Loop News

Loop (Digicel) · 2015 · Media & Telecoms · via Wonderful & Brilliant

A redesign of Loop News, the Caribbean’s leading news platform, creating a more user-friendly, visually engaging experience across web and app.

Introduction

I was in Jamaica with the agency Wonderful & Brilliant, working on Digicel Play, a new TV set-top-box interface, when the chance came to redesign Loop News, the media group’s news platform for the whole Caribbean. The existing site was years out of date and ready for a rethink.

The brief was to modernise it into a cleaner, more engaging experience across web and app, while keeping the brand cues that mattered most: above all its colour-coded sections. As Lead UX/UI designer on a very small team, I took it on independently, owning all the UX and wireframing while Digicel Play was still in flight.

Challenges overcome

The scale was the real challenge. This was a news platform for an entire region (daily, constantly changing) so it had to be grid-based and fast to scan, carry the advertising the network relies on for revenue, and span multiple territories and every topic, with subcategories reachable from other parts of the media business. And it all had to be delivered by a tiny team running Digicel Play at the same time.

Strategic thinking & planning

I built a new digital style guide, wireframes and prototypes, and ran workshops and user testing to shape it. A colour-coded section system (News, Sports, Lifestyle, Weather) with custom iconography keeps a dense, high-frequency platform legible. Once the web design landed I adapted and evolved it for mobile web, then the app. Throughout, I worked closely with my creative director, held regular catch-ups with the senior leadership team to walk them through direction and design, and partnered with two Jamaica-based developers: one on web, one on mobile.

Outcomes

A modern, responsive website and app delivering the latest news from across the Caribbean, clearer to navigate and far more engaging than the site it replaced. Start to finish, it was a genuinely seamless project.