What gets selected?
A positive-news promise begins with which stories enter the feed. Making a difficult headline sound cheerful does not change the event.
TOOLS
Xcode
ChatGPT
Figma
Google Gemini
Xcode
ChatGPT
Figma
Google Gemini
Good News
News on your terms.
An iPhone news reader with a more positive starting point and a writing style you can adjust.
- Role
- Product design & iOS development
- Timeline
- 2026 ongoing
- Category
- News · iPhone
01 · Overview
A different way to open the news.
Good News is an iPhone news reader built around a more positive starting point and a reading style the reader can adjust.
I wanted to make keeping up with the news feel more approachable. The starting idea was positive news and useful insights, with room to choose how a story is written rather than accept one presentation for everyone.
I designed and built the iPhone experience, from the sunrise identity and story cards to topic browsing, saved reading, and AI-assisted summaries. The central challenge became giving readers more control while keeping the story’s source and meaning clear.
The design challenge
Change the reading experience without losing the story.
Make the feed manageable, the source visible, and the personalization understandable.
My roleProduct design & iOS development
PlatformiPhone · SwiftUI
Core experienceDiscover → read → personalize → save
ProjectIndependent · 2026
About the evidence Project records & research
Interface images are native project captures. Earlier and revised feed screens document a real design iteration. The journey, story map, sketches, and wireframes were created retrospectively for this case study. Reader needs remain hypotheses; no interviews, controlled usability study, or measured wellbeing improvement are claimed.
How the design developed
The work moved between visual design, implementation, and checking the experience in the app.
- 01
Frame
Define the news experience I wanted to change.
- 02
Design
Develop the identity, story hierarchy, and reading controls.
- 03
Build
Implement the iOS app with AI assistance.
- 04
Refine
Carry the ticket treatment through the feed and discovery.
- 05
Review
Check real content, readability, and interface states.
02 · Discover
A calmer presentation still needs good judgment.
Reading tone, story selection, and trust are related decisions. They are not interchangeable.
How is it written?
A reader may prefer a warm summary, a shorter explanation, or a more reflective read. The writing style should remain a clear choice.
What stays intact?
Source attribution, factual context, and important uncertainty need to survive personalization. A tone setting is not proof of impartiality.
Desk research · Reuters Institute
Keeping up can feel like too much.
The 2024 Digital News Report describes news fatigue and selective avoidance. Its cross-market findings report that 39% felt worn out by the amount of news.
That supports investigating a more bounded reading experience. It does not establish that Good News reduces fatigue.
Read the 2024 research ↗39%
External research, not Good News user data
felt worn out by the amount of news
Reuters Institute · 2024 reportExternal research, not Good News user data
Two useful references. Two different jobs.
I reviewed published product descriptions while assembling this case study. This is a desk comparison, not a hands-on benchmark or user study.
Positive News
Choose constructive stories.
Positive News focuses on rigorous journalism about progress and what is going right. Its editorial selection is the product’s starting point.
The implication for Good News
Official reference ↗Story relevance has to support the name. Positive wording alone is not a selection strategy.
Ground News
Compare the coverage.
Ground News organizes coverage across publishers so readers can compare headlines, perspectives, and gaps in reporting.
The implication for Good News
Official reference ↗Keep the publisher visible. Personalized tone should not imply that the app has removed every source’s bias.
The direction I chose
A small reading session with a recognizable editorial surface and an adjustable writing style. The next validation step is checking story selection and summary fidelity alongside usability.
Reader profile · assumption to test
Someone who wants to keep up, with a little more control.
They may have a short break to catch up, want to know where a story came from, and prefer a clear explanation over an endless stream of headlines.
03 · Reader journey
From catching a headline to keeping a story.
The feed is only the beginning. Opening, understanding, adjusting, and returning need to feel connected.
Before reading
Show the topic, publisher, and date so a reader can decide what deserves attention.
During reading
Make the summary and chosen writing style understandable without losing attribution.
After reading
Keep saving and returning close to the story, rather than a separate task.
User story map
I mapped the native app’s activities and small interactions, then separated implemented behavior from questions for reader testing.
04 · Architecture & flow
Four destinations, one reading surface.
Home, Saved, Explore, and Profile form the main navigation. Search and article detail open in context, keeping the reading path short.
The reading flow includes the less polished moments.
Personalization has access rules, summaries take time to generate, and saving can fail. Those states are part of the experience.
Loading
Make the wait legible.
The article opens with a loading state while the generated read is requested. Keep the story’s identity available during that wait.
Access
Explain the next step.
Tone personalization checks Good News Plus access. The case study does not present subscription-gated choices as universally available.
Failure
Keep the context.
Summary and save failures have interface messages. The original story context should remain available rather than disappear behind a generic error.
05 · Design iterations
From a crowded card to a coherent reading space.
The project records show a real shift in navigation, hierarchy, and the way the story surface is used across the app.
The feed
Give the story a clear place to live.
The earlier screen used a large orange navigation bar, outlined category controls, and a crowded story card. The revision uses a quieter four-destination navigation, separate topic chips, and a ticket-shaped story deck.
What changed
01
Separate the jobs
Search and Profile sit above the story. Topic chips and main navigation no longer compete inside one bar.
02
Let the headline lead
Native serif type carries the story, with source and date in supporting roles.
03
Make progress visible
A story count and previous/next control give the session a visible boundary.
A system, not a single card
Carry the ticket through discovery.
Explore and Search reuse the warm paper, notched surfaces, headline style, and source metadata. The visual language continues when the reader leaves Home.
The layout, stripped back.
These separate sketches and wireframes were made retrospectively to explain the structure. They are not presented as earlier research records.
Retrospective sketches
Retrospective wireframes
06 · Visual design
A warm editorial identity, built into the interface.
The sunrise mark, paper background, apricot surfaces, and serif headlines belong to the same reading experience.
Brand identity
The sunrise is the app’s existing identity. Its apricot-to-paper transition also informs the story cards and small tone indicator.
Native palette
#F8F1E8Shell
#FCF8F3Paper
#EDA155Apricot
#111B20Ink
These colors are taken from the native theme. Light and dark variants are defined in the app; screenshot review of both appearances remains part of the visual QA work.
Typography
GoodNews
Abhaya Libre · wordmark
The bundled Abhaya Libre regular face is used for the logo text. The original vector wordmark is retained above.
New York · editorial headlines
The current feed uses iOS system serif for headlines. SF Pro supports descriptions, metadata, controls, and navigation. Native screenshot specimens preserve the actual glyphs.
Apple’s system font mapping ↗Native iconography
SF Symbols, paired with labels.
The four destinations stay named. Save, share, search, and close use the symbols visible in the actual interface.
A useful distinction
The shared theme also defines Rubik/Nunito fallbacks. The current feed’s visible typography is explicitly set to native system serif and sans; the case study reflects that screen-level implementation.
Components from the actual app
A compact sheet of native details. Colors, fonts, and states have not been recreated as lookalike controls.
Story ticket
Native app detailTopic chips
Native app detailStory counter
Native app detailTone control
Native app detailMain navigation
Native app detailArticle header
Native app detail07 · The app
The reading experience, screen by screen.
Explore native captures of the implemented interface. The tour shows app screens; it is not a live connection to the iPhone app.
Screen tour · native captures
Start with one story
Topics, a story deck, source information, and a visible reading action.
Use the screen buttons, then enlarge an image to inspect the native UI.
What the build shows
Topic browsing, a story deck, article summaries, source attribution, saved-content routes, and personalization entry points are implemented. The reviewed feed also surfaced stories that did not clearly match a positive-news promise. Content selection, generated-summary accuracy, and release-sensitive flows need their own validation; the visual case study does not establish those outcomes.
08 · Reflection
What I learned making Good News.
The interface can feel more welcoming. The harder product question is whether its content and personalization deserve that feeling.
Stay informed.Keep your perspective.
Swipe to read all six takeaways →
A positive promise starts with the stories selected.
Editorial direction
Changing tone must not change what happened.
Factual fidelity
A source deserves a visible place in the interface.
Trust
A small story deck can give a session a clearer boundary.
Interaction design
A visual language works when it survives the next screen.
Consistency
A working interface still needs testing with real readers.
Validation
What I would test next →
Can readers tell who published a story, recognize a generated summary, choose a tone, and return to a saved article? Alongside those tasks, compare every generated read with its source for omissions and unsupported framing.
Sources and project notes
Project evidence
Native screenshots and SwiftUI source from the owner’s GoodNews project, including FeedView, ArticleDetailView, the native theme, and project review records. Screens are project captures, not new usability-study observations.
External research
Reuters Institute · Digital News Report 2024; Positive News · About; Ground News · product explanation.
Visual provenance
The sun mark and wordmark are original app assets. The case-study banner is a generated brand presentation referenced to that identity; the homepage blueprint uses the actual vector logo. Components are pixel crops of native screens. Diagrams and structural sketches are retrospective explanatory work, not fabricated interview or process records.