A fresh take on the news
How we helped VICE rethink their mobile web experience
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Understanding the VICE vision
VICE is known for its unapologetic take on the news and coverage of underreported stories. Having just given VICE.com a new look to reflect their brand, they wanted the redesign of their mobile experience to follow suit.
The brief was fairly open ended, VICE only had three requirements: 1) discover a way to bring all the VICE entities together in one central hub, 2) give people a way to easily personalize their browsing experience, and 3) find a way to appeal to a younger audience. The work would be showcased at CES to generate excitement for the future of VICE on mobile.
Read, watch, listen
We knew that VICE’s audience likes to read articles, watch videos, and listen to audio content, so we created designs that would maximize access to a variety of different content types and formats while minimizing the effort required to navigate across tons of tabs and pages. Now, the homepage acts as a hub, where users can discover content from across the network—VICE, VICE News, VICELAND—the works.
The homepage provides a daily dose of fresh content, incentivizing viewers to come back each day to see what’s new.
The homepage provides a daily dose of fresh content, incentivizing viewers to come back each day to see what’s new.
Personalised content selected by you
People like to tailor the content they consume in a way that satisfies their unique interests. Most personalization flows take a passive approach to this, serving a wall of topics to choose from. For VICE, we made the experience more interactive. Readers are encouraged to walk through sample articles on each topic and up-vote or down-vote (via emojis) to curate their feed.
After this initial onboarding, people can continue to interact with the content they’ve selected to help VICE learn more about their browsing preferences and offer up smarter suggestions in the future.
After this initial onboarding, people can continue to interact with the content they’ve selected to help VICE learn more about their browsing preferences and offer up smarter suggestions in the future.
The news, socialized
Think social media is all about selfies and likes? Think again. There’s an entire generation consuming the news via Snapchat and Instagram. To appeal to this younger generation, VICE Stories serves small snippets of shareable, news-related, content featuring VICE influencers and reporters.
Viewers can immerse themselves in the experience with live comments, reactions, and the ability to share with their peers.
Viewers can immerse themselves in the experience with live comments, reactions, and the ability to share with their peers.
Browse trending topics
We wanted to strike a balance between supporting known consumption patterns and encouraging new discovery habits. Whether people are skimming the news, watching a live video, or tuning in to their favourite VICE podcast, the new Topics layout is designed to do just that. People can find the media type they prefer without missing out on content they’d like.
We used a unique typographic treatment and image thumbnails to provide just the right amount of visual interest and make it engaging, not overwhelming.
We used a unique typographic treatment and image thumbnails to provide just the right amount of visual interest and make it engaging, not overwhelming.
The Last Word
Ultimately, both our team and our collaborators at VICE were proud of the work and excited to put it in the hands of their avid readers and fans at CES 2019. Watch the end result below.
