Chatelaine Magazine Digital Transformation

Upon joining the Chatelaine team, my first project was to overhaul and re-brand the user experience and design of the Chatelaine January 2016 tablet and mobile apps. The goal was to re-imagine each story published in the digital edition. I was challenged to improve the user experience, adjust the workflow, create efficiency and ensure all interactivity elevated the storytelling experience.  The purpose of this project was to dive deep into the publication as a reader/user and investigate previous UX/UI design challenges.

Each story was re-designed to follow one of nine templates. These templates were responsive put the storytelling first and cut internal programming time by 70%. Each template had strict page guidelines, easy paragraph styles and preprogrammed interactive elements that made translating monthly print editions into digital editions faster and easier.

As a result of creating templates and guidelines for the digital edition, web stories can now also be easily translated into the digital edition withjust a few clicks. Processes were created that pull content from web articles and apply a new template allowing articles to be recycled and stories to be easily read across numerous platforms with very little strain on the staff.

Since the application of the templates, readership has increased by 25%. This increase is due to an easier reading experience along with the ability to get more current information in the issues faster and easier. Overall ensuring that the user receives the best reading experience of the most current stories.

App Design

The Chatelaine app is a daily app that features the top five news breaking stories of the day along with the latest issues available for download. My role was to art direct the user interface and design along with project manage the process from conception to live execution.

User Experience

The user experience of the Chatelaine app centered around the principle of ensuring that the user can access the app information within two taps of interacting with the app. The core purpose of the Chatelaine user interface was to create an app interface that was easy to use and would provide easy access to news stories that can be read quickly and easily.