Case Study 02.

CBC News app

From breaking news alerts to in-depth coverage the award-winning CBC News app keeps users up to date with what’s happening in your local region, in Canada and around the world.

Project Overview

The Problem

How to keep our Canadians up-to-date with the latest breaking news and developing stories, federal/provincial and municipal elections, the latest COVID-19 developments and more while on the go where the website won’t meet their needs.

The Solution

Create a native app for both iOS and Android which will allow Canadians to be up-to-date with breaking news and top stories in their local region, across Canada, and around the world by following certain topics and local regions via notifications and widgets.

The Tools

Pencil and paper, Sketch, InVision, Figma, Miro and Photoshop and Illustrator.

My Role

Lead Product Designer, Usability + Accessibility Testing

The Team

The Core Team: CBC’s Native Apps + Voice Platforms team (1 Product Manager, 1 Product Owner, 1 Content Designer, 1 UX Researcher, 4 iOS Developers, 4 Android Developers).
Partners and Stakeholders: News editors, Accessibility team, Communications/Marketing/Branding/Research department, Ad Revenue team, Digital Strategy & Product department (back-end developers, video/audio streaming).

UX Research

Journey Map

Along with the Native Apps team, we created a Persona based off of a typical commuter. We created a User Journey Map based on the discovery, engagement and retention of this persona.

User Flow (For Allowing Alerts)

Allowing notifications can be very complex as there are different access and entry points to sign up for alerts. They also differ from each mobile OS platform between iOS and Android. I created a User Flow to illustrate to the developers, the Product Manager and Product Owner on where a user can sign up for alerts.

Usability Testing

Partnering up with a UX Researcher, we conducted and performed user interviews for the latest Canadian snap election, gaining valuable qualitative feedback via Zoom through a user’s device. We gained a lot of valuable insight from our users pre/during/post election with hopes of improving the next Canada Votes election.

Findings

There is always room for improvement and to delight the customer, engage them in a simple way and keep them coming back. With user feedback through ZenDesk, through in-app surveys and user interviews I am constantly looking for ways to make the user’s experience better.

The 10ft Experience

In addition to the creation and the production of the CBC News iOS and Android native app, a free 10ft experience was created for Apple TV and Android TV. The CBC News TV app, is no longer supported or updated as a new subscription-based business initiative is in place called CBC Gem. It is available for download: gem.cbc.ca.

AppleTV app

Android TV app

Custom Amazon Alexa skill

The CBC News flash briefing became the first news source launched in Canada on the Amazon Echo device, shipped to Canadian households as the default news flash briefing. In addition, shortly after the device launch we created Canada’s very first custom news Alexa skill.


We started with the latest news and local regional newscasts, on-demand news shows such as The World Report, The Current, Q and others, local live CBC News Radio stations, and podcasts. Now known as the CBC Alexa skill, it now offers music playlists from a diverse library such as Afrobeat to Jazz to Classical to Pop to name a few.

VUI (Voice User Interface) created for the custom Amazon Alexa skill

Interface screens for the Amazon Echo Show device

Apple Watch companion app

A partnership with Apple, I along with an iOS Developer were invited to Apple headquarters in Cupertino, CA to work on one of Canada’s very first Apple Watch app.

Best News app

In 2019, the CBC News app won Best News app at the RTDNA (Radio Television Digital News Association) Awards.