Hey there,
I'm Ellie 🙋🏼‍♀️

Background

• The existing press release editor is very old and dated. It is buggy, restrictive and hard to use.
• Press Loft wants to integrate AI to help its users write and send press releases.
• Alongside the design of this project, we are experimenting with different ways of integrating the ChatGPT API. Ideas include theme and image suggestions, title suggestions, whole press releases being written for the user and auto-categorisation on sending. As the AI integrations are still being developed, the designs may need to be updated around these parts.
• Press Loft has many different types of brand users and it is important to note that, as much as the subject of AI is very current and can be very enticing, not all users will want to use AI. Bigger brands with PR teams usually have ideas and do not struggle with content, whereas a small business owner with little PR knowledge will be more likely to be open to press release suggestions and want help with writing content.
• This project shows the current designs for the desktop version of the press release editor.

Deliverables

• Press releases dashboard area with ideas centre
• Press release editor
• Press release sending and scheduling area
• Product tours
• Display of press releases on the Press Loft website
• Sendinblue email designs for single and grouped press releases
• Beta lauch email

Brief and key objectives

• Update the dated press release editor
• Integrate AI into the press release feature
• Make it easier and faster to send a press release
• Increase the number of press releases being sent out (get more brands sending releases)
• Increase the quality of press releases sent on Press Loft
• Increase image downloads and coverage

Key tools and skills

• Heuristic analysis and usability review
• User group surveys
• Hotjar tools
• Analysis using Redash statistics
• Wireframing on Figma
• Designing and prototyping on Figma
• Sendinblue email design

As we were going to rebuild such a key feature on our site, it was a great chance to ask our users how we could improve this tool from their perspective. A short survey was sent to all brands who have access to the press releases feature on site. They were targeted on-site with an Intercom modal which was linked to a Google form.

The users were given 2 multiple choice questions. The first question was to help us prioritise features that had been commonly requested by users in the past, as well as ideas from the product team. The second question asked about reasons our users might not send press releases out. They were then also asked to input other ideas and suggestions into a free text field.

It's important to note that, due to resources, we knew we wouldn't be able to develop every feature request during phase 1, but the responses would help us to prioritise which features we would start with.

Releases dashboard

• The user is greeted with an ideas centre, designed to help inspire them.
• This is a phase 1 product and future additions will include more functionality such as saving or favouriting.
• The ‘New press release’ button is fixed to the top right to ensure it’s easy to start a new press release.
• New tags have been designed so it is immediately clear if a press release is a draft, or has been scheduled or sent.
• Phase 2 will include stats on sent press releases.
• When the ‘New press release’ button is pressed, the user will be greeted with a page where they can choose between AI press releases, layout templates, or their own saved templates.

Release editor

I designed over 100 screens for the press release editor feature. Below is a selection:

Scheduling and sending

• Simplified sending and scheduling process with advanced settings now hidden, as they are rarely changed.
• We know that a user who writes a press release around a product or collection is often keen to promote it in other ways. Therefore, once the press release has been sent or scheduled, the user is prompted / asked if they would like to collaborate with influencers for these products. If a new collaboration brief is started, the products will be pre-filled into the collaboration form, and they can easily post a collaboration opportunity.

As well as designs and general dev notes, I supplied the following requirements table for each block type in the release editor.

Analysing the number of sent releases

As well as feedback, the number of sent releases is a good indicator to the success of the new release editor. More sent releases mean that more journalists will receive news and images from our brands, and get active on site. This, in turn, increases downloads across our whole brand network.

PR activity levels on the platform always fluctuate throughout the year, due to the nature of PR. For example, December is always very quiet as Christmas PR has already been and gone, and the holidays are in full swing. Knowing this, it's important to measure the stats in comparison to the previous year and month.

From launch date (mid October 2023), the sent stats compared to the previous year are as follows:

• October 2022 / October 2023 - 238 / 256 (Up by 7.6%)
• November 2022 / November 2023 - 230 / 295 (Up by 28.3%)
• December 2022 / December 2023 - 168 / 183 (Up by 8.9%)
• January 2023 / January 2024 - 250 / 277 (Up by 10.8%)

Average increase in releases sent since launch: 14.1%

Collection of beta feedback

I had already collected a list of users who wanted to join the beta list for this feature. When the feature was launched to beta, our users were encouraged (via email, and with a modal on entry) to submit feedback for the new feature. We would then be able to make improvements based on bug submissions and feature requests (as well as Hotjar recordings).

We received a lot of positive feedback, as well as some bug submissions and improvement suggestions. Below are a few examples of feedback that we were able to address quickly:

Do you plan to add a Preview button and a Send test email functionality? These are handy features in the old editor.Thank you!
- This feature had been designed but was not yet live due to resources. After the initial beta launch, we were able to implement this feature.

Really like it! its a huge improvement from before I must say. Two things that can be improved is that auto save does not save as efficiently as the old version and even if it says saved on top when you go out and back in, the data has been lost.
- Along with the Hotjar recordings, we were able to find and fix a bug with the auto-save.

Also picking the country one by one is time consuming...and each time you start at the top of the list, not at the point you selected the country...so that's quite irritating. Besides that loving the upgrade!
- This issue just required a simple fix to the list select drop down to stop it closing after every selection.

Have updated our logo, but the "logo block" option in the editor doesn't display the updated logo.
- This issue turned out to be an edge case which dev hadn't accounted for, but were able to fix promptly.

• Continue to monitor the use of the release editor with analytics.
• Continue to find and fix bugs by using Hotjar's recordings and other features.
• Create a phase 2 project which will see more improvements and new tools within the release editor.