Here Media, an L.A. based media company with more than 40 years serving as the world’s leading LGBT news source, came to Livefyre with an ambitious request—to help them redefine the news experience for LGBT millennials.
We partnered together in designing and executing a shared vision of innovative digital publishing, one fueled by the voices of its readers and responsive in real-time to community sentiment. This shared vision would become Pride.com, a first-of-its-kind news website where content and community are woven together in a single integrated digital experience.
WHAT’S TRENDING IS WHAT MATTERS
Unlike traditional news sites, Pride.com surfaces content the community cares most about on every page and in the global navigation, organized by an evolving array of hashtags. This dynamic navigation reacts to community engagement in near to real-time so readers never have to search far for the most popular content.
Socially-Woven News
Pride.com integrates social engagement throughout the experience, elevating the voices of the community to the same level as editorial content. By weaving in dynamic related social content, prominently displaying featured comments, and leveraging in-line Facebook and Twitter sharing, the site rewards conversation, encourages discussion and boosts content creation and discovery.
A Shallow Experience is Better
To keep up with ever-shortening reader attention spans, we focused on simplicity of engagement throughout the site—easy access to articles, no dead ends, and immediately shareable content. Viewers can read a featured comment, add their voice to the conversation, and share the article directly from the home page.
For Your Right Brain
We created a functional design focused on minimizing distractions, easy navigation, and mobile optimization. Large, full-bleed imagery and bold typography encourage deeper exploration of content, while visually rich sponsorship spaces help monetization without compromising the experience.
Below are a few excerpts from our Style Guide and Functional Spec documents that we handed off to the client for ongoing site maintenance:
“Our mission is to create fun and entertaining content for a new generation of LGBTs and their social circles, as well as be a place for positive, inspiring conversation. Pride.com will promote emerging voices and move the culture forward through stories and videos that our audience is proud to engage with and share.”
— Robert Hebert, Here Media, Director of Consumer Marketing
Team:
Creative Director: Michelle Haft
Senior Designer: Jonathan Haggard
Designer: Sara Zhang
Strategy: Alyssa Ackerman
Project Management: Aimee Lowry
Development: Derek Chinn, Xichuan Wang