MoJo: The News Van in Your Hand

An Upcoming Journalistic Livestreaming App, tailored to help journalists succeed in the field

MoJo is an iOS application tailored for journalists to use in the field. They add B-Rolls (short video clips), Interviews (long video clips), Photos, and Maps to a project, and then merge it all together while livestreaming to create a professional news story. This app helps prevent journalists in the field to miss important breaking news footage: sometimes their equipment setup takes too long and by the time the equipment is setup, the news has already passed - a good example is a fire that gets put out before the journalist can cover it.

The Problem

Journalists are consistently missing breaking news coverage due to the delay in equipment setup. Sometimes they just need to cover news quickly but are missing the tools to help them create a professional looking video that does not compromise quality and reaches a wider audience.

The Design Challenge

When journalists are out in the field, they need to be able to record, edit, & access their gathered information to provide a seamless news report when equipment setup takes too long. They typically have 4 main segments that need to be added to create a livestream that looks like it was professionally made - B-Rolls, Interviews, Photos, and Map Location. Journalists need to be able to seamlessly combine these sections, start livestreaming, and then play each section as they talk over the segments added.

Our Solution

We first conducted user research, talking with potential users of this app, all of whom are journalists who have worked (or are currently working) in the field. Based on the research, we designed an app that allows journalists to create a new project, then add individual elements (B-Roll, Interviews, Photos, and Maps) and customize those. They can add them as previously taken from their camera roll or cloud, or they can take them directly in the project.

Research Discovery

• Competitive & Comparative Analysis

• User Surveys

• User Interviews

• Analysis of Existing App

Primary Survey Findings:

We learned journalists are mostly open to using their phones to capture news stories and share them on social media, but some are concerned over lack of quality and professionalism. We also learned that social media currently has a large reach in the journalistic world.

Primary Interview Findings:

Journalists are very interested in mobile journalism, but not complicated apps. Things need to be saved on the Cloud, in case their phone is broken or lost. They also constantly utilize social media to discover potential news stories and to share news.

Defining the Problem

• User Personas

• Journey Map

• Feature Prioritization

Design

• Design Studio

• Paper Sketches

• Re-Branding

• Style Guide

• Prototypes 

• Usability Testing Each Prototype

Collaborative Design, a Team Effort

We started with a Design Studio to get our Creative Juices Flowing

Before we started designing, we each took 5 minutes to draw out our ideas for individual pages. After each page, we grouped together and discussed each idea, then combined the best suited ideas and had one person on our team draw it out into one cohesive flow. In this way we were each able to get our ideas out there and then agree on how to best move forward with the initial design.

Initial Prototype, Sketched on Paper with Pen

10 Users Tested, 2 Iterations

By incorporating the research and prioritized features we previously developed, we sketched up and tested 2 low-fidelity prototypes. At this stage, we started mimicking iOS interactions, such as popup modals and sliding components.

Mid-Fidelity Prototype, No Branding & Lacking Stylization

3 Users Tested

This prototype focused on layout and how clear it is for people to use when it is cleanly made on Sketch. We didn’t yet put any emphasis on branding, though we played around with the idea of a black, red, and neutral color scheme.