A new destination for AI content
AI Atlas is a CNET initiative that consolidates AI coverage into a single destination and creates a high-value surface for sponsorship. Early performance showed strong traffic, but weak content discovery and shallow engagement, limiting both user value and its sponsorship potential.
Strong traffic. Weak depth.
The data told a clear story: users arrived, skimmed the surface, and left. For a property built around editorial depth and credibility, that was both a UX failure and a business risk to the sponsorship model.
Almost all engagement landed on content rivers, while the navigation meant to guide users (jump links, FAQs, glossary) saw near-zero interaction.
Product Design
I led the redesign across research, editorial, sales, and engineering. Beyond visual execution, I synthesised research into product opportunities, defined the information architecture, and translated competing stakeholder priorities into one coherent direction.
What the data told us – and what we did about it
Pairing six months of page analytics with 12 unmoderated sessions run on Userlytics – two six-person cohorts, one actively seeking AI content and one merely likely to encounter it – surfaced consistent patterns. Each one mapped directly to a product decision.
Less robotic, more human
Testing surfaced two brand problems: users felt overstimulated by the page’s colours and visuals, and the palette read as overly feminine for the broader audience we needed to reach. This was my first project owning branding end-to-end, and I anchored the refresh in three moves.
Pull back the colour
Removed the light purple and reduced overall colour so the brand reads more sophisticated and digital – and less overstimulating.
Add human imagery
More people, fewer abstractions – so users can envision themselves using AI and the page feels relatable rather than robotic.
Lean into animation
Motion graphics (built with our motion design team) make the hub feel modern and guide users down the page.
One destination, two surfaces
The core insight: AI Atlas was serving two user modes (passive browsing and active search) from one experience, and doing neither well. I split it into a dual-surface architecture that separated the modes without fragmenting the destination.
Phasing the launch under constraints
Engineering capacity meant we couldn’t ship both surfaces at once. Rather than delay the whole redesign, I phased it – shipping the Hub first to start generating real signal, with the Directory following.
Hub experience
Full hub redesign with river prioritisation, persistent navigation, and elevated editorial credibility.
Directory
Filterable directory with cross-surface navigation. Both surfaces now live at cnet.com/ai-atlas.
What shipped – and what it moved
What I’d do differently
The biggest gap was entering without explicit, measurable success metrics tied to each decision. We had clear qualitative goals, but not the quantitative targets that make post-launch evaluation rigorous – a PM habit I’ve since adopted.
I’d also instrument prototypes earlier. Two sponsorships closing on prototypes alone signalled stronger commercial demand than we realised; testing with sales sooner could have shaped strategy from the start.