My Role: Audience Development & Engagement Intern
NBCUniversal, NBC News Digital
Project Timeline:
2 Weeks, June 2023
Tools:
Figma, Adobe Photoshop, Digioh
Designing the advertising campaign for TODAY Accounts required a mixture of graphic, UX, and UI design. With a goal to drive TODAY Show digital reader acquisition and retention, it was imperative for readers' first interaction with TODAY Accounts to be easily navigable, visually appealing, and efficient in functionality.
In a bit of a design sprint "free write," I created an initial iteration based on the modal to which readers would be redirected once they have clicked through the ad. Upon meeting with members of the product team, it was decided that the visual ad should diverge from the the modal that would ensue soon after in the user site session. I organized a meeting with the UX Lead to regroup my understanding of our brand guidelines and room for creativity, and moved onto my second iteration. This version attempted to prioritize the jovial and playful brand of TODAY while also honing in on ample call-to-action text (CTA) to provide a thorough undertstanding of the new feature.
Nevertheless, this second iteration left me feeling underwhelmed. I first created a component chart mapping out each visual asset, typographic option, and component in the form of a pick-and-choose menu. This chart informed my image-first approach for the third iteration. After another sync with the marketing team, I narrowed my desktop options down to one and proceeded with mobile design and refreshed CTA for the fourth iteration. With an older audience in mind, I limited CTA and tailored each value ad to the motivations of various user profiles. For instance, readers on an article right before the ad pop-up receive different CTA than those who were visiting a recipe or workout.
At last, the final step of this project entailed developing the ad in Digioh with light use of HTML and CSS coding. Data analysis to pull key performance metrics is to follow.
Through this project, I exercised my ability to engage in cross-team collaboration, communicating with designers, engineers, and marketers alike to put a business-oriented concept into visual design and action.
