los angeles times

this solution was made with the intention to present the source (la times) prominently to give credibility to the news source so it won't seem so purposefully made for tweens but then i reconstructed the masthead and hand made the lettering to give a personalized more youthful feel. the collage layering affect of the tabs contributes to this as well, and the organization is layered to help conserve screen space and avoid overcrowding.

for this solution, i wanted to keep a clean and organized space where a grid provides the format for content to be browsed through. the categories are very clearly represented on the screen, when one is selected the features for this issue are brought up with a photo and a title for the veiwer to select. the look and feel is focused on fun and is decidedly feminine. again to reflect the nature of the content. i used the "i heart" idea to get across the idea that the features could be kind of a collection of things the reader likes. and also to help clue in the reader on the trends and new stuff that are out there that her friends will likely talk about so she can stay up to date and informed.

hot topics by la times 1

for my first solution, i wanted the layout to be very simple, and automatically navigatable. so it consists of buttons for each category of content, and the article(s) appear below it only when clicked, and would go away when the next category is selected to avoid alot of scrolling in the main page. i wanted the look and feel to be very light because that reflects the type of content. my audience is not into heavy major headline news, more entertainment news is the focus. things they can talk about with their friends, hence the title "hot topics" and the conversation bubble in the masthead area.

audience research

the audience i chose is tweens, and i added that they were girls, with wealthy parents.

in my research i interviewed my sister emily (who is a tween girl) and because of the school she goes to, many of her friends come from wealthy families. i asked her questions like what magazines her friends read, what shows they watch, to get an idea of media outlets they relate to, and of course i checked out their facebook and myspace pages. it turns out, they don't read magazines that are for their age group specifically. they want to find out stuff they don't already know. they read cosmo, which is for adult women. they like the celebrity gossip magazines. they read news online but mostly not about the front page headlines that we think of as news. they like celebrity updates. they like news about the latest cell phones and laptops (they tend to have the means to be consumers of this type of technology). and fashion. stuff they can talk about with their friends at school. because we all know these girls like to talk. i also learned that it's kind of cool to have a political opinion among this age group. they want to sound like they know whats going on. not at an in depth level, but at least they want to know which candidates they like and don't like and who picked who as their running mate. i think this related to the fact that many celebrities get publicity for being vocal about what their veiws are and that grabs the attention of my audience.