Newsroom is a team at Apple that creates, curates, and publishes news and media related to Apple at apple.com/newsroom. I joined the team as a production designer – creating content alongside staff writers, content managers, art directors, and project management to cover annual Apple events such as WWDC, product launches, new store openings, customer stories, and initiatives.

Role

In addition to production design, I work as a product designer on the team - focusing on the visual design of the site. Alongside another designer on the team, my focus on the project is managing our design system (updating colors, fonts, icons, buttons, and page components).

Process

Every quarter our team lays out priorities and new features we want to design and build for the site. Additionally I help put together decks to put in front of our client to understand their needs. Following that is a few weeks of exploration in Figma and Sketch. For me this involves looking at opportunities to align the site and new feature with Apple's design system, but also think about ways in which we can elevate the stories to match that of other digital publications such as New York Times and The Atlantic. After meeting with the client weekly, reviewing a few rounds of exploration, we create a production file to hand-off to front-end dev to build and eventually to Apple's internal content team. For me this work involves creating components of system features, outlining different variations, flows, interactions, and layouts. Also redlining and annotating designs is a major part of my process.

Outcomes

Some of our biggest launches have come in the form of Apple Services landing page, which brought a distinct vertical to users to see content related to Apple Services. The Newsroom takeover is another experience that received a refresh, making events and special moments a highlight and means of engaging media during peak periods. Lastly, In the Loop enabled leadership at Apple to have a voice directly on the Newsroom site itself - similar to how media sites embed X/Twitter, Threads, and short-form posts to their sites. This brought a level of independence and self-reliance from traditional social media platforms and created a more social, engaging experience for users to the site.

Next steps

My goal continues to be making the site work for everyone - both users who frequent the site and the team that creates content for it. I'm interested in how everything works as a system so I'm especially careful with how basic rules and components work across the site by maintaining a clean and consistent design system.