Articly
Articly is a mobile App that takes out all the newsletters from your email, suggesting customized and precise content, whenever and wherever you want to read.
The Problem - no time for newsletters
Dana is a 34 years old mother. she’s subscribed to many newsletters from different websites. She loves sitting down with a huge cup of coffee, read articles and catch up on the latest news and updates.
Dana has been on maternity leave for the past four months. ever since she gave birth she is so busy with the baby, she can barely finish the first coffee of the morning.
All of Dana’s emails from her favorite newsletters stayed unread and she feels a terrible FOMO. she can’t find the time and power to go through her emails and dig out the relevant and interesting content.
The Solution - take the newsletters out of the mailbox
Articly is a newsletters App. the user can choose exactly which content she wants to read, with minimum overload of irrelevant emails and articles. When subscribing to a new newsletter, the user will answer a few questions regarding her interest and personal reading habits, so the app could offer her the most precise content at the best time and location for her.
User Research
I interviewed a few potential users, trying to learn about their Newsletters reading habits.
“Newsletter is doing the hard work for me. All I need to do is make the time to sit down and read it”
-Michal Ninburg, Senior Product Designer, Newsletter’s Editor of the Facebook Community “Startup Designers”.
“Yes. Endless FOMO”
-Yael Negra, Newsletter’s editor of the Facebook community “Hamitapistiot”, Economist and Content Editor.
“I’m subscribed to about 150 newsletters, obviously I don't read all of them"
-Liron Lavi Turkenich, Design Entrepreneur, Fonts Designer and Letters Researcher.
“The Problem is that there’s no curator in newsletters, there’s so much junk. I’d rather have 3 good articles than a bombing of content”
-Tal Solomon Vardi, Product Designer and Uncoated Magazine founder and editor.
Competitive Analysis
I looked for Apps that dealing with newsfeeds, information and newsletter’s managing.
-
Saving every article / video / file from your browser into pocket.
-
The main feature is "My List".
-
Articles reading can be done on an app layout or on a link to the original source.
-
There is an audio listening option.
-
Pocket's social media - the user can search people to follow by popular users, my contacts, and twitter integration.
-
I liked the saving option from anywhere. the files sharing is very comfortable, and saving an article is very easy.
-
The main articles feed layout is not good enough, looks like a list more than a feed.
-
Newsfeed app with two main features: my feed and explore feed.
-
The layout can change by "view" and "density".
-
No social network in the app. the user can save favorites articles into "Boards".
-
There are three different types of explore - too many.
-
I liked the minimalism, the easy and clear navigation.
-
No integration, share or collaboration options. the "Read Later" feature needs to be more complex cause it's too similar to the "Boards" feature.
-
Newsletters management app, outside your mailbox without reading or sharing.
-
Homepage have three actions for managing emails: move to "rollup", keep in inbox, unsubscribe.
-
I liked the "Rollup" feature that bundles all of the user's chosen newsletters and sends me one general email once a day (according to my preferences).
-
Downside: the whole app is three actions regarding my emails subscription. perhaps more features would make the app more interesting and would keep the user inside the app longer.
User Flow
Explore
In the Explore feature, the user subscribe to new newsletters. When subscribing, the user goes through a quick questionnaire to help the App learn about her interests and preferences, so it can offer her a customized and better experience of content consumption.
Read & Save to Favorites
Once the user has chosen an article to read from the main feed, she can save it to her “Favorites” folder, and come back to read it later when the time is right.
Solving the time problem - push notification feature
After my research I realized I need to take out the newsletters from the mailbox, but I still haven't figured out the TIME problem - when can the user find the time to sit down and read?
One solution I found is MACHINE LEARNING of the best time for the user to read her articles. I created a feature which will alert the user by push notification and remind her there are articles waiting for her to read, when notice this is a good timing for her.
I will continue to work on this project, make it more broad and accurate. I hope to find more solutions that will achieve the purpose of the product.
More Projects
