The problem
Daily Life was to move from its own website to sit within the mastheads as its own index page. This would replace what existed at the time as the Lifestyle index. Dailylife.com.au was originally a non-responsive website.
The project involved redesigning Daily Life to be consistent with the mastheads UI design while be aligned to Daily Life look and feel.
The editorial brief was to prioritise Daily Life to appear more like a lifestyle website through the use of larger imagery, colour treatment and overall refined layout while still aligning to the metro masthead developer Bootstrap and editorial CMS feasibilities (Adobe’s CQ5).
The new layout needed to consider being mobile responsive to increase readership of their young female target audience, as research identified readers mainly entered Daily Life via mobile web and social apps.
Action
Working closely with product stakeholders and front-end developers, Daily Life was redesigned with its own unique layout while still remaining connected to the mastheads CMS and Bootstrap. The index is now responsive across desktop, mobile and tablet with designs for all breakpoints.
The amount of content on the Daily Life homepage has been reduced and categorised for easier digestion. The user is now able to easily access these categories through the sub-index header which is a similar behaviour across all other indexes. Image sizes were increased where suitable to showcase lifestyle imagery, a lighter colour palette has been introduced as well as a modular design to alternate between different layout options when required.
Results
Average page views for the new daily life has increased by 186% after integration into the mastheads. It has also revitalised Sunday readership on all breakpoints. The category on mobile show a +180% uplift in unique page views while tablet engagement continues to grow. Time spent per visit has increased by +41%. The integration has also increased homepage engagement on The Sydney Morning Herald and The Age by +15%.
