Content, UI, & Graphic Design @ AllSides

AllSides | 2020 - 2024

Graphic Design

Content Design

Brand Strategy

Advertising

UX/UI

Web

Social Media

OVERVIEW

I built a design role for myself while working on the news team at AllSides, a news analysis website focused on US politics. This started with illustrative graphics and data visualizations to accompany blog articles.

As the company shifted its focus to social media, I crafted infographics and marketing materials for Instagram stories and feed posts. I also refined the overall brand presentation and styling.

When needed, I also helped craft advertising for events and a 2024 crowdfunding campaign, working in Canva and Figma with a cross-functional team of marketers and developers.

When I started shifting to content design and UX/UI, I also consulted on the design of topics pages, location pickers, AI bias analysis tools, and a hub for data on Americans' political common ground.

*Disclaimer: None of these work samples should be considered an endorsement of any particular methodology or conclusion of AllSides' bias rating team.

MY ROLE

Early on, the company had few employees with rigorous design experience, so I often undertook design tasks on my own and in addition to daily news writing and editing. There was no extensive brand guide to follow for content outside the website itself. This afforded an opportunity to define the company's public-facing design direction, although I initially lacked substantial design expertise.

As the company grew, I began working with other teams, and people were hired on who could expand upon the design direction, often using assets I had created.

Beyond design, my role at the company was often to critically analyze various political arguments, editorial standards, and bias rating decisions. While I backed consensus decisions, there were plenty of things I had reservations about, and this culture of productive disagreement was encouraged by company leadership.

TEAM MEMBERS

Henry Brechter, Julie Mastrine, John Gable (CEO), Scott McDonald (CTO), Andrew Weinzierl, Samantha Shireman, Adriel Warren, Rudy Aquino, Nikita Tselovalnikov, Krystal Woodworth

Newsletter ad post for Instagram

Graphics for AllSides blog articles

AllSides brands itself as a tech-savvy, online-first outlet. Thus, my approach to blog article graphics was inspired by graphics from other such online outlets, like The Verge and Axios.

Several of these images accompany articles I wrote.

INTERACTIVE CHARTS FOR NEWS MEDIA ANALYSIS

DATA VISUALIZATION WITH FLOURISH

I used Flourish to create a handful of interactive charts for an article analyzing web traffic data for the top 100 most popular news websites in the US.

Coworkers had collected the data, inspired by an article I wrote a couple years earlier on the topic. I learned Flourish from a coworker who had effectively implemented the data visualization platform in articles and other pages on the website.

April Fool's dating app branding/marketing/UI (fake/humorous)

Media literacy Instagram Story series

Seasonal media literacy Instagram post series (1 of 6 sets)

REFRESHING THE BRAND'S SOCIAL MEDIA PRESENCE

TWITTER & FACEBOOK HEADER REDESIGN

I led the redesign process of a news website’s Facebook and Twitter profile banner images.
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‍The lead stakeholder noticed that the banner images on the company’s Twitter and Facebook profiles were a bit outdated. She wanted new images created and was “down to experiment with this,” but required that the new design included two of the company’s slogans.

‍I researched competitive best practices and submitted a handful of options for the team to review. I then worked with various team members to iterate and come up with a solution the lead stakeholder was happy with.

‍I conducted a competitive analysis of other news platforms’ Twitter banners.

Key findings:

The company’s direct “media bias” competitors also had outdated banners.
Established news organizations tended to use photographs of newsrooms, office buildings, and cities that reminded users of their established brand identity.
Some newer tech-savvy news outlets highlighted their apps and used centered text to promote a brand slogan.
Some outlets used more artistic banners or brand/logo signifiers.

Since the company was fully remote, there were no photos to use for the “established media” approach. The best opportunities for emulation were tech-based platforms and brand/logo signifiers.

Established news organization highlights newsroom

Tech-savvy news organization highlights mobile presence

Web-native newsletter focuses on their brand

I developed mockups using Adobe Photoshop to visually remind users of brand value ("L" and "R" bias rating graphics and red/blue colors).

‍3 of my 5 mockups took inspiration from “tech-savvy” competitors, since that model most aligned with AllSides' brand identity.

When I submitted the mockups for team feedback, I received positive reactions for two of the options.

I used the feedback to develop a final version, which was approved by the lead stakeholder and added to the company's social media profiles.

When implemented, I realized that Facebook moved the profile photo to the middle and overlapped the banner on mobile, creating an awkward overlap. With the stakeholder’s approval, I removed the center logo and slogan, keeping the background brand-signifying graphics.

The final Twitter banner. Still in use as of February 2025

On mobile, Facebook overlapped the center of the banner image, necessitating a design change.

Updated Facebook banner

This experience reemphasized to me the importance of designing for different screen sizes — just because a design works in a desktop browser doesn’t mean it will look the same on mobile. Fortunately, the graphics I made helped others at the company create designs for merch and other uses.