CASE STUDY

The New Yorker Fiction: Helping Fiction Readers Discover Their Next Delightful Read

OverviewThe New Yorker offers a rich collection of fiction, including author interviews, reviews, and podcasts. In 2022, I redesigned the Fiction section to distinguish it from the rest of the publication, making it easier for users to recognize, navigate, and discover their next great read while exploring authors and related content.
ProblemOur fiction readers found it difficult to identify our offerings, explore further, and find related content because everything on our homepage and article pages appeared too similar. It was hard to distinguish between a short story and an investigation before starting to read.

Before the Redesign

Objective Fiction has been a focal point in The New Yorker’s strategy to expand and define non-core content in order to differentiate ourselves from our competitors.

We hypothesize that refining our fiction offering will lead to a significant increase in engaged readers.
RoleI was the primary designer from start to finish, conceptualizing and refining design solutions while working closely with editors, product and the development team to bring the product to life.

User Research

Engaged readers seek out The New Yorker’s online fiction offerings during “in-between” moments.
After the first few sentences of a story, readers decide whether or not to continue reading.
Readers often search for related content after finishing a great piece, going down a “rabbit hole.” They do this by skimming reviews, clicking on recirculation units, and researching the author. There is a certain sense of delight in accidental discovery.
Readers often choose what to read next based on mood, author, and personal relevance.
Readers often engage with newsletters or navigate to the website directly.
Many readers described their decision-making process as “haphazard”.

Peggy - 73, Philadelphia, Subscriber
“What would help me read The New Yorker digitally [over print] would be being able to find more fiction and not just what's in this week's issue or this month’s issue.”

Design ProcessWe began with a workshop session involving the editorial, product, and design teams to generate ideas that would address both user needs and brand objectives. Our efforts were centered around ideating four key questions.

Core Principles Based on insights and ideas generated during our ideation workshop, we defined three key principles to guide and streamline the design process.

Make it easy for readers to recognize our fiction content by presenting it in a distinctive and on-brand manner.
Cultivate a weekly habit with our readers by spotlighting a new story, relevant and related content each week.
Sustain our readers' interest with a curated collection of stories, helping them discover their next delightful read.

Discovery phaseI proposed various design solutions for the Fiction experience, collaborating closely with the lead designer and product manager to align with business, editorial, and user goals. With a clear content strategy in place, I designed a modular system capable of hosting either a single story or a collection of stories, offering both flexibility and scalability.

New Fiction Modules on the Homepage

For our readers, easily identifying fiction on the homepage was essential to discovering new content. To support this, we launched two homepage modules that highlight the breadth of our fiction offerings and created an author hub where readers can learn more about writers and explore related stories.

We also gave fiction a distinct visual identity, setting it apart from other homepage content, making it easier for readers to find new stories each week and keep coming back for more.
Story SpotlightEvery Monday, the ‘Story Spotlight’ module features the story of the week, giving readers the opportunity to engage by reading the first paragraph, learning more about the author, and discovering related content, such as the Fiction podcast, the Writer’s Voice podcast, and interviews.
Author Spotlight

The Author Spotlight module appears at the end of the week, providing an opportunity to highlight The New Yorker's incredible fiction archive. It features a short bio of the author, a curated selection of stories from the Fiction Editors, and offers readers a path to explore the author hub.

Rami - 64, San Francisco, Subscriber“It has to be engaging by the first five sentences immediately because I'm not involved with the story yet. The first sentence has to be good writing.”

Story Spotlight

Author Spotlight

Author HubThe Fiction Author Hub was created to sustain readers' interest by offering more content about specific authors, allowing them to learn more and discover additional stories. By maintaining the same visual identity as the rest of the fiction experience, it ensures a seamless user experience, making it easy for readers to recognize and navigate as an integral part of the broader fiction section.

Glen - 52, New Jersey, Nonsubscriber
“You find an author you like, and it's like music. You find an album you love by someone and can't wait to listen to everything they've created.”

ResultsFiction article readership increased by 15%, and homepage visits grew with a 20% increase in clicks. Readers also demonstrated greater engagement on the article page after clicking in.

It was encouraging not only to see a 20% increase in clicks—indicating stronger engagement from the homepage—but also sustained interest on the article page once readers clicked through.

Team
Design: Joseph Bergdoll, Meredith Hattam
Product: Sara Bremen Rabstenek, Jesse Golomb
Engineering: Jordi Escudé, Midhun Murali, John Faldo, Joe Bourne, Nidhi Ramesh Chand, Pushp Singh
Editorial: Deborah Treisman, Monica Racic, Nicholas Blechman, Aviva Michaelov
User Research: Claire Gutermuth
Content Design: Sophie Tahran, Danielle Vargas

To learn more or request case studies, feel free to reach out at sara.delira@gmail.com