Overview
MMTV
A mobile-first, video-forward redesign transforming Kerala’s largest news platform into a modern, credible and highly discoverable digital product.
Company:
Manorama News · Employer: HumanX (Full-time)
Domain:
News · Media · Broadcasting
Timeline:
6–7 months (Research → IA → Visual System → UI → Testing → Dev Handoff)
Platform:
Desktop & Mobile Web, Android & iOS Apps, Connected TV (Fire TV, Android TV)
Responsibilities:
UX Strategy · Research · Information Architecture · Visual Exploration · UI Design · Components & DS · Client Communication · Stakeholder Alignment · Developer Handoff
Team:
Manushri Dave (Lead Designer, Direct Client communications)
Tarun J. (Initial Design Lead)
Aakanksha (Design Intern under my guidance)
Nikhat (Project Manager)
The Result
The redesign helped MMTV transition towards a more modern, video-forward digital experience without compromising credibility. By improving content hierarchy, reducing friction to video, and unifying navigation across platforms, the platform became easier to scan, faster to consume, and better equipped to handle 150+ stories published daily. The new system also created a strong foundation for future personalization and feature expansion.
We kicked off the project with a discovery call with the Manorama News (MMTV) leadership and digital teams. To set a shared baseline, we walked them through relevant work we had done for other large-scale news and content platforms, aligning on expectations, scale, and ambition.
Following the kickoff, we conducted a heuristic evaluation of the existing MMTV website to understand how the product was performing against current user behavior, industry standards, and modern news consumption patterns.
This initial audit helped us move quickly from assumptions to evidence and highlighted clear gaps between the brand’s credibility and the digital experience it was delivering.
The Problem
Despite being Kerala’s most trusted and widely consumed news brand, MMTV’s digital platform was not aligned with how modern audiences discover and consume news.
The existing experience made it difficult for users to quickly find relevant stories, access video content with ease, or build a habitual relationship with the platform. Heavy reliance on social media for traffic, low organic visits, and a text-heavy, poorly prioritized homepage limited engagement—especially among younger, mobile-first audiences.
At the same time, MMTV needed to modernize its digital presence without compromising the credibility, neutrality, and trust it has built over decades.
The core challenge was to reimagine MMTV’s digital experience as fast, discoverable, and video-forward, while preserving the brand’s authority and scaling across devices, content volumes, and diverse user needs.
Stakeholders
Stakeholders included
• CEO and Executive Editors
• Reporters & field correspondents
• Digital & Marketing Teams
• Content Writers & Video Editors
• Engineering
• Design team
Primary Target audience
Primary audience aged 22–35, mobile-first and video-led consumers
Digitally savvy Malayali users across India and globally
Secondary audience aged 35+, trust-driven and habit-oriented
Strong NRI audience seeking reliable updates from home
Users who consume news quickly, often across multiple platforms
Audiences that value credibility, neutrality, and speed over sensationalism
We followed HumanX’s design process as the foundation, adapting and refining it to suit the scale, complexity, and pace of a large news organization like MMTV. Given the volume of content, number of stakeholders, and ongoing editorial needs, the process was intentionally iterative, collaborative, and insight-driven.
Rather than applying a rigid framework, we combined structured research, continuous stakeholder alignment, and rapid experimentation to ensure design decisions were both user-centered and operationally feasible.
Secondary Research
We conducted secondary research to understand what news readers actually care about and why certain stories resonate more than others. Findings showed that people find news most relevant when it connects directly to their everyday lives - impacting their families, work, leisure, or local communities.
Relevance is closely tied to sociability. Stories gain importance when readers feel they can discuss them with friends or share them within their social circles. While users often engage with light, amusing, or unexpected content, they clearly distinguish between what is entertaining and what truly matters. At their core, readers want to stay informed about events at local, national, and global levels — as long as the content feels meaningful and accessible.
Stakeholder Interviews
To understand the editorial, business, and operational realities of MMTV, we conducted in-depth stakeholder interviews across leadership, editorial, and digital teams. The goal was to align on brand intent, audience behavior, and product challenges before defining solutions.
Participants included:
PR Satheesh
Johny Lukose
Jayamohan Nair
Mariam Mammen Mathew
Jaya Mohan Nair
Romy Mathew
Team interview with newsroom, digital, and operations stakeholders
Jayant Mammen Mathew
What we focused on
MMTV’s editorial philosophy and brand values
Shifts in audience behavior and news consumption habits
Role of video versus text in digital news
Discoverability and dependency on social media
Internal workflows and content volume challenges
Expectations from a redesigned digital experience
Distilled Themes
Insights from the interviews were synthesized into clear themes to guide product decisions and design priorities and below are some of the findings
Key takeaways
MMTV is deeply trusted, but trust alone is no longer enough to retain users
The newsroom produces high-quality, on-ground reporting that is not reflected well digitally
Video-first is a strategic priority, but not at the cost of credibility or depth
Younger users consume news quickly and across platforms, not through long reading sessions
Stakeholders want the product to feel modern, lighter, and faster without becoming sensational
Persona
Primary Persona Archetype Archetype Name The Informed Sprinter Archetype Description The Informed Sprinter wants to stay updated without slowing down. They value credibility and neutrality but don’t have time for long reads or cluttered interfaces. News is something they check frequently, in short bursts, often between work, commutes, or daily routines. They rely on trusted sources during critical moments, but outside of crises, they want fast, scannable updates that help them understand what matters now. Archetype Mindset “Tell me what’s important, fast.” “I’ll go deeper only if it really matters.” “I trust a source that respects my time.” “Don’t make me dig for the story.”
Wireframes
Wireframes were used as thinking tools, not just layout placeholders. They helped validate information hierarchy early and ensured that primary actions stayed visually dominant across screens.
Low-fidelity flows allowed quick iteration on navigation, content grouping, and screen transitions before committing to visual styling — keeping the focus on clarity and usability first.
Visual Identity & Design System
Final UI Designs
Feedback
“Very good application. You can watch the live stream of Manorama News in HD quality. The app is very easy to use and user-friendly.”
Anonymous
MMTV Website User
Prototype
Reflection
This project taught me the importance of letting go of personal biases in favor of long-term brand consistency. We spent more time iterating than finalizing, which initially felt uncomfortable, but proved necessary given the scale, legacy, and emotional investment of the stakeholders.
Visiting Kerala in person was a turning point. Being invited by the client, understanding their newsroom culture firsthand, and working face-to-face helped us resolve long-standing ambiguities and finalize key decisions with confidence.
One thing I would do differently is identifying and aligning on clear points of contact earlier. With more than five stakeholders involved in approvals, friction was inevitable. Over time, we learned to navigate this by understanding the organizational structure and recommending core decision-makers—but doing this earlier would have saved time and energy.
From a design standpoint, the most challenging part was integrating video meaningfully across pages while keeping each category visually distinct. This led to workshops, brainstorming sessions, and eventually the introduction of new formats that tested well with users. Seeing these formats later adopted by other teams within HumanX was a proud moment.
Overall, this project pushed me to grow not just as a designer, but as a collaborator, facilitator, and leader—balancing ambition with humility, and vision with reality.
