Dagsavisen
Case: Dagsavisen - a regional Norwegian newspaper (2006-08) http://dagsavisen.no
Mission: Redesign the newspaper portal.
Concept: Dagsavisen is the most quoted newspaper in Norway. Our mission was to make a newspaper portal that focuses on what Dagsavisen knows best; culture and debate, and the longer, serious articles. With few resources, Dagsavisen can almost never be the paper that brings the news to the public first. We needed to make a framework for the content that reflected what Dagsavisen stands for, rather than take after the larger newspaper portals in Norway, like VG.no.
My role: concept developer, information architect, interaction designer, project manager. Developed in collaboration with Inge Fossland.
Award: Dagsavisen.no won The Norwegian Award for Design Excellence in 2008. Read the jury verdict (in Norwegian).
Mission: Redesign the newspaper portal.
Concept: Dagsavisen is the most quoted newspaper in Norway. Our mission was to make a newspaper portal that focuses on what Dagsavisen knows best; culture and debate, and the longer, serious articles. With few resources, Dagsavisen can almost never be the paper that brings the news to the public first. We needed to make a framework for the content that reflected what Dagsavisen stands for, rather than take after the larger newspaper portals in Norway, like VG.no.
My role: concept developer, information architect, interaction designer, project manager. Developed in collaboration with Inge Fossland.
Award: Dagsavisen.no won The Norwegian Award for Design Excellence in 2008. Read the jury verdict (in Norwegian).
Front page - the top section of the front page the way it was launched in 2007. Most Norwegian newspapers have a front page that gives the reader the latest news on the top of the page (no matter how important). Dagsavisen can rarely compete with the larger papers by bringing latest news to the public fast, which is why we wanted a first page that places the most important news in the top section rather than the latest, and then the rest of the page would be divided into different sections based on news categories such as World news, Culture, Sports and so on. View the whole front page of the newspaper portal enlarged.
Front page sketch. After the launch we tried to develop the front page further by sketching out different alternatives. We wanted a richer and longer front page than before, with more room for quotes - both from the articles, and from the user comments. A longer front page would also leave more space for valuable ads.
Front page before and after the redesign - new version to the right launched in 2008. To emphasize that this newspaper is a paper that values opinions, we created a lot of spaces throughout the portal for quotes (in red text). We also made a separate section for opinions on the front page ("Meninger"), where the journalistic debate articles are gathered - along with the latest user comments. View the new version of the front page enlarged.
User comments - the latest user comment is highlighted underneath the article. It is challenging to create an environment where the debate stays on a certain level, and attracts people who wants to discuss by using valid arguments rather than screaming and shouting for no good reason. Discussions about how to create a healthy debate on the portal have been many. The design of the debate section, journalists participating in the debate, moderation, anonymity and log in have been among the discussed topics, and different tactics have been tried since the launch to see how the debate was affected.