Creamer Media's

Mining Weekly & Engineering News

Redesign of the website platforms

• UX /UI
• Website
• Product Design
• Design Systems
• Strategy
  

The existing Engineering News and Mining Weekly websites were outdated, inconsistent and difficult to maintain across two brands. Users struggled with cluttered navigation and poor content discoverability, while the business lacked a scalable design system. The challenge was to modernise both sites, improve usability and unify the experience under one flexible, modular framework.

I led a dual-role engagement (UX & UI) and integrated SEO early. I reorganised information architecture, introduced modular components, refined subscription funnels and established design governance to ensure scalability. 

• Subscriber acquisition increased through funnel-driven design and dynamic pricing mechanisms
• Consistent, modular UI framework across both brands
• Improved content visibility and SEO alignment
• Streamlined navigation reduced cognitive load
• Faster iteration and handoff thanks to component-driven layouts

Before

After...

Discovery & research 

Information architecture

Onboarding subscribers

Structure & templates

Modular design system

Other design solutions

I began by gathering insights from user surveys already conducted by Creamer Media, stakeholder interviews, analytics data and competitive benchmarking. This allowed me to define target personas, value propositions and understand how the digital ecosystem (news, portals, research) interlinked. 

The navigation had become unwieldy over time. I led card-sorting workshops with stakeholders and refined the taxonomy to four core menu items (News, Services, Magazine, Research). This simplified structure worked across both brands.

Collaborative  card sorting exercise

Wireframes & information architecture

...and on mobile

Before heavy visual work began, I defined subscription funnels and entry-level pathways. I refined pricing tiers, simplified signup flows, and integrated dynamic pricing tables that adapt to where a user sits in the funnel. 

I established responsive layout rules across breakpoints and defined about 26 annotated page templates to cover all site scenarios. This upfront structuring prevented countless layout debates downstream.

I built a library of news-focused modules (cards, sections, grid layouts, menus), supported by a consistent set of UI elements (typography, colour, buttons). This modular framework meant sections could be rearranged easily even after handoff. I extended that same modular logic to newsletter templates, enabling flexible stacking of components. 

I worked through design constraints, notably existing advertising zones that could not be altered. In the top news area, for example, we compromised by limiting height, moving images beneath headlines and capping article counts so that the lead stories always appear above the fold. We also introduced personalisation features (your-news tab, sector toggles, saved articles) to improve relevance and retention.

This project taught me the importance of designing within constraints — working around immutable advertising zones and legacy tech demanded creativity and compromise. By rigorously justifying each design decision with research, I built trust with stakeholders and persuaded them to relinquish less ideal ideas.

Maintaining a small but powerful design system paid off: when changes were needed late in the process, they were quick to apply and carried minimal risk of breaking consistency.

“We designers don't get hired to make pretty things or win design awards. We get hired to solve business problems.”

Charles eames