Forbes Sharing

iOS and android mobile app concept

Magazine vs. Online viewers

# of current magazine subscribers

650,000

General time spent on magazine

~30min

% of website returning users

25%

General time spent on website

0–10s

Auditing Forbes' audience

Average magazine subscriber

To understand how I was going to bring magazine subscribers to an online Forbes experience, I needed to determine who the typical magazine subscriber is. After much research, the average subscriber pool comprises of executives, business decision makers, and entrepreneurs.

While Forbes' magazine subscribers comprised of 3 types of personas, they still shared commons goals when engaging with Forbes' content:

Evaluating competition

Keeping up with trends

Maintain social currency

Key Features

Solutions to satsify user goals

This system is a mediation point between Forbes' magazine and their online experience. Leveraging existing sharing behaviors with the emotional needs of magazine subscribers made for a more seemless transition from print to digital. 

Here, the user is able to share certain parts of the article instead of the entire thing. This adds importance to the bits that they choose to share, ultimately making the user feel better about having engaged with that read.

Customizable annotations on shares lets the user have control over how the content looks outside of Forbes as well as what key information is highlighted. Further works to make the user feel important and well-read by proving that they engage with this kind of media outlet..

A curated page for the user and others on the app to view sharing activity. This helps the user visualize post engagement and the influence that their shares have had on a higher level.

Once the user clicks on the share snippet, they get more detailed information for that particular share. This kind of information helps gauge what their audience prefers to engage with, further helping curate their brand.

Interactive Discover allows users to see how similar their sharing activity is with someone and allows them to connect with others. This also helps with competition, as people in business love to know what their competitors are up to and what they're reading about.

Social media behavior

To begin my design process, I not only did a lot of research on Forbes' brand and its users, but I evaluated common online behaviors in order to figure out what makes digital platforms successful. This also allowed me to come up with potential features for a magazine user's transition online. It was clear that sharing behaviors dominated digital media use:

 94% of social media users post content; 42% who post do so at least once a day

50% of online users have shared news, images, and/or videos

46% of online users have discussed a news issue or event

Initial Designs

Experimenting outside of Forbes

When I first started designing, my mind went directly to an article-based product I already love: Medium. I tried taking inspiration from them, but kept running across the issue of trying to rebrand Forbes even though they had a design system, and the style I was implementing didn't give off Forbes' brand at all. I also wanted a seemless transition from print to digital, and this wasn't it.

Finding the right brand

A more editorial feel

As stated above, I felt like my previous design didn't match the feel and overall aesthetic I was going for: I was playing it safe. After figuring out where I was going wrong, I switched my visual direction.