Case study: US Elections
Challenge: Sky News set out to build a bespoke digital experience for one of the most highly anticipated elections in modern history: the 2024 US Presidential Election. The newsroom needed a platform that could deliver fast, reliable, and engaging coverage to a global audience, all within a compressed timeline.
This meant balancing multiple pressures:
Time: A short deadline required rapid discovery, design, and development cycles, leaving little room for lengthy iteration.
Complexity: US elections involve intricate data — state-by-state results, swing states, live counts, projections, and contextual analysis — all of which had to be translated into a clear, user-friendly interface.
Scalability: The platform had to withstand high traffic spikes on election night while maintaining performance.
Clarity for diverse audiences: The audience ranged from politically engaged users wanting in-depth analysis to casual readers needing at-a-glance clarity.
Trust & credibility: In an era of misinformation, accuracy and transparent design were crucial to maintaining Sky News’ reputation as a trusted source.
Solution: To meet the tight deadline and complex requirements, we built upon components developed for the recent UK general election, saving time and reducing developer effort while maintaining consistency with Sky News’ design system.
Key features of the solution included:
Interactive elements to explain swing states and key battlegrounds, allowing users to engage with the data rather than passively consume it.
SEO-focused article widget to surface relevant election content, improving discoverability and keeping users informed with timely updates.
Effective data visualisations that simplified complex election results, making them easily digestible, especially as our main audience is people with an average understanding of US politics.
Accessibility considerations, particularly important for a colour-heavy event like elections, ensuring the interface didn’t rely solely on colour to convey meaning and remained clear for users with visual impairments.
The combination of reusable components, interactive features, clear visuals, and accessibility-focused design enabled a fast, engaging, and inclusive election experience for a UK audience following a major international event.
Impact: The bespoke US election coverage achieved significant engagement and reach across Sky News’ platforms:
Over 5 million users accessed the site via web and app, generating 49 million page views.
Search traffic on the web saw a notable increase, rising to 53%, up from 44% year-to-date.
These results demonstrate the effectiveness of the design in attracting, engaging, and retaining users, while also boosting discoverability and delivering a trusted, high-quality experience during a major international event.
My role: UX and UI designer
Competitor Analysis
I conducted a competitor analysis of how other major news outlets presented US election coverage. We focused on three key areas:
Data visualisations: How charts and graphs conveyed results and trends.
State-by-state listings: Approaches to organising and prioritising battleground and swing states.
Interactive maps: Techniques for engaging users while keeping complex data clear.
This research helped identify best practices, highlight opportunities for differentiation, and ensure our design was both user-friendly and visually compelling.
An audit
I conducted a thorough audit of Sky News’ 2020 US election coverage to identify areas for improvement. Key weaknesses included:
Overly complex data presentation: Some charts and tables were difficult for casual users to interpret quickly. Even bordering being misleading.
Navigation and information hierarchy: difficult for users to find key insights.
Limited interactivity: Opportunities to engage users with interactive maps and visual storytelling were underutilized.
Accessibility gaps: Color reliance and small text made certain elements less accessible to users with visual impairments.
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Reusing components from general elections
Outcome
