E!

E! Online, now E! News, is the online arm of E!, which is the television channel owned by NBCUniversal Cable division of NBCUniversal, owned by Comcast.  It features entertainment-related programming, reality television, feature films, as well as series and specials.  Its website features live updates on entertainment news stories and provides live-streaming video of major red carpet events including movie premieres and award shows.  It also houses many blogs and featured columnists including Kristin dos Santos ("Watch with Kristin") and Ted Casablanca ("The Awful Truth").

When I joined, E! Online was in the midst of a global rebrand and I was excited to be part of the digital team as a UX consultant providing insight on design changes.  I was responsible for all the documentation of the product wireframes and developing the style guide for the rebrand.

 
 

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Documentation consisted of annotated wireframes going over all the logic and interactions of the various widgets making up the site.  It also included specs and measurements our dev team needed in order to build them.

I created manuals for our editorial team as the way articles were created changed.  To reflect the updates we've made to the rebranded site, I streamlined some of the steps with E!'s proprietary CMS, making it easier for our editors to create content on the fly.

 
 
 
 

 
 

Overall, the redesign was a success as it drove readership traffic up 12% with sustained time on site.  Compared to the previous iteration, the rebranded site offered a flatter design, clearer visual hierarchy, improved linking to other articles, and better legibility.  It also gave our editorial team better control showcasing and promoting certain articles and topics, which they did not have before.