WellBot

The New York Times Project

THE NEW YORK TIMES

As the most famous and historical news media in the world, The New York Times has the majestic position in the industry. However, they are facing severe challenge in this quick changing generation. The digital industry rising and the consumers behavior changing have brought the huge impact to The Times.

THE CHALLENGES

Show their work /Show their depth.

Business: Ads, and Increase subscriptions w/o deterring regular readers.

Voice, tone and diversity.

Become a part of people's everyday routine, and connect with readers by adapting to their reading habits.

Help readers live a better life.

OUR TOPIC

HELP READERS

LIVE

A BETTER LIFE

What it does mean to live better? Eat healthy? Be active? More self aware? Be more knowledgable?

Exploration

In looking at the sections of the Times to see how they matched up with our goals, we found that the health section was full of practical information especially the well section.

Well section

With all the interactive guides, we feel that this area presents a good opportunity for another digital bet similar to NYT Cooking.

Why is The Times right for this?

The Times is well-positioned for a health service:

The New York Times Have accurate, scientifically-proven information and advice.
The New York Times reach users through multiple channels.
The New York Times make complex concepts easy to understand and master.

We think the New York Times can also become a good platform for people to turn to, to stay committed to their health goals.

Who is the audience

We decided to address readers between 25 and 40 years old. This is because they’re concerned with their health, and while they are digital natives and sometimes read the Times, they aren’t subscribers, and don’t think of the Times as a health resource.

User profile

We interviewed 13 potential users within this age range, and found two main types of people: the engaged user, and the irregular user.

She lacked the motivation to exercise
She tracked her exercise on a calendar using a custom code: circle for good, triangle for ok, and X for bad
Her main source for political news was the Quartz chatbot app.
For health and fitness related information, she relies on friends, family, and the fitness gurus on instagram

Making his goals tangible, which also allowed him to tangibly complete each one
Sticking to a regular schedule
He was also motivated by the idea of being better than he was the day before.

Jim, engaged user

"I used to maintain my daily routine pretty well before my injury"

Ruth, irregular user

"I tried to work out and eat healthier but I found out it's hard to stay on track "

With all this in mind, we narrowed our goal from

Help readers live a better life

How might we help readers obtain the information and tools to maintain their health and wellness routines?

INTRODUCTION

Wellbot is an app that uses the well section resource to help people maintain their healthier routine and staying informed.

Why an app?

We wanted to package Wellbot in an app because it :

1. Makes Well section's content more accessible.

2. Creates a new channel to funnel readers into the Times’ content.

Design principles

Make Knowledge Actionable

Make the knowledge provided by the Times actionable.

Extend the experience to wherever the Times is available.

Extend Experience

Maintain Routine

Help user pick their healthy habit and maintain their daily routine.

Forster friendship with wellbot for their long term goal.

Foster Frindship

Discover, Experience, and CTA

Discover :

First of all, we want to start with the readers who already engage with NYT. Wellbot introduces itself inline in an article that has a actionable activities.

Experience :

With the chatbot, user will experience the features. For example, the activities are blended in article, but now its easy to see what activities from the article can be saved and find out more about them. Moreover, user can easily add the activities to their personal menu through the wellbot.

Call to action :

Once user experience chatbot at the webpage, wellbot invites them to download the Well app on their phone. By taking all their activities and health advice, users can continue to work on activities wherever they go.