Press & Journal
Brand Strategy
Product design
Stakeholder management
Marketing
Commercial strategy

Client DCThomson – P&J and The Courier

I led the digital transformation of the Courier and Press and Journal regional papers that serve central eastern and northeastern Scotland.

The first task – Map the existing experience

Mapping the legacy experience to identify challenges across the entire user journey

Challenges were identified across the entire user journey

The map was digitised and presented back to the business to capture all challenges

Once all feedback was captured a new version of the experience was created. The new happy path incorporated all enhancements features and upgrades which delivered business and customer objectives.

Based on business value, the commercial flow was agreed upon as the main focus of transformation. The work began with a thorough best-in-class investigation

Combining user insights from Hook research, best-in-class design, strategy, and cross business input a range of CTAs were developed and mapped to the existing flow.

Flows were created with varying degrees of user friction

Test flow – 2 iterations

Messaging

Messaging around the number of articles read was praised
for its usefulness and friendly tone 

Friction

Format and placement didn’t tend to annoy or
disrupt reading patterns, 

Subscription awareness

The messaging gave instant reinforcement of The Courier’s
position as a subscription website

Design

Users liked the block colour inline messages, which were
described as “polished and slick”

Subscription checkout enhancement

For consistency and optimal conversation %, the Subscription flow was transformed using the same language as the CTAS

Metrics before and after
the new CTA release

The original KPI measurement of success forecast a 25% -75% increase, but the 500% increase was significantly above expectations

Content strategy

Hub Hero Hygiene

The ‘Hero, Hub, Hygiene’ model is a content marketing model devised by
Google for YouTube publishers, but the principles can be applied to all forms of content marketing.

The legacy digital brand language provided no way of differentiating content type 

Structure development


Content blocks are used to create hierarchy and purpose

The existing colour pallet was extended and mixed media introduced

Category colours

New language spread across all user touchpoints

Social/Category/Article

Hub, Hero, Hygiene content articulation

Hero

Hub

Hygiene

User testing

Do the New vision template designs impact a range of user engagement
points in a positive manner? 

Trust

The user’s ability to trust the content was increased due to the design refinement and formatting

Credibility

Credibility was also increased with a number of user suggesting they would reconsider subscribing based on the new premium feel 

Articulation

Overall the different content types were well-represented by the designs

User expectations

User also expected something that was paid for to be at this standard, one would consider subscribing because of the new look and feel
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Digital design