Economist Espresso

For over 170 years, The Economist was defined by its deep-dive weekly analysis. However, internal research showed a shift in consumer habits:

The problem was that existing news apps mostly "regurgitated" the same 24-hour news cycle, leading to information overload.

My goal was to lead the UX and Design for the company's first-ever daily publication, creating a digital product that provided a "short, sharp shot" of news that could be consumed in under five minutes.

They wanted a bite-sized daily news app for iOS & Android delivering a short, sharp shot of news in the morning.

We defined the objective as making “Finishability" a feature. While most news apps incentivise "clicking out" and infinite browsing, Espresso was groundbreaking for its finite nature.

• Unique Value Prop: We intentionally decided not to "link out" to other articles. This kept the user focused, ensuring they felt they had the "full picture" without the distraction of external sources.
• The "Win" State: Unlike other apps, Espresso was designed for the user to "win" by finishing it. We implemented a "That's it!" screen with a daily quote as a reward for completion, a move that was highly approved by readers in surveys.

I ran this project as the lead for project management, product direction, and UX, directing a design team of three within a larger product team of 14.

• The 12-Week MVP: Working alongside Pivotal Labs in an agile environment, we moved from concept to a public MVP in just 3 months.
• Editorial Symbiosis: A unique challenge was that the editorial team was "spinning up" during our development. I contributed to the editorial team structure and process based on the UX we wanted to deliver, ensuring the writers could handle the tight turnaround of three global editions (London, New York, Singapore) published daily at 6 a.m..

Solving the Complexity of Simplicity. The "simple" interface hid several complex architectural and business challenges:

1. Subscription UX: The Economist has a complex subscription model. I designed the UX for the critical transition from the freemium entry point to upselling a subscription, or identifying if a user's current plan already covered the app.
2. Frictionless Reading: We stress-tested layouts for multiple languages and content types to ensure the reading experience was as frictionless as possible.
3. Beautiful Monetisation: We treated advertising as part of the aesthetic. Our native ads were designed to look like editorial content, appearing as gorgeous full-screen swipes between articles, which achieved tap rates above 3%.

Upon launch, Espresso became the #1 app in the news category on both the App Store and Google Play. It successfully brought in a younger, more global, and more female audience, helping to prevent churn from readers who found the full weekly edition too time-consuming.

Years later, the app continues to thrive, recently expanding with AI-powered translations in four languages and offering free access to over 400 million students worldwide to build long-term brand loyalty. It remains regarded internally as The Economist's most successful digital project.