Slides from a talk I gave during ONA 2012 in San Francisco: Companies like Apple and IDEO have demonstrated the role that design thinking plays in the creation of revolutionary, game-changing products. Yet even in 2012, news design is experiencing a great stagnation: too often, our products and platforms feel more like 2006. Learn strategies to show how design thinking can actually create efficiencies in a product development process that will always be strapped for time.

1. Design is how
it works
David Wright / NPR
@dwjr

2. Thank you to my smart friends:
Callie Neylan Michael Yoch
Jeremy Pennycook Ian Adelman
Paulo Lopez Tyson Evans
Max Pfennighaus Bill Couch
Patrick Cooper Matt Mansfield
Benjamin Dauer Justin Ferrell
Wes Lindamood Matt Thompson
Stephanie Slobodian Ron Coddington
Vince Farquharson Michael Maness
Joel Sucherman Laura Ramos
Kinsey Wilson Irakli Nadareishvili
Miranda Mulligan Marc Lavallee

3. About me
• Newseum
• Knight Ridder/Tribune
• USA TODAY
• NPR

4. Platform ≠ storytelling
I don’t work in the newsroom.

11. Holy crap!
We are working in the future.
DreamWorks / 20th Century Fox

12. We’re really good at telling
stories, but ...
News design seems stuck because
we can’t keep up with our audience’s
expectations.

16. Same

17. 152 choices
in the top navigation.

18. We’re running the risk of
getting our asses kicked
Quite possibly with our own content.

19. Unsolicited NYTimes redesign by Andy Rutledge

20. Your competitive set?

21. WTHR app

22. Flipboard

23. Gawker
Gawker’s conversation curation

24. Gmail = ubiquitous
Gawker’s conversation curation

25. How might we make
better things?
These problems go beyond visual design
• Strategy
• Money
• Technology

26. Design thinking can help
• Context
• Research
• Empathy (user-centered)
• Synthesis ➔ Insights

27. Why?
• Answer the right questions
• Better answers, faster
• Proactive, not reactive

28. Five ways to improve
your experiences
1. Experience is everywhere
2. Get your house in order
3. Solve the right problems
4. Evaluate and iterate
5. Understand your materials

29. 1. Experience is
everywhere

30. My father-in-law

31. Experience is everywhere

32. Adult Admission to Magic Kingdom Park
Adjusted for Inflation to 2010 dollars
$80
$60
$ 79
US Dollars
$40
$ 21
$20
$0
1975 1980 1985 1990 1995 2000 2005 2010
Sources: allears.net / US Gov
Experience is everywhere

33. Experience is everywhere

34. Experience is everywhere

35. Good experiences
create value.

36. 2. Get your house in order

37. creative commons photo by flickr user kenmccown
Get your house in order

38. Traditional baggage
Distribution vs. Content
paid to manage risk paid to tell stories

39. Instead:
Technologists
Product
Shepherds
User
Experience

40. Good experience thrives
in organizations where
design is respected.
Subtitle

41. 3. Evaluate and iterate

42. If you’re not agile, you’re
doing it wrong
• Small
• Multidisciplinary
• Empowered
• Accountable
Evaluate and iterate

43. Evaluate and iterate

44. Evaluate and iterate

45. Tappable
prototype

46. 4. Solve the right problems

47. Journalists are pre-wired
for success
• Ask questions
• Challenge the status-quo
• Readers are fickle
Solve the right problems

48. You’re probably focused
on the wrong ideas
• “Weaponize metrics”
• Twitter + Surveys
• Facebook
Solve the right problems

49. 5. Understand how
things work

50. We say “build”
for a reason.
Understand how things work

51. Handing a PSD to a
developer does not make
you a web designer.
Understand how things work

52. Understand how things work

53. Understand how things work
Interaction Design

54. Don’t get your ass kicked:
1. Experience is everywhere
2. Get your house in order
3. Solve the right problems
4. Evaluate and iterate
5. Understand your materials

55. Start small:
• Little experiments
• Skunk works can be cheap
• Google is free
• Show, don’t tell

56. Thanks!
@dwjr