Algonquin Times
Posted on Wednesday, April 9th, 2025
The Algonquin Times Mobile App is Canada’s only dedicated college newspaper app, designed to transform how students, faculty, alumni, and the wider community engage with news, covering both campus updates and stories relevant to the broader community. Despite the Algonquin Times’ reputation as a trusted source of information, readership and accessibility remained low. This project set out to bridge that gap by creating an intuitive, engaging, and fully integrated digital platform that goes beyond traditional news delivery.
To ensure the app met the needs of its diverse audience, we conducted extensive user research, including surveys, interviews, and usability testing. Our goal was to understand how the community interacts with news, identify key engagement drivers, and address existing barriers to accessibility.
Using data-driven insights, we developed user personas representing different audience segments, allowing us to tailor the app’s features and design to specific user needs.
Our research revealed that users wanted a clean, intuitive interface that makes it easy to find campus news and updates. They also expressed interest in real-time updates on college events, sports, and extracurricular activities.
Beyond news, users sought interactive features such as engaging user polls, games, and practical tools such as campus mapping, weather updates, and bus timetables. The research indicated a need for a modern, visually appealing design that enhanced usability. For student journalists, the app serves as more than just a news platform, it is a professional showcase for their work. By providing a dedicated space to publish their articles, the app functions as an interactive portfolio, allowing students to gain visibility, build their credibility, and share their journalism directly with social media platforms and with potential employers.
One of the biggest challenges was engagement. Our research showed that simply displaying campus news wasn’t enough—users needed a compelling reason to open the app daily. Meanwhile, the client’s primary goal was to deliver quality journalism and promote student reporters. Balancing these two objectives required creative solutions.
To keep users engaged, we introduced interactive elements such as polls, creating discussions and lighthearted content like a “Joke of the Day”. Additionally, we implemented gamification features, including interactive campus-related games, allowing users to compete, engage in conversations and build a stronger sense of community.
Another major obstacle was integrating the app into existing journalistic workflows without adding extra workload for writers and editors.
We automated content updates, created editor-friendly tools, and ensured compatibility with existing publication processes—allowing journalists to publish content effortlessly.
Developing an accessible and budget-friendly solution was another challenge. Financial constraints meant we had to be strategic about our tech choices, ensuring high performance whilst incurring no costs. To achieve this, we built the app using React Native, which enabled cross-platform compatibility for Android and iOS, reducing development time and cost. We utilized free APIs for features like weather updates and bus schedules, eliminating the need for expensive services. Additionally, we implemented local storage – ensuring a smooth and responsive user experience without relying on costly external databases.
Additionally, integrating the app with existing college systems presented technical hurdles. Through collaboration, iterative testing, and adaptability, we overcame these compatibility issues, ensuring seamless functionality for both users and journalists.
The Algonquin Times Mobile App stands as a testament to user-centered design and problem-solving in software development. By blending journalism with interactive engagement, we created a modern, user-friendly, and impactful digital platform that not only informs but also actively involves the Algonquin College community and beyond.
This project pushed our skills in user research, UI/UX design, mobile development, and agile problem-solving, and ultimately, we delivered an app that transformed passive news consumption into an engaging and interactive experience. Through challenges, constraints, and creative solutions, we have redefined how college news is experienced—one tap at a time.