BH Daily iOS/Android App
Lead UX/UI design for BH’s mobile equine news & race data app
Overview
In addition to their popular magazine, BH wanted to give their readers a new, “on the go” source of industry news and statistics.
Under new management and direction, BH planned to re-vitalize their brand and strengthen their digital offerings. In addition to a planned iPad version of the entire magazine and an updated email campaign, a “daily” mobile app that users could check on frequently was first to be rolled out. I was tasked with the UX/UI/Visual Design for the mobile app, as well as an expanded “web view” of similar content within the iPad app.
Goals
Who are the users? What do they want?
Through brainstorming and user research, the team created the ideal product. The main points returned from user feedback of existing digital “zines” was (1) pages being too busy, visually and (2) reader fatigue from long stories. So our mobile app plan was to contain short, quick stories around 150 words total with updated content every morning and throughout the day. This would be a free app with rotating sponsors – but not contain an overload of banners, letting the screens breathe and be easy to read.
With the users being breeders and industry insiders, the app’s content wouldn’t only be news stories. We also reached from BH’s existing databases to display race results, race entries and video footage.
Building the Foundation
I created low-fidelity wireframes and we finalized the Daily App’s screen flow.
I drew some of the initial screen layouts for quick “proof of concept” and further discussion with a few key team members. Afterwards, I was able to create more polished wireframes to share with the entire team. We were also deciding the app’s flow at the time. Here’s my final screen flow layout.
Visual Design & Style Guide
Based on BH’s existing brand, I created high-fidelity mockups for all screens and provided style guide to developers.
Below are a few examples of the visual design mockups and style guide screens. This stage was crucial for deciding accurate font and margin sizes. We’d load versions of the mockups on devices to get test users and stakeholders a hands-on demo for readability and overall impression.
After handing over the style guide and all exported graphical components, the development team was able to finish production and launch the app on time. As planned, this was the first product to give existing BH users a migration path to the fully digital version of the magazine – which was launched a couple months later. Overall feedback was positive for the Daily App, receiving specific mentions for “ease of use” and “pleasing layout”.
