Add user-facing categorization to homepage

Implementing user-facing categorization on the homepage will result in improved user engagement and satisfaction by providing easier access to relevant content. By organizing content into user-friendly categories, users will spend less time searching for specific topics, leading to increased time spent on the site and higher likelihood of return visits. This project will support business goals such as audience growth, engagement, and retention by enhancing the website's usability and relevance to users' interests.

• Increase in time spent on the homepage (average engagement time)

• Improvement in user engagement metrics (e.g., click-through rate, bounce rate)

• Growth in return visits to the site

• User feedback from sampling

• Scroll depth

Without user-facing categorization on the homepage, users may struggle to navigate through the available content to discover what interests them. This can lead to frustration, decreased engagement, and potentially a higher likelihood of users leaving the site without exploring its full offerings. By implementing user-facing categorization on the homepage, we aim to improve the content discovery process to better inform and serve audiences.

UX audit: Audit the homepage's usability together using group exercise materials.

Demo: Digital content group to demo current curation strategies.

Define categories: Add labels to what currently exists to explain what we are already doing. With key stakeholders (including producers, Morgan + Anna, Ed, Jessica), identify public-facing labels for content blocks on the homepage, while considering factors such as current curation strategies, editorial priorities, freshness, content availability, and audience needs/data.

Design user-friendly interface: Ensure user-friendly blocks for displaying decided public-facing topic labels.

Establish testing parameters: Outline the metrics we will use to determine the effectiveness of the new blocks.

Implement homepage layout changes: Update the homepage layout to accommodate the new categorization features in sandbox.

Train content creators and create communication plan: Provide training and guidance to content creators on how to use the new categorization feature effectively, including best practices for tagging content and maintaining consistency across categories.

Launch and monitor performance: Launch the updated homepage with user-facing categorization features and monitor its performance using KPIs such as time spent on page, engagement metrics, and user feedback. Target date = August 27.

Test and iterate: Conduct usability testing and gather feedback from users to identify any issues or areas for improvement in the categorization feature, making necessary adjustments and refinements based on user feedback.

Testing Phase (4-9 Weeks)

• Purpose: Monitor the performance of the new categorization feature and compare it to the baseline metrics we are establishing.

• Action:

  • Month 1: Initial monitoring after launch. This period allows us to detect immediate impacts and address any issues that arise.

  • Notes: Do we need a block for lighter fare such as Superabundant? What is the best way to represent the non-news content

  • Month 2-3: Continued observation to account for any learning effects and variations in user behavior. More significant changes should become apparent within this timeframe. Additional time may be required if the initial changes are not statistically significant or if user behavior shows variability, especially given the elections timeframe.