In the wake of Elon Musk’s acquisition of Twitter, the social media landscape has been in flux, prompting many to seek alternative platforms for open and reliable communication. Amid this shift, we are excited to announce our collaboration with Newsmast (newsmastfoundation.org), a platform dedicated to delivering trustworthy news.
As a user experience (UX) design agency we were selected to spearhead the UX efforts in partnership with a third-party Ruby-on-Rails app agency. Together, we have successfully launched a custom fork of the open-source platform, Mastodon, within an impressive six-month timeline.
Understanding Mastodon
Mastodon is a decentralised, open-source social media platform that emphasises user privacy and autonomy. Unlike traditional social networks, Mastodon allows anyone to create their own servers, giving users greater control over their data and interactions. This decentralisation fosters a diverse and resilient ecosystem of interconnected communities.
Our Rapid Prototyping Process
Leveraging the power of Figma, our UX team employed rapid prototyping to expedite the design and development process. Figma’s collaborative features enabled us to create detailed and interactive prototypes swiftly, ensuring that both design and development teams had a consistent and clear vision to work from.
The prototyping phase was instrumental in refining user flows and interfaces, allowing us to iterate quickly based on feedback. This approach ensured that the development team had a robust and consistent build system to follow, streamlining the collaboration and minimising potential roadblocks.
Brand Development
In addition to the UX design, our brand team played a crucial role in shaping the visual identity of Newsmast. Crafting a logo and brand guidelines that resonated with the theme of broadcasting content, we created a cohesive and recognisable brand presence for the platform.
