NewsKit

An internal living design system for News Corp.

Good design is good business.

News UK found its ability to innovate was held back by pipelines and outdated systems. Our team was tasked to develop a culture of experimentation by establishing a shared language and agnostic systems which would improve efficiency by enabling product and editorial teams.

Summary

I was a hands-on design lead in the Product Platforms team, my experience with design systems and work other news products made me a natural fit for this cross-disciplined team of 8-12, which were interconnected with the wider design, technology, editorial, marketing departments and remote offices.

Challenge

To discover business patterns, identify problems and uncover opportunities, while defining a design language with shared principles and foundations for future technologies at News UK, in a way which is sustainable, scaleable, adaptable, accessible and enables others to perform their tasks more effectively.

Process

We began with research and workshopping to understand the business and product ecosystems. Looking at workflows and finding friction points were prioritised. We then planned the best approach iteratively to design and deploy solutions and used feedback to make constant improvements.

Solution

A modular set of design tools and powerful user-focused product toolkit for News technology platforms, designed to fit into existing products becoming a core touchpoint for tools and insights for teams. The core outcome was a design and technology language which simplified cross-department collaborations, enabling teams to produce quality cross-platform products quickly with a focus on accessibility, flexibility and ease of adoption using shared frameworks and strategic lifecycle maintenance plans.

Services

  • Design Direction
  • Product Design
  • UX Research
  • Experience Design
  • Interface Design
  • Interactive Design
  • Creative Strategy
  • Visual Design
  • Workshops
  • Wireframes
  • Userflows
  • Personas
  • Portotypes
  • User Testing
  • Component Libraries
  • Style Guidelines
  • Sketch Libraries
Product
NewsKit
Roles
Design Systems Lead
Year
2019
Client
News Corp