The Client
Citizen TV is the largest television news channels in eastern Africa. With a vision to provide unbiased news and be a leader in the media industry, Citizen target audience of all types including the economically affluent urban elite to the common citizen in Kenya who are socially and economically backwards. Citizen TV belongs to the largest media house in Africa, Royal Media Services Limited which also owns 14 radio stations.
The Requirement
Citizen identified the need to develop a mobile news app that will help them to deliver unbiased news to anyone with a smartphone and increase their market share.
The Challenge
Citizen wanted their news
to be accessible by anyone with a smartphone from anywhere at any time. The
population they target include people with different socio-economic backgrounds
and use different types of devices for their need. To make the solution
inclusive, we had to develop an app that works on major mobile platforms,
Android, iOS and Windows. The size of the market also had to be taken into
consideration.
The solution had to be fit for a specific purpose, i.e., enabling anyone with a smartphone to access news from anywhere at any time. This requirement called for the integration of various functions and features specific to the news industry like live streaming, real-time news updates, breaking news, and delivery of content based on predefined categories.
The Solution
Based on the requirement, our team developed a mobile solution that runs on three platforms, Android, iOS and windows. The app’s homepage features the latest news with featured images, title and the time it was published. Users have the option to try out different layouts for the homepage. The app has a top bar that features menu, citizen logo, a button for live streaming and layout options.
When a user clicks on any of the news featured on the homepage, they will be taken directly to the dedicated page where the full news is featured. User has the option to add comments, share the article and view related articles using the buttons located on the header bar.
Below the top bar, there is a dedicated navigation button which shows the order of stories and helps users to navigate to next or previous stories.
Users also have the option to change the font size of the text used in an article and they can add any articles to their favourite list. The offline feature helps users with connectivity issues or time constraints by letting them save an article for offline reading.
Features
Sticky top bar
The sticky bar located on the top of the homepage contains useful features such as the main menu, Citizen logo, Live streaming button and layout button. When a user visits an individual news article, they also see additional options like the back button, comment button, share button, button for related articles and settings.
Stories
Users can move from one story to another by just swiping left.
News settings
Users have the option to turn on/off news based on categories.
Live streaming
Watch news live by simply clicking on the streaming button.
Offline reading
News articles can be saved for offline reading. This feature is very helpful for people who have connectivity issues or time constraints.
Resize text
This feature is included as a way to improve visibility. Using this feature, users have the option to change the font size of every news article.
Layouts
Users can choose a layout based on their convenience and preferences from the set of options available.
Favourite list
Users can add any news article to their favourite list.
Ad integration
The app allowed Citizen to have an additional platform for income generation by enabling ad publishing.
Technologies Used
LAMP Stack, PHP, Yii framework, JQuery, HTML, MySQL, Java, Android SDK & libraries, Objective C, .NET, C #, Windows Phone SDK 8.0
The Result
The solution helped people of Kenya with a new medium to access unbiased news anytime from anywhere. The app has been downloaded more than 500,000 times on Google Play as of today. It has an average rating of 4.2 from a total of 5,325 ratings. The solution also helped Citizen to reach more people and increase their market share along with offering them an additional platform for income generation.
