The pick
For a UX class at Carleton, we had to take an existing site and redesign it properly. I picked Buzzfeed because I’d grown up on it and, surprisingly, it hadn’t gotten much better. The navigation is a mess of competing elements, unclear categories, and inconsistent branding. You don’t know if you’re reading actual news or a quiz about what type of bread you are.
What changed
I redid the whole main flow: navigation, sibling sites, content separation. Spacing did a lot of the heavy lifting. Once articles and quizzes and video weren’t crammed into the same dense band, the rest of the work got easier. Trending got room to breathe. Partner sites like Tasty stopped pretending to be the same product. I leaned on how the Guardian and BBC pace their feeds for reference, then wrote a long report defending every choice.
How it landed
A hi-fi clickable prototype, a thick written report, ninety-five percent and a tutor who seemed genuinely surprised. Still tucked toward the back of the portfolio, since it’s older. But the bones held up.