The Globe and Mail Adopts a Responsive Philosophy

In redesigning its apps, Code and Theory worked with The Globe and Mail to create a much more captivating experience—one that would convey a purposeful narrative through color, contrast, density of content, and even motion.

“We thought, ‘What if the apps were seen not as just a vehicle for disseminating content, but as a powerful tool to enable readers to get the information they need, at the right moment, in the right context? ’” - Code and Theory Creative Strategy Director Matthieu Mingasson.

The most read newspaper in Canada,

In late 2014, the publication called on Code and Theory to help them create and execute on a new vision for their digital product suite.

Rather than doing a single wholesale change, The Globe and Mail started with its iPhone and iPad apps. Typically, when news organizations move to a responsive platform, they begin with the browser. In tackling its native apps first, The Globe and Mail had committed to applying a more seamless, responsive philosophy across every platform and investing in a single editorial workflow.

During that discovery period, Code and Theory met with stakeholders from every department and identified three primary segments of Globe and Mail readers:

Market Watchers: The readers who use The Globe and Mail to find actionable financial news and data.

Upward Urbanites: Those who seek out information that will help them stay in the know about news and players in a particular industry.

Digital Information Seekers: A group that comes in through social networks, particularly Facebook and Twitter, who are likely to share an interesting story.

Creating Meaningful Relationships

Readers don’t look to The Globe and Mail as a content distributor, but rather as a trustworthy, reliable source of insight. The added value of modern journalism is to tell readers why a piece of news is important, why it’s relevant, and how it’s connected to the broader news cycle. We designed a personalization strategy for The Globe and Mail to better connect stories for readers, provide more context, and adapt to the user’s own consumption mode.

On the new apps experience, personalized content packages dynamically adjust based on the user’s location, time, choices, and preferences over time.

Responsive design doesn’t just refer to the look and feel of a product—it refers to the entire experience, including editorial workflow.

Code and Theory worked closely with The Globe and Mail as they improved their CMS capabilities and refined editing workflow to improve content distribution.

By applying a responsive approach to design in a native environment, we enabled the system to distribute one single editorial workflow on two different devices and provide an optimal experience on each.

Not long ago, news apps were seen only as accessories to the main website. With the launch of its iPad and iPhone apps,

The launch represented the first step in the brand's larger commitment to better understand their readers and offer products that are more beautiful, responsive, and connected.