To measure up against a competitive news enviroment, Forbes asked for conceptual approaches to increase visitors and, as a result, profit.

Their ask focused on two crucial points: increasing new users and keep existing users coming back. Forbes is a news behemoth, but they miss the mark on connecting directly to their readers, whick trickles into a lack of loyalty to the brand itself.

My solution uses a readers interests a springboard into the Forbes news system, pushing the brand to new heights while seamlessly integrating into their existing digital environment.

I surveyed 54 participants with an aim on focusing on their current news discovery and what attracts them to certain news sites.

News Discovery

Users are primarily discovering their news through google searches and news applications, primarily on their phones and on laptop.

Filtering the Overload

Users feel that they have abundant access to the news they consume, but yearn for a customizable news experience that they control.

Maintaining User Interest

Users are primarily attracted to the news that they read when it is convenient to their schedules and relevant to what they are interested in.

Nate the Newbie

As an undergraduate student beginning my job search, I want to find a news source that I can customize and trust, so that I can best prepare myself for my career after college.

Rachel the Returner

As a busy marketing executive, I want easy access to articles that are relevant to my interests, so that I can better enjoy the small breaks that I get throughout the day.

Tiered Solution Diagram

To further guide and define my project, I divided my project goals into three tiers, building off of the base idea of personalization and moving upwards towards rewarding users for coming back to the site.

A personalized digital environment that seamlessly delivers Forbes content in the most efficient ways possible.

Your Forbes Onboarding

Engaging graphics and a straightforward CTA entice new users to dive into the Forbes brand. The onboarding process is kept intentionally brief, with a larger focus on one’s interests instead of their personal information.

Onboarding Tooltips

Onboarding should never be infinite, so the latter half is guided by tooltips to highlight the myriad of Your Forbes features without getting too in the way.

Your Forbes curated page

Creating an account is directly repaid with a personal spot within the Forbes environment, pushing a reader and their interests to the forefront and granting them a centralized hub to call their ow.

Content dividers highlight new Forbes opportunities to integrate Forbes into their news consumption, while exploration carousels call attention to new topics a reader might like to explore.

Forbes Daily Delivery

Recognizing opportunities within the current features Forbes offers, I focused in on their Daily Dozen offer. As it currently stands, the Forbes Daily Dozen is an email newsletter of twelve articles delivered daily. I revamped the Daily Dozen with new personalization options, shifting it into the Daily Delivery.

Customizing your Forbes experience

A user can adjust both the amount of articles contained within as well as what time of day they would like to receive it, allowing their delivery to best fit their schedule.
Customization is as straightforward as possible, placing the ability to curate their content directly into a readers hands with little friction.

Forbes Browser Extension

Inspired by the opportunity to place Forbes directly into the hands of a reader, I designed a tab-based browser extension. Each time a reader opens a new tab, they’re greeted by quality Forbes news content. The browser extension is broken into two parts: curation and discover. A user can view the articles in the browser and, on click, are taken to the direct article link.

Article Preview

A preview option pulls in necessary friction to the flow while giving the reader more information on what the article is about, stopping them from accidentally clicking into a whole new tab of something they may not be interested in.

Forbes 5 To-Go

Expanding upon my goal, I recognized the opportunity to directly deliver content to one’s mobile devide. Forbes 5-to-go, is a text based delivery of news that takes the user to their own five articles to read, each article taking ~5 minutes to read.

iMessage Extension

To promote easy sharing of news articles to their friends, family, and others, I designed an iMessage extension that a user can quickly share their recently read articles.

Forbes FYI

To reward a reader for brand loyalty, I chose to explore the idea of an interactive inforgraphic experience that details the knowledge a user has gained throughout their month of reading.

Working with a well-established client was an amazing learning opportunity, and forced me out of my comfort zone.

Throughout this project, I was challenged to design within a well-established brand from a respected client. In doing so, it forced me to consider the ripple effect that each decision I made would have on Forbes' current digital environment, and how I could best optimize my solution to pinpoint the needs that Forbes had laid out. 



Going forward, I would like to explore a more fleshed out third tier of increasing user loyalty through exclusive content and articles for consistently returning users.