MEINE WELT

WELT.de is a leading German newsportal, the online version of Die Welt daily newspaper . Although a remarkable part of readers are still buying the printed hard-copy, more and more people visit the website WELT.de, read the digital newspaper called WELT Edition or use the designated WELT News mobile app on a daily basis.

The number of WELTplus (the premium subscription of WELT.de) subscribers is highly influenced by the journalistic value and the product experience. These two factors both determine whether a reader comes back regularly or abandons the brand.
My task was to evaluate the status quo of the Meine WELT area (see below), the users' profile area and to come up with a new user-centered solution, that not only offers an enhanced user experience, but also increases the conversion rate by convincing more readers to subscribe for WELTplus.

Working within the Design Thinking framework, my go-to design process, enables me to understand the problem space and to come up with a human-centered, satisfying solution. As a one-man army, I was responsible for all the steps: from carrying out user research, through concepting, until the delivery of the MVP and the usability testings.

Understanding the user and business needs and aligning them with the product profile is crucial for a holistic perspective. Apart from the usability evaluation of Meine Welt, I carried out an exploratory interview with 5 readers at the start of the project, then a remote usability testing in the end. This way I could make sure that I am not relying solely on assumptions when identifying development points.

Through my interviews I wanted to familiarize myself with the participants' needs, behaviour and expectations regarding news consumption, also to observe their interaction with the Meine WELT area, This knowledge will help me in validating and challenging my initial assumptions from the first evaluation.

To identify common themes from user interviews, I conducted two rounds of affinity mapping. The first round focused on general behavior, preferences, and news-consuming habits. It revealed insights into building trust and enticing readers to subscribe to premium features through high-quality articles, free trials, and timely payment reminders.

In the second round of affinity mapping I focused on observations, expectations, paint points & certain barriers the users had when interacting with Meine Welt.

The user research data reassured me that my ideas for optimizing conversion rates with rethinking the way of displaying the pricing plan should be implemented. These quick wins I initially identified during my evaluation, were the following:

I got confirmation for my initial assumptions from the user interviews, where recurring themes highlighted the overwhelming nature of the current site structure. Using a simple card sorting method, I restructured menus to address user concerns. I started with low-fidelity sketching, as an efficient and fast method for updating my envisioned ideas. The iterative process led me to the final concept, I wanted to develop further.

This concept
- focuses on the identified user needs
- incorporates basic usability heuristics
- distinguishes "fun features" from "must-have" features e.g. Settings, FAQ
- allows users to customize the layout to their preferences
- while the premium subscription is prominently emphasized.

I created a mid-fidelity clickable prototype that served as a base for further user feedback 5 participants were asked to complete 4 direct tasks in a remote, moderated usability test.

Even though the participants could complete the tasks, in some cases more clarification was needed, and it confirmed to me that there is always room for further improvement. To measure the participants' general impressions regarding the new concept, I encouraged them to complete a System Usability Scale test, where they needed to evaluate their experience on a ten-item Likert scale with 5 response options.

As I like to see my beliefs and biases to be challenged or get confirmation for them along the way, I enjoyed working on this project. Synthesizing the research data to extract findings and insights helping me to come up with entirely new solutions is always an exciting process.
A constant challenge is trying to navigate between user and business needs to be able to satisfy both - it was not different in this case either. Even though, I relied on small industry best practices based on psychology (anchoring bias, social proof), I was careful not to overuse dark patterns as they can easily result in breach of trust from the user side.