CNN: Gen-Z News

CNN: Gen-Z News

Revitalizing CNN's social media and mobile platforms to align with and safeguard news for evolving trends and habits in media consumption.

Revitalizing CNN's social media and mobile platforms to align with and safeguard news for evolving trends and habits in media consumption.

My Role

Product Designer — Feature Scoping, User Flows, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Prototyping, Testing

Product Designer — Feature Scoping, User Flows, Interaction Design, Visual Design, Prototyping, Testing

Team

Timeline & Status

4 Months, Under Deployment (Vision '26)

4 Months, Under Deployment (Vision '26)

Context & Problem

The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news channel focused on bringing the latest news and reports to it’s users.

The Cable News Network (CNN) is a multinational news channel focused on bringing the latest news and reports to it’s users.

CNN, with an average audience age of 58, needs to adapt its content for newer generations favoring mobile consumption. Simultaneously, addressing a negative NPS, the goal is to boost user engagement and appeal to a broader audience.

CNN, with an average audience age of 58, needs to adapt its content for newer generations favoring mobile consumption. Simultaneously, addressing a negative NPS, the goal is to boost user engagement and appeal to a broader audience.

Solution

The solution involves the creation of platform-specific experiences designed to align with the research and investigative behaviors of Gen Z news readers who primarily engage with content on mobile devices.

Metrics in Focus

MAUs

Increasing the share of Gen-Z
users on platform

CTR

Clicks on suggested
topics, for discovery

NPS

PWA to be a more intuitive
and accessible interface.

HIGHLIGHTS

The future of news – adaptable to all audiences and behaviors

CONCEPT 1

Eris, CNN's AI Agent, now embedded in your social media experience. Focused on the initial discovery of news.

Eris, CNN's AI Agent, now embedded in your social media experience. Focused on the initial discovery of news.

AI Features & Triggers

Eris is your personal AI news buddy, you can tag, share and chat with Eris to know more about any incident.

Scalable to all Socials

Scalable to all Socials

In the distributed social media fabric, Eris can be integrated into all current and upcoming social media platforms.

CONCEPT 2

Bite-sized crumbs that give you a 360 degree view of an article just in a few scrolls. This experience is focused on the exploration and understanding phase.

Grasp quicker, from multiple lenses

Crumbs provide a visually intuitive method for breaking down and comprehending a news article, incorporating illustrations, images, social media opinions, and actionable items.

Crumbs provide a visually intuitive method for breaking down and comprehending a news article, incorporating illustrations, images, social media opinions, and actionable items.

Featured articles vs Developing Stories

Featured articles vs Developing Stories

Featured articles are full of rich crumbs that make understanding faster and improves engagement, while in developing stories crumbs make the text heavy article into fun and engaging stories.

Featured articles are full of rich crumbs that make understanding faster and improves engagement, while in developing stories crumbs make the text heavy article into fun and engaging stories.

Impact

By breaking down the anatomy of news (picture, video, copy etc) into modular components and providing multiple entry points into the same story, we empower users to choose their preferred medium and engage with news on their terms.

By breaking down the anatomy of news (picture, video, copy etc) into modular components and providing multiple entry points into the same story, we empower users to choose their preferred medium and engage with news on their terms.

This project has been a huge need for CNN since the average CNN user is now 57 years old. This project also addresses the gaps in the CNN ecosystem to make it more relevant for Gen Z

This project has been a huge need for CNN since the average CNN user is now 57 years old. This project also addresses the gaps in the CNN ecosystem to make it more relevant for Gen Z

Learnings & Reflections

  • Deep research into news reading habits and other Gen Z behaviors provided the key to the solution.

  • Gen AI was the highlight to scale both concepts (To answer questions, provide context, create illustrations in articles, and fetch relevant articles from socials)

  • The project also provides insight into the gaps in the current and desired experience for Gen Z.