case study

Public Editor
Fighting Misinformation

Web
Annotation, Articles, News
UI/UX Audit, UX/UI design, Web development
problem statement
Enable critical thinkers to tackle misinformation by annotating shared news articles.
Public Editor mobilises a community of "annotators" tasked with scrutinising widely-shared news articles, pinpointing fallacies, and collectively rectifying misinformation to uphold the integrity of information consumed by the public.

Challenges

Motivating and Engaging Volunteers.

Ensuring accessibility for all users while maintaining a visually appealing and intuitive interface

Ensuring accessibility for all users while maintaining a visually appealing and intuitive interface

Carte blanche’s mission

Transform the way annotators label and annotate news

Scope
1. UX Audit and Design
2. UI Audit and Design
3. Website Redesign
4. Web app Redesign
Outcome

Through a user-friendly and accessible interface, Public Editor brings together a community of critical thinkers committed to promoting truth and transparency in the media. It also acts to keep the volunteers motivated and engaged in their efforts to combat misinformation.

Framing the Problem
Establishing Boundaries and Scope
During our initial meeting with the Public Editor team, we heard firsthand the challenges the users were facing in navigating through the web app and website. "We have a dedicated group of volunteers who are passionate about combating misinformation, but our current platform has UX/UI issues that make it difficult for them to navigate through the system," they explained.

Our audit focused on identifying pain points in the user experience and improving the visual design to promote engagement and ease of use.
Discovered Pain Points
Unclear annotator training path
Lack of user analytics
Confusing app flow for onboarding
Inconsistent brand image in the design
Deliverable Actions
Conduct a brand identity audit to understand the core vision & mission of the brand.
Clear onboarding journey with clear CTAs
Create a customized dashboard.
Pull together scattered educational resources into a coherent user-journey
Our Approach
THE OLD DESIGN
Phase 01
Website Redesign

First, we tackled the website redesign. Our team worked closely with Public Editor to understand the organization's brand identity and vision.

Key improvements involved designing clear CTAs for two different types of users, improving visual design, website copy and bringing sponsors in focus to help with future fundraising.

Phase 01
Website Redesign
1 . Intuitive navigation system
2. UI Audit and Design
3. Website Redesign
4. Web app Redesign
The redesign
Phase 02
Streamlining New User Flows
Onboarding
The existing process was far from user-friendly.
The Problems
Multiple dead ends Irrelevant information Overwhelming amount of steps
The New
Instead of landing in a place with conflicting directions, new users are greeted with a friendly guide that leads them through each step of the onboarding process and shows them how to realize the value of the platform.
Phase 02
Streamlining Training Flows
Training the annotators
The Public Editor team had poured their hearts into creating quality training for the volunteers but the feedback they received was disheartening.
The Problem?
The training process felt like a chore and gave zero visibility into overall training process.
The Solution?
Turn it into a game! :D
Aspects of the Game
  • Divide training into multiple challenges.
  • An upgradable character for each user.
  • Badge-based reward system.
  • Downloadable certificates.
  • Public Leaderboard
Phase 02
Streamlining User Flows
Dashboard
We wanted to create a dashboard to help motivate and incentivize volunteers to keep annotating articles and be up to date about their own and the community's progress. We knew that a bland, boring dashboard wouldn't cut it. We needed something that would make fighting misinformation fun.
We split the dashboard into two parts:
  • Personal dashboard
  • Community dashboard
Personal dashboard
Community dashboard
How?
The Process
It all started with a comprehensive audit. We quickly realized that there were several pain points that needed to be addressed in order to improve the overall user experience.
To tackle this challenge, we:
Broke the project down into smaller, more manageable modules
Involved all stakeholders in the process, from the Public Editor team to external developers
who were working on the project.
Throughout the process, we kept an open line of communication with all parties involved, encouraging feedback and suggestions every step of the way. This allowed us to stay nimble and adjust our approach to any problems that arose.
The Result?
More engaged & motivated  volunteers to fight misinformation! A stronger community and a better platform for all.
Development
The Tech Stack

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