Designing for interrupted reading.
Mobile news is read in short, fragmented, interrupted moments. Using The Journal app as a case study, I redesigned the experience around continuity, discoverability and engagement, so readers can resume where they left off and always know what to read next.
Fast, fragmented, contextual
Mobile news consumption is fast, fragmented and highly dependent on context. Users may read deeply when time allows, but often engage with content in short, interrupted moments throughout the day.
This project explores how a mobile news experience can better support both immediate and time-constrained reading behaviours by improving content structure, enabling users to resume articles after interruption, and guiding them toward what to read next. Using The Journal app as a case study, I analysed the current experience and designed a set of improvements focused on continuity, discoverability and engagement.
How The Journal works today
The Journal app delivers breaking news through a continuously updating "Latest" feed, prioritising speed and recency of content.
Articles are presented in chronological order, and while content is tagged by topic, navigation is largely driven by recency rather than structured browsing or reading continuity.
As a result, the app is effective at delivering news quickly, but does not support how users actually read it, particularly when sessions are interrupted or when users are deciding what to read next.
Optimised for recency, not consumption
The "Latest" feed presents a continuous stream of articles with minimal structure, making it difficult for users to scan, prioritise or re-find content. While this ensures up-to-date coverage, it does not support how users browse under different time constraints.
At the same time, key behaviours such as saving articles, resuming reading and continuing into new content are either unsupported or weakly surfaced.
The app does not provide a way to save articles for later, meaning users must rely on memory to return to content they're interested in. Tag-based navigation allows exploring related topics, but requires deliberate interaction and isn't positioned as part of a clear continuation flow.
As a result, users are left to decide what to do next without clear guidance, increasing the likelihood that sessions end prematurely.
Survey, interviews & usability testing
To understand how users engage with mobile news content, I combined qualitative and evaluative methods. The goal: identify behavioural patterns and friction points that could inform product decisions.
- Survey (10 participants) to understand general reading habits.
- Interviews (4 users) to explore behaviour in more depth.
- Usability testing (3 sessions) focused on key tasks in The Journal app.
- Competitive analysis of BBC, RTÉ and The Irish Times.
Survey insights
Users consistently reported:
- Reading in short sessions throughout the day.
- Being interrupted mid-article.
- Forgetting to return to articles they intended to finish.
- Seeing value in saving content, but lacking support for it in some apps.
Interviews
Behaviour varied depending on context:
- When users had time, they read immediately.
- When time was limited, they scanned headlines and deferred reading.
Without a way to capture intent or return easily, these articles were often lost.
Usability testing
Three tasks in The Journal app: finding an article of interest, returning to a previously viewed article, and continuing after finishing one.
- Users struggled to re-find previously viewed content.
- The chronological feed made scanning and prioritisation difficult.
- There was no clear way to continue reading after finishing an article.
- Users relied on manual scrolling or memory rather than system support.
Grounding the findings
To synthesise findings, I organised observations into an affinity diagram, grouping insights across reading behaviour, interruptions and context, scanning behaviour, intent and saving, and navigation and structure.
This helped identify repeated behavioural patterns and ensured design decisions were grounded in consistent evidence rather than isolated observations.
Six patterns that shaped the design
Reading sessions are frequently interrupted
Users often begin reading with the intention to finish, but are interrupted by real-world context. Without a reliable way to resume, articles are frequently abandoned.
Reading behaviour depends on available time
Users switch between scanning and reading depending on context. Without a way to capture intent, deferred content is often lost.
The feed does not support efficient scanning
A purely chronological list makes it difficult to quickly assess relevance or priority, leading to inconsistent browsing behaviour.
Users lack a reliable way to return to content
Without saving or automatic tracking, users must rely on memory or manual scrolling to re-find articles, which is unreliable and frustrating.
There is no clear path for what to read next
While tags allow users to explore related articles, they restrict continuation to similar topics. Broader pathways such as trending or latest content are not surfaced.
Sessions often end after a single article
Due to lack of guidance and friction in discovery, many users do not continue reading even when willing to.
Grounding the patterns in one reader
The insights identified reflect consistent behavioural patterns across different users, particularly around interruption, time-based reading, and difficulty resuming or continuing content.
To ground these patterns, I developed a primary user archetype that represents the most common behaviours observed during research.
Aoife — 29 years old, office worker based in Dublin
Aoife reads the news in short, in-between moments throughout her day, typically during her commute or while waiting for something. These sessions are rarely uninterrupted, often cut short by arriving at her stop, notifications, or needing to switch attention quickly.
She frequently starts articles with the intention of finishing them later, but without a clear way to track progress or return to where she left off, many of these articles are abandoned.
- Losing her place when interrupted.
- Not knowing how long an article will take to read.
- Dropping off mid-article and not returning.
- Forgetting or losing track of articles she intended to finish.
- Stay informed quickly during limited time windows.
- Dip into longer articles when time allows.
- Be able to easily return to unfinished content.
Where the current experience breaks
The current experience:
Quickly scans headlines to find something relevant.
Engages with content, but is unsure how long it will take.
Stops reading due to external factors (e.g. the commute ending).
Has no clear way to resume from where she left off.
Either abandons the article or restarts and loses context.
Breakdown: interruption leads directly to drop-off.
Principles & focus areas
Design principles
- Design for interruption, not ideal reading conditions.
- Reduce reliance on memory.
- Support both scanning and deep reading.
- Surface next steps at natural decision points.
Solution overview
I focused on improving the experience across three key areas:
- Reading continuity.
- Feed structure and intent capture.
- Content continuation.
Testing structure before detail
These sketches explore different ways of addressing the key issues, reading continuity, content discovery and navigation clarity. I focused on quickly testing structural ideas rather than visual detail: how users might resume reading, move between articles, and discover more after finishing one.
Several directions were explored, such as integrating "Continue Reading" into the main feed versus a dedicated space, and different approaches to progressing between articles. These explorations identified which patterns felt intuitive before moving into refined wireframes.
Refining layout & hierarchy
The wireframes refine layout, hierarchy and interaction patterns based on the most promising concepts. Key decisions: separating "Continue Reading" into its own dedicated space to support interrupted sessions; simplifying the main feed to improve scanning; and introducing clearer pathways for continuing into new content.
The article experience was refined for longer reading sessions, clearer metadata, improved hierarchy, and a vertical progress indicator to help users understand their position within an article. The focus was ensuring the structure supported both quick scanning and deeper reading while reducing friction in moving between articles.
Feed improvements
The existing feed is difficult to scan and does not support quick decision-making or capturing intent.
- Clear section hierarchy improves scannability and helps users understand content structure.
- Visual grouping reduces the cognitive load of scanning a continuous list.
- Articles can be saved directly from the feed, supporting quick, low-commitment decisions.
Users can more easily identify relevant content and capture articles to return to later.
Reading continuity
Users are frequently interrupted mid-article and have no reliable way to return, leading to abandoned sessions.
- In-progress articles are surfaced automatically, removing the need to manually save content.
- A progress indicator reflects how much of the article has been read, helping users decide whether to continue.
- Reading position is preserved, allowing users to resume exactly where they left off.
- Progress is based on editorial content only, excluding content beneath the article.
Users can seamlessly resume articles without relying on memory or manual navigation.
Content continuation
After finishing an article, users aren't clearly guided toward what to read next, leading to session drop-off.
- A recommended category ("In this section", "Most read", "Latest") at the end of an article provides different ways to continue.
- Content is surfaced at the natural end of reading, reducing the need to navigate back to the feed.
- Familiar patterns from other news apps (e.g. swipe to next article) make continuation intuitive.
- Tag-based exploration is retained but no longer the primary mechanism.
Encourages multi-article sessions and reduces drop-off after a single read.
A supportive reading system
The redesigned experience shifts the app from a passive feed into a more supportive reading system:
- Users can resume articles after interruption.
- Content is easier to scan and navigate.
- Articles can be saved without friction.
- Users are guided toward what to read next.
This design reduces reliance on memory, shortens the time to resume reading, and creates clearer pathways for continued engagement.
What I'd do next
Designing for both scanning and reading required balancing different behaviours depending on time and context. A key challenge was supporting interruption without introducing additional complexity or requiring user effort. I also explored horizontal interaction patterns early on, but removed them in favour of more familiar vertical structures to align with user expectations in news apps.
Given more time, I'd validate the continuation patterns and placement decisions through further usability testing.
Where it goes from here
- Personalised recommendations based on reading behaviour.
- Offline reading support.
- Smarter notifications for saved or partially read content.
Like the way I think? Let's talk about your product.