Laura Carroll
Our content intelligence platform had created a way to dynamically update packages, sections, and homepages—thereby reducing time spent curating, breathing life into long-forgotten curations, and increasing recirculation and return visits. We neede

The editor and the algorithm

Combining artificial intelligence with editorial intent

Our content intelligence platform had created a way to dynamically update packages, sections, and homepages—thereby reducing time spent curating, breathing life into long-forgotten curations, and increasing recirculation and return visits. We neede


Our content intelligence platform had created a way to dynamically update packages, sections, and homepages—thereby reducing time spent curating, breathing life into long-forgotten curations, and increasing recirculation and return visits. We needed to find a way to integrate this intelligence into the editorial workflow without negating creativity and editorial intent.

Furthermore, there were some usability issues with our current curation interface—clunky flows, nested content types, and a lack of visual hierarchy meant that the page was ready for an upgrade with or without content intelligence.

MY ROLE
Recruiting, discussion guide writing, interview moderating, test script writing, test moderation, synthesis

PROJECT SQUAD
Research lead (me), research associate, product manager, lead engineer, UX/UI designer

PRIMARY RESEARCH QUESTIONS
What determines whether a story is included in a section page or homepage?
What is the workflow for creating or updating a curated page? Is content pre-determined or discovered within the CMS?
How much value to editors place on manual curation?

METHODS
Stakeholder interviews, Contextual inquires, workflow blueprinting, usability tests (current)

RESEARCH SPRINT TAKEAWAYS
Results and recommendations were communicated via presentation. See a few key slides below.

Our contextual inquiries quickly made it clear that our digital teams think about their homepage the same way our print teams think about their covers. Sure, it might not be the most optimized content, but it’s their voice, tone, and brand. Other


Our contextual inquiries quickly made it clear that our digital teams think about their homepage the same way our print teams think about their covers. Sure, it might not be the most optimized content, but it’s their voice, tone, and brand.

Other pages, such as guides, recipe collections, and packages, were not quite as important to the teams. “Our destination guides should feel like living and breathing pages” one editor said. This meant that there was room for us to familiarize the team with optimized pages—slowly building trust by proving their business value without steamrolling editorial integrity and intent.

Three main factors were identified for deciding what goes where, and any optimized pages would have to understand the nuances of each. For example, a team might want their highest performing Paris piece at the top of their Paris guide, but not if i


Three main factors were identified for deciding what goes where, and any optimized pages would have to understand the nuances of each. For example, a team might want their highest performing Paris piece at the top of their Paris guide, but not if it’s about the terrorist attacks.

After the research was delivered, our designer took a two-week sprint to start prototyping our new curation tool, which came to be known as Escher. PROTOTYPE + TESTING


After the research was delivered, our designer took a two-week sprint to start prototyping our new curation tool, which came to be known as Escher.

PROTOTYPE + TESTING

Usability tests continue to be conducted on iterations of the above prototype, with analysis and share-outs occurring in between.


Usability tests continue to be conducted on iterations of the above prototype, with analysis and share-outs occurring in between.

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Our content intelligence platform had created a way to dynamically update packages, sections, and homepages—thereby reducing time spent curating, breathing life into long-forgotten curations, and increasing recirculation and return visits. We neede
Our contextual inquiries quickly made it clear that our digital teams think about their homepage the same way our print teams think about their covers. Sure, it might not be the most optimized content, but it’s their voice, tone, and brand. Other
Three main factors were identified for deciding what goes where, and any optimized pages would have to understand the nuances of each. For example, a team might want their highest performing Paris piece at the top of their Paris guide, but not if i
After the research was delivered, our designer took a two-week sprint to start prototyping our new curation tool, which came to be known as Escher. PROTOTYPE + TESTING
Usability tests continue to be conducted on iterations of the above prototype, with analysis and share-outs occurring in between.