utating the edium for illennials P ROJ EC T DESCRIPTION
What does an online ma gazine look like which is targeted at millennials a nd built upon the doma ins of WPG Uitgevers?
RESEARCH
One of the big Dutch publis hers WPG Uitgevers asked us how a co mmercially and journalistically sustainable online magazine might look like, inspired by their magazines Happinez, Yoga and Psych ologie and targeted at millennials.
We researched several asp ects of creating and developing a digital platform - the audience, bu siness model and monetization, d esign and features - from different ac ademic and professional sources. We c reated a survey to investigate the au dience.
H O W W E S TA R T E D
We decided to build our we bsite on the topic of mindstyle, which is the core topic for three of WPG’s magazin es: Happinez, Yoga and Psychologie.
TeaMMM
Mandy Nugteren Nadine Rotem-Stibbe Radina Teodosieva
Audience We investigated the audien ce through two methods - first we rese arched the relevant literature and then, based on that and the needs of th e project, we created a survey in Eng lish and Dutch with more than 100 millennial respondents.
Thanks to
All the PublishingLab team WPG team + editors Felipe (MediaLAB) Amster dam
Business model We approached the busine ss model looking at relevant articles and research into monetization. Furtherm ore, we discuss the business mode l (its revenue model and content distribu tion channels strategy) with WPG’s team to come up with a successful and co nvenient strategy for the new platfo rm.
Design Seeing what is out there is fun, but it is not an easy task to sele ct only a few examples of good (or b ad) online platforms in the sea of web sites. We did it nonetheless. We looked at lots and lots of graphical user interf aces and experienced these virtual sp aces (UI/ UX for those who like short cuts). With our critical eye finally came up with a plan: Dividing the sea in tw o. One side is the ‘trendy’ or less original, yet practical platforms; the other, we ca lled it the unconventional storytellers .
Produced by
TeaMMM as part of a Publis hingLab (INC) internship, Hogeschool van Amsterdam, June 2016
OUTCOME Prototype Concept and design Our team came up with a vi sual identity and guidelines for the conte nt, then testing out the platform wit h eye tracking tools. The name is Even U p and the main theme is Balance betwee n body, mind and environm ent. The design is simple and ti lted, playing with our theme of balance. In addition, we came up with several fe atures, based on the research and the survey, to make the platform more exciting Bubble Burst, Local Map, A udio-Guided Meditation and more to co me.
Monetization In collaboration with our clie nt, we worked out a monetization model combining free content an d accounts with advertising (sponsore d content and native advertising) and a premium subscription option. Usability To make sure the platform made sense to other people, we tested it on a few users and got some re ally useful feedback. We found out th at our visual representation of functiona lities of the website is comprehensi ve and user-friendly.
CONCLUSION
Audience The audience we are targe ting are adult millennials – people betwe en 20-35. These are the people who are financially independent, interested in mindstyle and self-improvement. How ever, we don’t alienate older readers with our design decisions.
Visit us
www.publishinglab.nl/mut
atingthemedium
This prototype of the platfo rm is our final proposition to WPG. W e developed an exciting and distinctive website with potential features. To crea te an actual working platform, there is st ill a lot of work to be done. However, our research and ideas can help bring th e project to life! Working in a team was a positive experience which helped u s improve our communication and social skills. We have acquired many skills and k nowledge, and we eager to learn even mo re!