The Newsgraphic

Introduction

We live in a place with abundant information that we have access to.
Human in nature always seeks for information. Especially during an emergency situation, like the global health pandemic (COVID-19) that we are currently experiencing, we tend to overexpose ourselves to any information as a way to prepare ourselves.
News is the only information source we rely on in gaining information. It is the only way for us to connect with the world.
However, with abundant information, how well do we co-opt all of the information we deal with? Does our news consuming behavior work effectively for us?  

Identify the problem

Through questionnaires and interviews, 100% of the respondents thought they needed to filter the news input to avoid getting anxious and overwhelmed. More than 60% of the respondents stated that they want to have a media form, which allows them to grasp the main information in a short period. Considering all of the findings, the issues and needs in news consumption behavior during the global health pandemic were identified as below.

Information Processing in human’s brain

Before starting the design process, I conducted another research about how human’s brain processes information.

Persona Walkthrough

The ideation process was started by brainstorming potential design solutions through sketches. Then, the chosen design solution was developed more by creating a persona walkthrough to illustrate how the potential user found the issues and interacted with the design solution.

User Test

The user test was conducted in 2 rounds using sketches as the low fidelity prototype and digital wireframe as the mid-fidelity prototype.
During the user test, participants were asked to complete several tasks using the prototype. They were also urged always to communicate what they saw, thought, and the steps/actions they did while interacting with the prototype. All of the user tests participants have different education and professional background with the range age of 24-30 years old.

From the user tests, all of the participants liked the idea of reading news from an infographic since it is more interesting and focuses on the essential facts. However, since most of the features use the concept that users are not familiar with (news article to infographic converter, infographic and news article comparison, and online workshop in news provider application); the use of labels and familiar icons is necessary to help communicate the affordances of each of the features.

Design Solution Concept: The Newsgraphic

The Newsgraphic is a news provider application that lets users read the news in a new way through an infographic.
The purpose of this application is to educate people in consuming news effectively by training them to grasp important facts and information only, which is portrayed through an infographic. Using infographics would increase people’s memory in remembering and processing the information.

Visualize The Newsgraphic concept

Conclusion

Introducing a new unconventional way to read news through infographics might be challenging. However, the impact it can give to people will change the current ineffective news consumption behavior and help to decrease the spread of misinformation. People will be trained to pay attention only to the key important fact-based information without getting distracted by the opinion added to the news. This will result in the reduction of the possibility of getting information overload. In addition, the visual element added will help users to remember the information longer.