ZEIT ONLINE
Redesigning one of Germany’s largest news sites
Services
ZEIT ONLINE is a leading destination for online journalism and digital storytelling. In addition to the publication’s long-standing reputation for high-quality reporting and in-depth political commentary, the platform is known for its innovative data visualizations and explainer pieces. Today, ZEIT ONLINE ranks among the top 40 visited sites in Germany overall.
For almost two years, we worked with their product and editorial teams on a major design overhaul of the website and app.
Through a series of stakeholder interviews and workshops, we identified the main hypotheses, challenges and goals for the new design. We then took an iterative approach and rolled-out features and components incrementally.
Highlights of ZEIT ONLINE’s revamped design include an all-new navigation that lets go of the traditional newspaper department logic — a reflection of internal structure rather than user value in the digital space — in favor of highlighting relevant topics and personalized content.
One of the big goals for the redesign was to enable a more streamlined, iterative product development process going forward. To achieve this, we established a comprehensive design system, removing inconsistencies and clutter that had naturally piled up over the years. We then expanded on this system in parallel to the product design process.
We also developed a range of teaser designs and redesigned the article templates to allow for a more nuanced and compelling presentation of a broad range of topics: a strategic priority to overcome widespread news fatigue by letting journalism shine on a stage it deserves.