Redesign Yahoo

Ian Campbell
Yahoo HOMEPAGE REDESIGN
Ian Campbell My Site: 4thofficial.com Linkedin: linkedin.com/in/4thofficial P: 312.804.5749 E: ian@4thofficial.com

The ASSIGNMENT
YAHOO
HOMEPAGE REDESIGN
Yahoo Homepage Redesign
How would you evolve that platform and why? Communicate your
vision through at least three pages. These pages could be a Logged
Out Homepage, a Logged In Homepage and Search Result Page,
but we’re open to your focusing on whatever pages you feel best
communicate your vision.
Ian Campbell Email: ian@4thofficial.com

Understanding Yahoo
Understanding Yahoo
Why do people use Yahoo?
Design Review
Product Considerations
Trends
Appendix

THE YAHOO Business
YAHOO REVENUE (From 2011, visitors a month)
Yahoo generated about $5.57B in revenue in the last
year. From the following sources:
Display Advertising
Search Advertising
Other
YAHOO PRODUCTS (From 2011, visitors a month)
Mail
Groups
IM
Flickr
Tumblr
Answers
Maps
94 million
140 million
81 million
25 million
74.3 million (June 2014)
206 million
?
YAHOO MEDIA DESTINATIONS (From 20011, visitors a
Yahoo Homepage
News
Finance
Sports
Shopping
Weather
43%
38%
19%
150 million (US visitors a month)
110 million
50 million
50 million
18 million
?
• 48% of the people in the world who use the web use
some Yahoo service every month.
• Is the third most visited site in the US with 4.7 billion visits
(Dec 2010).
• Yahoo mail is the second most popular email service in
the world, and in the US was the most popular email service
(94m versus Gmail’s 51. December 2011).
• Flickr has 3 million photos uploaded per day (Jan 2011)
• Yahoo news is the #1 in the sports, news and finance
content categories.
• Yahoo’s new weather mobile app was a hit with target
downloads met within 4 days of launch.
• Yahoo buys Tumblr, Qwiki and several other mobile and
social companies.
SOURCE
http://www.quora.com/Who-uses-Yahoo

Q&A
I surveyed 100 people (40% male and 60% female) to learn about how they use Yahoo. The demo broke down as
follows: 43% are over 55, 35% are 35 to 54, 22% are 18 – 24.
When was the last time you used a Yahoo service or product?
Who is Yahoo’s biggest competitor?
2
1

Q&A
3 If you had to use Yahoo which service would you use?
Would you use Yahoo if it turned into a social network like Facebook?
4

Q&A
What does the Yahoo brand mean to you?
5
Would you watch HBO movies and content on Yahoo.com?
6

COMPETITON + Benc hmar ks
TO COME TO COME TO COME
BENCHMARKS

PROBLEM STATEMENTs
People will watch
and pay for
premier content
from Yahoo. Can
Yahoo create and
sign new content
deals?
Maybe there is
no competition.
It’s more about
the next web and
how Yahoo can
define it.
How can
Yahoo become
relevant to new
younger Internet
users?
Go from offering
a world of
search results to a
world of context
driven services.
New sources of
revenue require
new thinking
around
advertising and
sponsorships
Current products
and features are
not integrated
to work together.
Can UX strategy
help with the tran-sition
of the user
experience?
Is there one
unique feature
that redefines
Yahoo? Consider
Google
Hangout as part
of the Google+
redesign.

Why do people
use Yahoo?
Understanding Yahoo
Design Review
Trends
Appendix

Whic h demograp hic is most important to Yahoo ?
The three personas below represent variety of new and potential Yahoo homepage users. The first is a millennial and
is a challenging demographic to market to. The second is a mother who spends a lot of time on social media and
ecommerce sites. The third is part of the baby boomer generation. They are heavy desktop users and have been us-ing
Yahoo since the early days of the Internet.
MOST IMPORTANT TO YAHOO
MILLENNIAL GEN X BOOMER
Name: Paul Jones
Age: 23
Location: San Francisco
Occupation: Student
Name: Mary Murphy
Age: 35
Location: Chicago
Occupation: Working mum
YAHOO USER: 9 years
Likes the content on OMG!, Yahoo fashion and Yahoo
Shopping. She clicks through to them from linsk shared
by friends and from her favorite blogs.
She has a Yahoo email address, but it’s not her primary
one anymore. She sometimes uses Yahoo Answers
when researching day-to-day questions.
She uses 2/3 apps on her phone for keeping track of
tasks and from her favorite brands. She can’t remeber
when she last cliecked on a banner ad, and would
use Yahoo more if they offered the fun and coupons
that she get from brands on Facebook.
Name: Joe Right
Age: 55
Location: Minneapolis
Occupation: Sales
YAHOO USER: 12 years
He’s been using Yahoo since the early days. The
Yahoo homepage is how he starts each day. He likes
the finance; sports and general news right on the-homepage.
Thinks the Spam filter is too severe.
He’s started using Facebook to connect with friends
and family recently. He’s still not sure about how much
he wants to share with Facebook.
His sales job is starting to use a lot of new digital tools.
They have a smart phones app that he uses a lot.
Loves to watch sports and TV in the evening.
YAHOO USER: 2 years
Spends most of his time on his smart phone. Connects
with his friends through SMS, Twitter, Snapchat,
Facebook and Tinder. He uses and likes Tumblr a lot
and is curious about Yahoo buying them.
He played Yahoo Fantasy football for a couple of
seasons because he had heard it was the best
product/brand out there.
He has downloaded a lot of digital music and movies,
but thinks the future will be just like paying for Spotify
through a subscription service. He knows Yahoo has
been around a long time so he has no problem
paying for content from them.
DIGITAL LIFE DIGITAL LIFE DIGITAL LIFE
80% mobile, 20% Xbox, and 10% desktop. 50% mobile, 30% tablet, and 20% desktop. 40% mobile and 60% desktop.

MApping PAUL’s needs to the new yahoo
SOCIAL MESSAGING
ENTERTAINMENT
COMMUNICATION
SHARING IS
PART OF MY
IDENTITY
NEWS COMES
THROUGH
BLOGS
AM
T I M E O F D AY O R N I G
9 3
INTERESTS SOCIAL &
COMMUNITY
SEARCH
It’s 7 PM. The green circles reflect
what Paul’s doing right now.
UTILITY
MOVIES
EMAIL
SPORTS
VIDEOS
DAY-TO-DAY NEEDS
PAY BILLS
MUSIC
MOBILE FIRST
I DON’T VISIT HOMEPAGES
ARE MY FRIENDS
HERE TOO?
UI EXPECTATION:
CHALLENGE ME
ADVERTISERS OFFER VALUE
RELEVANT
FEATURES
IM
JOBS
AUTOS
DATING
PHOTOS
BLOGS
SHOPPING
SHOPPING
12
PM
6
H T
PAUL’S EXPECTATIONS
PM
PM

Paul is Yahoo ’s future
Yahoo needs to take a giant step
forward or risk being irrelevant soon.
They were the first search engine, start
page and email address for many
people, but Paul’s demographic is
what their future needs to built on.
He uses technology and the Internet
differently, and has a more advanced
understanding of design (UI), content
and advertising.

THE NEW YAHOO HOMEPAGE
To capture people like Paul’s interest Yahoo will have to create a new approach to UI design. This interface works by splitting content (articles, news, etc.) on one side and
products and services on the other. I’ve named them ‘Review’ and ‘Do’. Both sides of the interface inform the other. For example: Interacting with Yahoo Autos in the Do pane
will trigger auto related content in the Review pane. The grey circle in the middle triggers the UI to slide to the right or left to reveal that full sides content. The audio control is a
key utility that can be used across many different pieces of functionality on Yahoo properties.
REVIEW
‘View’ content PANE
lives here too
‘Do’ content
lives here too
DO
PANE
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
ACTIVITY
CREATE
< >
VIEW OR DO CONTROL
Cick the arrows or use your voice
to slide the UI over to reveal the full
view of the rev do content.
ACTIVITY, TRACK AND STATUS
These panes open as a layer
above the page content.
STATUS
UI will fit to any screen size

DO PANE
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
STATUS
14 people have checked
out your job profile and you
have one new message.
Batman is on at 8 PM.
Consider going to the
movies at 4 PM after lunch
with John. Get Tickets.
Jason watched your
Hobbit game play on Flickr
and added you as a friend.
Invite Jason to play Hobbit.
Fare watch: We believe the
Jet Blue flight reservation for
LA has now hit the lowest
price. Book it.
Mary Jo would love to meet
you. How’s Wednesday?
Meet at 6
Meet at 8
What should I do for this
trade?
Answer John’s question
Mon, July 5 PM < <
Appointment: John Murphy
Time: 2 PM
Location: Lucky Bob’s
Get there.
Upload your photo titled:
Kids Party to Pinterest?
To John’s ‘Birthday‘ board
To Mary’s ‘Fashion’ board
The tags ‘Dog Parks in NYC’
just got a response.
View the answer
JOBS
MOVIES
GAME REQUEST
TRAVEL
DATING
SPORTS
CALENDAR
FLICKR
ANSWERS
<
CREATE
ACTIVITY
< ‘REVIEW’
PANE
Hi Paul,
What would you like to do?
These services have a Yahoo brain
that thinks in the background on
Paul’s behalf. It seamlessly
connects all of the Yahoo
services and products together
and understands the context of
what Paul is doing now (+ past
and future).
The goal is to not present app
updates, but focus more on the
key actions. They could even
become smarter. For example: A
users Flickr photos are relevant to
most services.
The dotted line attempts to
connect two services in real-time.
It would be interesting if Paul
could drag lines between boxes
to see how the context could
change. For example: Connect
Jason’s game request to play
Fantasy football.
Minimize the individual brand
identities of products and
package them as the new Yahoo.
A voice activated UI.

REVIEW PANE
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
News
feature 2
News
feature 2
Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr Tumblr
Videos
Ticker
Social
news
News feature 1
Flickr Gallery 1
ACTIVITY
<
CREATE
> ‘DO’ PANE
I’m trying to imagine a way to
interact with content that’s a
fun/game like experience (Flip-board?).
Working through visual
design would make that ideas
clearer.
Clearly Yahoo spends a significant
amount of time curating social
sites like Buzzfeed and seeing
what’s trending in real-time and
blending that content into their
content strategy. They’re generat-ing
clicks but not revenue. They
can generate more social con-tent
from within their network from
Tumblr. Getting high profile con-tent
(personalities, celebs etc.) on
Tumblr. I can also see Flickr and
Tumblr being put together in some
interesting ways for new content
ideas that are focused on travel,
sports, fashion, etc.
The Yahoo IM product should
evolve into a short form blogging
tool (Twitter and Vine).
STATUS

STATUS
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
ACTIVITY
CREATE
STATUS
MESSAGES
6 new email messages
EBAY
Auction watch 1
NETFLIX RELEASES
Favorite movie 1
SHOPPING
Shopping watch 1
Auction watch 2
MOVIES
Latest Releases
AUTOS
Price change from
Ford.com
DATING
6 people have
checked you out.
Checked: Today at 6:08 PM
FINANCE
Check the latest rates.
FACEBOOK
Several friends have
status uodates.
TUMBLR
You have 6 comments
on your Smiling Dogs
Tumblr.
Status aggregates updates from
around the Yahoo network, social
networks and around the web.
With all the different activities that
are going on in different panes it
will be important for users to know
exactly where to go for the latest
updates.
Yahoo’s killer feature could be a
redefined role for email and IM
products. Create a new product
that’s works across all devices and
platforms.

FEATURES: Yahoo Mobile Integration
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
STATUS
14 people have checked
out your job profile and you
have one new message.
Batman is on at 8 PM.
Consider going to the
movies at 4 PM after lunch
with John. Get Tickets.
Jason watched your
Hobbit game play on Flickr
and added you as a friend.
Invite Jason to play Hobbit.
Fare watch: We believe the
Jet Blue flight reservation for
LA has now hit the lowest
price. Book it.
Mary Jo would love to meet
you. How’s Wednesday?
Meet at 6
Meet at 8
What should I do for this
trade?
Answer John’s question
Mon, July 5 PM < <
When you see the icon
beside content on Yahoo
you can hold your cursor
over it and this box will
appear. Drag the icon to the
box below to create your
own app.
JOBS
MOVIES
GAME REQUEST
TRAVEL
DATING
SPORTS
CREATE YOUR OWN
YAHOO MOBILE APP
<
CREATE
ACTIVITY
Hi Paul,
What would you like to do?
This idea here is to allow users
of the desktop site to grab their
favorite Yahoo content and cre-ate
their own Yahoo mobile site.
It’s working in reverse where us-ers
determine their own content,
features and functionality versus a
prescribed Yahoo experience.
Yahoo can insert new styles of
ads. Several sponsors can share
entire site sponsorships.
DRAG HERE
Download your app by visiting
this URL on your mobile:
Yahoo.com/SomeUrl

FEATURES: MOVIE NIGHT (Mode : date nig ht)
SEARCH + NAVIGATION
Time for kisses!
STATUS
CREATE
ACTIVITY
BEN & JERRYS AD
Thumbnail Thumbnail Thumbnail
Thumbnail Thumbnail
SHARE
NEW AD FORMAT
Better sponsor integration
that’s aligned to context. For
example:
TV mode > Romance > Sat-urday
night > Users (We know
who the 2 users are - Age, in-terests,
movie title, etc.).
Contextual sponsor
integration: Ben & Jerry’s ice
cream
How to order: It’s voice
activated (or clicked)
Real-time: Delivered by the
local retailer within 30 minutes
and charged to your Yahoo
account.
MODE
The UI is now in a TV mode.
Share the UI with another
device, monitor or TV (Similar
to the new WII). The red frame
background is for sponsor
integration.
Date night mode introduces
several romance related
features. For example: Create
social content (personalized
sharing moments) that can be
shared with friends and then
they auto-delete after several
seconds. It should be fun.
Partner with Snapchat to
capture a frame from a movie
and add a personal message
(It’s date night so use your
imagination).

DESIGN REVIEW
Understanding Yahoo
Design Review
Trends
Appendix

HOMEPAGE review
Trending Now
I really like ‘Trending Now’; it’s the
closest ‘real-time’ style feature. Is
it possible to see more information
about what the trends are?
Perhaps fans can sign-in with social
site accounts (Facebook Connect,
Twitter, etc.) or Yahoo can partner
with other content sites (Buzzfeed)
to feature their content and trends.
Search + Mail + News + Adt
The model and experience is clear to see. A repositioning of Yahoo
requires rethinking of the model. Search the web? Perhaps it’s more
about searching across the Yahoo network of content and sites.
Creating context
This menu of products and services
could be presented in a different
way. If Yahoo understands how
people are using them they can
be integrated and intertwined into
the experience differently. For
example: If I’ve searched for a
subject related to automotive then
offer features and content related
to that search.

HOMEPAGE review
Navigation design
Although I don’t agree with it I’m
assuming the repeating of the
primary navigation at the top of
the page and the left menu are
to facilitate a mobile view of the
page. Also, there are three ‘Mail’
buttons at the top of the page. Weather
The strategy behind the new
Yahoo IOS mobile app should
continue into this experience. For
example: brining in the relevant
photography from Flickr to set
content on location, weather,
interests or news. It’s also worth
promoting and linking through to
the app here.

HOMEPAGE review
Hidden Content
Many pieces of content are hid-den
with menus and arrows
(+email alerts are hidden). The
reality is that most people don’t
click on things that they can’t see.
It’s unlikely a news headline will
catch someone’s attention if they
have to click to find it. The most
valuable content that’s validated
through social media and general
analytics should be present.

HOMEPAGE review
Social Relevance
There’s no social call-to-actions or
context for what your friend’s are
liking/sharing for any of the
content featured on the page.
AD
It’s time for a new and more innovative ad
platforms versus a display ad that has a
minimal click-through. New ad models are
directly integrated within the content and
have a smarter context.

PRODUCT
CONSIDERATIONS
Understanding Yahoo
Design Review
Trends
Appendix

DETAILED User journeys
J
TYPICAL WEEKDAY HOMEPAGE INTERACTION TYPICAL WEEKEND HOMEPAGE INTERACTION
M
FREQUENCY 08 A M 10 12 P M 02 04 06 08 10 12 FREQUENCY 08 A M 10 12 P M 02 04 06 08 10 12
TASKS
Email/IM
Search
CONTENT
Trends
News
Weather
Sports
Finance
Celeb/social
ADS
PRODUCTS
News
Sports
Finance
Weather
Games
Groups
Answers
Flickr
Jobs
Autos
Shopping
Travel
Dating
J J
TASKS
Email/IM
Search
M M
M M
CONTENT
Trends
News
Weather
Sports
Finance
Celeb/social
M M
P P
P P
P P
J J
M M
ADS
PRODUCTS
News
Sports
Finance
Weather
Games
Groups
Answers
Flickr
Jobs
Autos
Shopping
Travel
Dating
P
P P
P P
P
J J
P P
P P
M M
P P
M M
2

ASSUMPTIONS
BRAND HOMEPAGE USER EXPERIENCE REVENUE
To come To come To come

OUr MVP
This is the beginning of a new Yahoo digital ecosystem that works across
platforms, screens and touch devices. Yahoo will be a media company
with innovative new forms of advertising products that work across TV, desk-top,
social and mobile. To a fan the experience will feel like there’s a smart
skin around them that is aware of their location and the context of what’s
going on around them.
Going forward Yahoo will be creating content and partnering with premier
content creators like HBO and _______. They’ll use Tumblr as the primary so-cial
mechanism to create user generated content. Services and products
will be updated and some will intertwined to create new experiences.

Trends that are helping
define the next
generation of digital
products and services
Understanding Yahoo
Design Review
Trends
Appendix

DIGITAL TRENDS: PHOTOS & VIDEOS
Taking a photo or video captures a moment. We now capture ev-ery
moment (Even easier than making a phone call)
VIDEO: 100 hours per minute uploaded to YouTube
SHARING: Photos
SOURCE: MARY MEEKER INTERNET TRENDS

DIGITAL TRENDS: SHAring
Sharing every many aspects of our lives is how we stay
connected with each other. Brands need to create that context for
their fans to engage with them and their friends.
SHARING: Tumbr is moving fast SHARING: People are sharing more and more content

DIGITAL TRENDS: Why Mobile ?
Smart phones help us stay connected, give us found time, and al-low
us to be productive and multitask. Mobile apps allow to create
content and then add a layer of community to the experience.
MOBILE: Connected, excited, curious and connected COMMUNITY: People are helping each other

DIGITAL TRENDS: Connected devices & wearable
A competitor of Yahoo’s made Google Glass and software that can
drive a car. Smart phones have been the perfect education for the
upcoming smart devices. All kinds of brands and services are about
to change.
WEARABLE: The next stage of the Internet SENSOR: Connecting experiences

Appendix
Understanding Yahoo
Design Review
Trends
Appendix

Redesign Yahoo

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