Designing for the Apple Watch

Tribune Publishing Digital

1 Who We Are – Tribune Publishing

Tribune Publishing Company (NYSE: TPUB) is a diversified media and marketing solutions company that delivers innovative experiences for audiences and advertisers across all platforms.

The Company’s diverse portfolio of iconic news and information brands includes 10 award-winning major daily titles, including Tribune, Times, Sun, , , and South Sun Sentinel.

2 Who We Are – Scott Oltrogge

Scott Oltrogge is the Senior Director of Mobile and Video Product for Tribune Publishing. A 5-year veteran of the Tribune, Scott has managed the conception and launch of several major products, ranging from the LA Times paywall, the enterprise video platform, and the mobile web sites.

Most recently Scott drove the effort to redesign and re- launch the apps for all 8 of Tribune Publishing’s on Android and iOS, as well as the launch of Apple Watch and Android Wear apps for the entire Tribune family of apps.

Twitter: @ScottOltrogge

3 Who We Are - Chris

Chris Strimbu is an award-winning creative leader with over 18 years of experience in the design industry. With a focus on everything digital, he’s led creative for companies that include the , Tribune Publishing, Yahoo! News, Break Media, and Modern Luxury Media.

He’s responsible for the design and strategy behind the recent re- launch of the Los Angeles Times and websites, the rollout of digital apps for Tribune Publishing on both iOS and Android, and streamlining the registration and subscription process for the Los Angeles Times, Sun Sentinel, and Orlando Sentinel. Using a combination of UX, Design and research, Chris is always advocating for the user, while supporting and driving business goals.

4 Where We Started – Our 2014 Mobile Mandate

• Our priority in 2014 was to revamp our entire mobile portfolio

• This included:

• Re-launching our core websites on a brand new, fully responsive platform

• Re-launching our apps with a brand new, ground-up design

• Retiring our legacy mobile sites (WAP and touch)

• Pioneering a wearable strategy in the news space

5 Where We Started – The Legacy Apps

• Our legacy apps were in desperate need of a redesign

• Still using first-gen app designs

• Android experience didn’t feel native and didn’t support tablets

• iOS experience didn’t leverage modern design guidelines or universal binary support

• Content leakage – our apps weren’t supporting our enterprise digital subscription strategy

6 Where We Started – The Legacy Apps

7 The New Apps

• Launched 16 apps in Q4 2014 (all 8 newspapers on iOS and Android)

• Key features:

• Richer experience that puts media front and center

• Focus on customization (following topics)

• Prominent bookmarking / save for later

8 Our Principles of Wearable Design: #1 Before you worry about wearable apps, worry about push notifications.

9 Pushing Your Wearable Strategy Forward

• iOS 7 introduced interactive push notifications

• In anticipation of the Apple watch launch, we spent Q1 putting in place a new push notification strategy:

• Rich notifications (enabling actions on pushes)

• Deep linking (holding our pushes until we have a story to link to)

10 Those Push Actions Become Your Foothold on Wearables

• Push actions are perfectly at home on wearables:

• When done right, they act as small, actionable bits of information

• Actions on iOS natively extend to Apple Watch, meaning you can create a wearable experience without any native code

• If you do build a native app, make sure you think about how you handle pushes

• For pushes to work though you don’t just need a technology strategy, but a coherent outreach strategy

11 Scott’s Favorite Watch Apps and Why They Work: Yelp

• Why it works:

• Limits functionality: Rather than supporting every use case, it focuses on one (where to eat / drink) and does it well

• Limits information: Gives you just the information you need to make a decision, nothing more

• Looks great: simple design that feels native and at home

12 Scott’s Favorite Watch Apps and Why They Work: Outlook

• Why it works:

• The best app doesn’t necessarily have to have an app

• Shows that thoughtful, enriched push notifications can make for a dynamic wearable experience without any native platform development

• On small screens utility can truly trump flash

13 Our Principles of Wearable Design: #2 Less is more – provide just enough information for a user to make a decision.

14 Wearable App Design Process

• Process was slightly blind since we’d never seen, interacted with, or held the Watch

• Whiteboarding/wireframes were quickly understood as being unattainable and initial concepts were too complicated

• Early glimpses of the watch led us down a feature-rich path

• Gave too much control to the Watch

15 Our Principles of Wearable Design: #3 Glances are important.

16 Designing for Glances

It’s all about taking action:

• Quick, brief snippets of info; either as a news alert or headline

• Everything is a connection back to the user’s phone

• Fast access to headlines for either saving to user’s app or reading aloud via bluetooth

17 Chris’s Favorite Apps and Why They Work

• Pushes based on location

• Glances guided by interest

• Everything you need, by locale

• User chooses level of engagement

18 Chris’s Favorite Apps and Why They Work

• Utility goes far on the Watch

• Quick access to what you need

• Flight number

• Gate

• Departure time

• Seat

• Live Updates (with connection)

19 What’s next for wearables?

Project Soli by Google ATAP (Advanced Technologies and Product)

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0QNiZfSsPc0

20 What’s next for wearables?

Project Soli by Google ATAP (Advanced Technologies and Product)

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