It was while traveling the New York subway and appreciating how the most populated city in the US explained its complex navigation through a system of colors and related coding that the original “Newshub” brand was conceived by ECD at the time Ant Farac.
One of the most complex systems in the world, the New York Subway is recognized as a design feat for its ability to ‘tame the beast.’ Here, design brings clarity and structure to a chaotic system. Because, just as navigating the subway can be complex and messy, so too is the journey of consuming news. Very messy indeed, right?
Anticipating the tsunami of change ahead, the original #Newshub design was navigation-focused, predicting the need to move viewers and consumers well beyond the parameters of 6pm.
At the time of development (2015, live February 2016), news consumption was becoming messier by the minute.
Consumption was shifting rapidly away from linear broadcast and, it was assumed that the parameters of a television channel and its structure to hold “news” (historically built around the 6pm time slot) would transform. News might be held or created in a centralized “hub” while disseminated through a myriad of avenues – mobile, social, Snapchat, personally curated bulletins, holograms – wherever the world might take us. That was the thinking.
Newshub was designed, therefore, to be channel-agnostic as viewers shifted to a mobile-first, on-demand world with multiple touchpoints and infinite sources and influences. Hence, the comfort in and deliberate move to let go of “3” – as it was assumed we would look back and find it odd to have been tied to a number on a remote.
Whilst the design might not have saved news as we had hoped, it did score the company a News Director. Hal Crawford, who joined Newshub in 2016 (we missed each other) credits this design with influencing his decision saying “In evaluating the opportunity in New Zealand, I was heavily influenced by something the people at Mediaworks had cooked up: Newshub. This brand was inspired. I could see it had the flexibility to cover a big online expansion, bring continuity to TV and radio, and allow for new developments like events.”
The transport-influenced design recognized that navigation off-channel would be much more important than it had been in the past. It focused on developing a system and support for an increasingly complex user experience. The intention was definitely there.
Though,
where the journey seemingly ends for Newshub is certainly an unexpected destination, no doubt contributed to by some unexpected stops and re-routing along the way. Somehow we’re back to that number on the remote - which makes for tidy brand architecture - THREE, THREE NOW, THREE NEWS…. but does seem a suspiciously shorter term focus and a little bit back to where we started.
Navigating a transport system can be a messy business; so too, it turns out, is the future of news.
Next stop please, driver.
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