CNN Newsource

UX Case Study

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Redesigning CNN’s Newsource portal to unify platforms, improve usability, and increase adoption among affiliates.

Type
UX Case Study
Role
Senior UX Designer (consultant)
Service
UX Design / Research / Prototyping / Media
Year(s)
2016
CNN Newsource

CNN Newsource – Case Study

Project Background

CNN has unparalleled global news-gathering capabilities, delivering content to more than 1,100 partners and supported by over 900 contributing local affiliates.

Through the Newsource portal, CNN distributes news content to affiliates, producers, and their audiences.
Each year, Newsource manages over 100,000 news items and provides access to seven national and one international live channel for breaking news and events.

In addition to live broadcasts, the platform also provides articles, photos, and video content for digital platforms.

My Role

This project was delivered by a small, cross-functional team consisting of:

  • Project Manager
  • Business Analyst
  • UX Designer – myself
  • UI Designer
  • Development Team – provided by CNN

As the lead and only UX designer, I was responsible for the end-to-end UX process. My contributions included:

  • Defining the UX strategy and aligning it with CNN’s business goals.
  • Planning and facilitating workshops with stakeholders and affiliates.
  • Conducting user research, including interviews, contextual inquiries, and usability testing.
  • Creating personas and synthesising research insights into actionable findings.
  • Designing wireframes and low-fidelity prototypes to explore solutions.
  • Building interactive HTML/CSS prototypes for usability testing.
  • Iterating on designs based on continuous user feedback.
  • Delivering validated UX solutions and handoffs to the UI designer for visual implementation.

This breadth of responsibilities gave me ownership of the entire UX lifecycle, from discovery through validation, ensuring the final solution was both user-centered and aligned with CNN’s strategic objectives.

Project Objectives

🎯 Empathise & Understand Usage

  • Develop a deep understanding of how affiliates and producers use the product.

🎯 Increase VAN (Video Affiliate Network) Adoption

  • Promote the use of CNN’s video features, which include embedded advertisements.

🎯 Enhance User Experience

  • Deliver a modern, intuitive interface with improved usability.

🎯 Support Business Goals

  • Drive measurable increases in KPIs tied to engagement and platform adoption.

🎯 Unify Platforms

Merge three legacy systems into one cohesive platform:

  • Oasis – news content distribution
  • Newswire – text news
  • VAN – video content

Research

Quantitative Research

Using analytics data (page views, bounce rate, average time on page, etc.), we identified:

  • Where users struggled or dropped off.
  • Which goals were not being reached.
  • Opportunities to simplify user journeys.

Qualitative Research

We traveled to local news stations across the country to conduct usability sessions where participants were asked to think aloud while completing tasks on the prototypes.

CNN User interviews

Methods Used:

  • Contextual Inquiries – visiting local news stations to observe workflows in context.
  • Discussion Guides – flexible outlines to steer interviews while allowing natural conversation.
  • Satisfaction Surveys – to validate assumptions and reinforce findings.
CNN Artefacts

Data Analysis

The collected data was initially unstructured.
We synthesised interview notes into findings, grouped them by actions and tasks, and then identified patterns using affinity diagrams.

This process revealed recurring themes and key pain points.

CNN Affinity Diagram

Personas

With validated insights, we created archetypical personas to guide the design process:

  • Producer
  • Digital Producer
  • Executive Producer

Ideation

We used ideation techniques to explore a broad range of possibilities before narrowing to feasible solutions.

Activities included:

  • 💡 Brainstorming
  • ✏️ Design Charrettes – collaborative sketching sessions
  • 🔮 “Possible Futures” Mashups – combining features from different tools to spark new ideas

Working collaboratively allowed us to explore diverse solutions and move toward a well-rounded product vision.

Wireframes

We began with low-fidelity paper prototypes, tested internally with CNN employees who had newsroom experience.

CNN Wireframes

Promising ideas were then digitised into wireframes, which defined:

  • Content hierarchy
  • Page structure
  • Functional behaviors

Prototypes

To test interaction and usability, we created HTML/CSS prototypes.
These were tested in local stations to observe real-world workflows and validate design decisions.

Key outcomes:

  • Uncovered usability issues early.
  • Allowed stakeholders to interact with the product before development.
  • Supported iterative improvements.

Design System & Iteration

Consistency was key. I created a design pattern library with:

  • Guidelines
  • Screenshots
  • Living code examples
Designs

This ensured stakeholders and developers had a shared reference and reduced ambiguity.

By iterating early and often, we resolved usability issues before launch, ensuring a polished, user-centered product.

Conclusion

The redesigned CNN Newsource portal significantly improved the affiliate experience:

  • Unified multiple platforms into a single, cohesive system.
  • Simplified navigation and improved search/filtering for media assets.
  • Increased adoption of CNN’s video features (VAN).
  • Reduced the time affiliates spent finding and managing content.

Ultimately, the redesign made Newsource a faster, more intuitive, and business-aligned platform, supporting both CNN’s objectives and its affiliates’ daily workflows.