USA TODAY State-by-State
Every weekday, USA TODAY publishes a brand feature called “State-By-State,” which runs the most intriguing or amusing headline summaries from across the nation. This quick, bite-sized news concept seemed to lend itself to an interesting interface and navigation exploration.
The idea is that you could tap on any “state” button on the abstract U.S. map to jump to your favorite locations, or simply swipe through each state mini-summary cards. At the same time, I wanted to gamify the experience, so as you consumed each card, the map would check off the state that you’ve read, potentially enticing you to read every card to complete the map.
Another idea was to allow the user to filter the content by various “By-State” topics, such as Top News, Sports, Politics, History, Odd News, Quotes and Fun Fact Data. As for the content, it needed to be short, fun, engaging and micro-sharable snippets of information. This lead to the inclusion of video clips, galleries, interactive polls, infographics and data visualizations.
