Designing News
Led the design team of a major italian media company.
Context
Citynews is a major italian media company with a portfolio of over 55 local news websites and mobile apps. It reaches over 30M readers and 280M page views per month across 56 local editions, with a business built on advertising (3,100+ clients) and a strong social presence (15M followers).
Challenge
Build a design team and create a cohesive experience across local and national editions, while introducing new ways of working.
Responsibilities
Manage a design team, aligning varying skill sets and perspectives required communication, patience, and adaptability.
Define a design strategy and create a cohesive experience across local and national editions.
Collaborate with stakeholders to define the product roadmap and vision.
Create a Design System to ensure consistency across all products, keeping a coherent visual identity
Design for multiple platforms, adapting concepts from web to mobile, requiring attention to detail and extensive testing.
Project gallery
Full Story
From consultancy to leading the design team
Citynews gave me an incredible canvas for creativity and innovation. I started in 2012 as a freelance designer, redesigning the websites and community platforms for individual local editions.
My responsibilities expanded in 2015, when I was called back to spearhead a responsive design strategy and revamp the brand identity across all editorial products. In April 2016, I officially joined the company as Head of Design, going on to build and lead the product design team over the following years.
Throughout this journey, my work focused on three core products: a scalable shared brand identity, a cross-platform design system, and a refreshed corporate identity for the company itself.
A brand identity built to scale
One of the earliest challenges was designing a unique brand identity that could be shared consistently across dozens of local and national editions, while remaining flexible enough to scale smoothly to new market openings as Citynews kept expanding.
Over the years, I led the product design team, nurturing and collaborating with talented individuals who embraced this vision, and established a robust workflow in tandem with various departments, introducing cutting-edge tools and methodologies.
A design system for every platform
A significant milestone was the creation of the Global Design Language (GDL), a design system built to let digital products be designed consistently across web, iOS, and Android. Introduced in late 2020, it’s still in use today.
The GDL was built on Fractal, a tool that allowed us to create a styleguide that could be used by the design team and the development team.
Native mobile apps
The design system also powered the evolution of the iOS and Android mobile apps, which I designed and helped develop from v1 to v6, managing external resources and suppliers along the way. I personally developed the responsive design strategy behind this work, optimizing the design, front-end, and development workflows.
A corporate identity rooted in local storytelling
In 2018, we launched the new corporate website, built on a coherent, flexible, and scalable visual identity shared with all Citynews brands. Its main goal was to communicate the company’s core value: a strong presence across the territory and the ability to tell the stories of local communities through video services and reportage.
The website showcases the company’s presence across the territory and the ability to tell the stories of local communities through video services and reportage.
Internal tools
Alongside the editorial products, I directed the redesign of internal tools:
- a Content Management System (CMS) built on proprietary software and used by 250+ editors
- a Customer Relationship Management(powered by SuiteCRM) used by 100+ sales representatives
Technical Details
- Design System: The Citynews Global Design Language (GDL) was crafted to ensure consistency across all corporate brands. It comprehended foundations (typography, color palette, and interaction guidelines), components, patterns and static pages.
- Responsive Design Strategy: Implementing a responsive design approach required reevaluating how design and development work together.
- Modern Front-End Workflow: I helped develop a new front-end workflow, leveraging technologies such as Nunjucks, Git, Gulp, Node.js, and Fractal, to optimize collaboration between design and development.
Personal Growth
My experience at Citynews was a journey of personal growth.
I learned the value of leadership, teamwork, and adaptability. Collaborating with talented individuals and navigating the dynamic landscape of design and technology enriched my skillset.
I enriched my project management skills and developed a keen eye for detail, crucial in maintaining design consistency and quality.