Always the first to know

Summary

Client: Deutsche Presse-Agentur (dpa)

app.dpa-select.de
Deliverables: Ad-hoc news stream
Personalised content
Mobile usability
Services: Consulting
Design
Concept
Frontend Development

Filtered breaking news

The remit: taking an outdated prototypical service and developing into the appealing, real-time core service dpa-Select. The dpa delivers all the relevant news to its business customers from its dpa outlets in real time, filtered according to the user’s individual interests.

Having selected the subjects and issues they want to keep up to date on, users then get all the relevant ad-hoc news pushed to their mobile device. This up-to-the-minute “breaking news” gives users a time advantage in their specific field of work and can help when it comes to making quick decisions inside a company.

Central to the project: Mobile optimisation

The previous version was not user-friendly and did not allow for personalised user content. Providing a cost-effective service wasn’t feasible either using the clunky and outdated architecture.

The aim now was to develop the service, which was originally conceived for desktop applications, with a focus on making it user-friendly for mobile usage too.

Customisation and an intuitive user interface

Factorial advised the dpa team and, working together, we developed both a concept and a design for the new service, and then programmed the frontend. The standards already put in place during the dpa-Agenda project saved a lot of time here. The new mobile application allows content to be personalised – by pre-selecting interests and subjects.

Users can now receive e-mail and push notifications in real time using their dpa ID. We involved the users in the product development process. This helped us to come up with an intuitive and easy-to-use interface, which centres around the features that users are looking for and which allows them to switch seamlessly to other dpa services.

Gruner + Jahr

The new home of all major G+J publications

It was early on that the Hamburg-based publisher Gruner + Jahr began digitising its strong print brands. A complex landscape of heterogeneous systems became entrenched over time. A large, cross-departmental project team was therefore put together with one major overriding objective: to reduce complexity.

dpa

All important news at a glance

Development of a central and user-friendly platform for the services and tools offered by the German Press Agency (Deutsche Presse-Agentur). The platform is designed to provide fast, straightforward access to the relevant dpa offers including dpa-Select and dpa-Agenda.

Gruner+Jahr

Access to the really exclusive content

Create a premium content section for the publisher Gruner + Jahr, designated for paid content. The new product STERN PLUS offers users the best of the magazine STERN – available digitally, anytime and anywhere, with daily news, exclusive stories and insightful reports. Content that can be both read and listened to, completely free of advertising.

dpa

Over 10,000 dates & topics in one single tool

Professionals working in all sections of the media rely on the fast, cross-channel, reliable, independent and impartial news provided by the “Deutsche Presse-Agentur”. The dpa also makes its journalistic products available to corporate customers in a systematic way. They can use dpa-Agenda to locate specific topics and pinpoint dates as they plan their future reporting schedules.

Image showing a person from the back wearing a black backback with a white badge on it saying "facts matter"

dpa-Factify

Declaring war on disinformation

In 2021, dpa’s fact-checking editorial team launched the Faktencheck21 project, which is co-funded by the Google News Initiative. Within this framework, dpa offers workshops on verification techniques for journalists from all over Germany to train them in dealing with false claims.