Users Want Personalization. (How) Should We Give It To Them?

When users want stories tailored to their interests, what is public media’s role?

NPR recently relaunched the NPR app. The app’s features, in a nutshell, allow users to catch up on the news by reading stories and by listening to live radio streams, newscasts, radio programs and podcasts.

As our team looks forward to what’s next for the app, we’re also looking back at a recent user test where we heard two words over and over: customize and personalize. Participants in the user test wanted to customize how stories and programs were presented, according to what they read about and listen to the most.

It’s not surprising that users want to customize their audio content according to what they seek most often or want to discover. Think of all the listening apps out there, then consider the ubiquity of playlists, libraries and various ways to explore or sort audio content. Taking a cue from listening apps, our team is considering ways for listeners to “favorite” multiple station streams, programs and podcasts for quick access.

However, the idea of personalizing news stories fills me with anxiety. As a user-advocate who views design as a public service, I’m not sure that filtering the news is in the public’s best interest. I wonder what role public media should (or shouldn’t) play when users want personalized content.

Catching Up

Our goal with the new NPR app is to quickly catch people up on the news. Before the release of the new app, we knew that 60 percent of NPR app users came primarily to read stories, and half of those only read — they didn’t tend to listen to live radio, newscasts or programs.

Therefore, the app’s first experience on the Home screen is a reading experience. The top story is followed by a feed of news stories, plus more stories from a variety of topics. To power the Home screen, NPR’s newsroom has an editorial process in place to curate which stories are most important to make sure the public is informed. Therefore, the app’s top story might not be the most recent story, but the most important.

This allows our users to catch up on the most important news quickly. We even hypothesize that users can feel “caught up” by skimming headlines and story descriptions, without tapping through to read entire stories. Readers who are interested in certain topics — like science, books or music — can find more stories among 25 categories in the Topics tab.

Personalizing News

Participants in a recent user test indicated they would like alternative ways to display written news stories on the Home screen. That is, they might change the feed to sort stories by most recent, or they might only want to see stories from topics they’ve chosen, or from topics the app knows they’ve read.

Whether users choose to personalize their content, or expect the app to do it for them, a personalized news feed sounds awfully similar to the filter bubbles we’ve been warned about. Unsurprisingly, this request for personalization mirrors how users are accustomed to consuming content on social media.

So then, what is public media’s role in personalizing the news on our own platforms, and what has NPR done so far? The NPR One app offers a personalized flow of news, stories and podcasts. But what powers that personalization? I talked with Tamar Charney, the managing director for NPR One, who has written about the editorially responsible use of algorithms.

Tamar explained:

NPR uses personalization algorithms in some of our digital products, particularly NPR One. But we are committed to using them in an editorially responsible way. Important news stories are presented to everyone with no personalization. We also make sure you hear stories that are hand-chosen by editors to give you breadth and the serendipity you expect from public media.

But there are other stories where it isn’t essential that everyone hears them — stories that are basically “water cooler” sorts of stories, or stories that are more particular to one person’s tastes and interests. With stories like this, we believe personalization can help support your interests without compromising your understanding of the world.

Use of any personalization on NPR’s digital products is done with the oversight of experienced editorial leaders. Ultimately, personalization algorithms are an editorial tool. NPR brings the same editorial rigor, integrity, and values of public media to the use of personalization algorithms as we do any other tool of the journalistic trade.

Thinking Ahead

For me, Tamar’s explanation flipped the idea of personalization on its head. While some readers may be more interested in education stories than international news, they should still be offered breaking news from across the globe. Instead of offering only what a user likes, a responsible method of personalization offers substance to everyone, but prioritizes stories according to individual interests for those who want to dive deeper, or those who’d rather just see the latest major developments.

To be clear, our team — comprising newsroom and product folks — doesn’t have specific plans for personalizing written news stories for the NPR app. Still, how might this apply to a feed that aims to “catch you up” on the most important news? Fortunately, there are a range of human-driven ways to offer personalized content without skimping on substance. As we continue to think about the reading experience, we want to make sure we strike the right balance between personalization and a newsroom-curated experience.

Readers and listeners across the country depend on public media. We have a special responsibility to get personalization right. Best practices in design and user experience can help users understand what they’re seeing, what they’re not, and how to change it. If users were to tell us they’re not seeing the right mix of stories they’ve come to expect from NPR, that would be on us. We aim to offer an accurate, well-rounded curation of news, not the illusion of one. But in order to maintain a well-informed public, we must continue to balance a transparent user experience with our users’ requests and editorial best practices.

Read more about the new NPR app on npr.org. Download the app for iOS from the App Store. Go behind the scenes of the app’s redesign and user tests on NPR Design’s blog.