and longer stays on site. To deliver on that intention, we designed a chronologically-based stream of story teases to serve the site’s core concept, taking into consideration a number of revenue-related factors — ad placements, inhouse promotional units, sponsored content — and an increased pace of story publishing on the site that our company leadership anticipated. Importantly, we had to program something our custom CMS could support. Our solution was one that allowed for editorial curation and visual variety, while appearing random; every night, our feed layout logic re-randomized. We called it “the midnight shuffle.”