Product Design

Digital Transformation: Public Notices Platform

Digital Transformation: Public Notices Platform

Nadia Burger

Sep 10, 2025

Summary

Led end-to-end product design to transform traditional print newspaper legal notices, government tenders and auctions into a digital publishing platform, deployed across 3 flagship properties (News24, Netwerk24, SNL24) serving millions of users.

Role: Lead Product Designer (sole designer)
Timeline: 2023
Users: Public searchers + Internal sales consultants

The Challenge

Media24's print newspapers had traditionally published legal notices, government tenders, and job listings in print. As print circulation declined, we needed to create a digital-first solution that would serve two distinct user groups with different needs: public users needing to find specific notices quickly (often for legal requirements), and internal sales consultants who capture and publish notices from clients.

The technical complexity included integrating with legacy SAP systems for billing and workflow, supporting established business processes, and deploying across multiple flagship properties (News24, Netwerk24, SNL24) with different brands while maintaining consistency.

My Process

  • Discovery: Stakeholder workshops to understand business processes, SAP constraints, and user needs

  • Research: User interviews with sales consultants and potential public users; analysis of print notice formats

  • Design: Information architecture, user flows, wireframes, high-fidelity prototypes

  • Validation: Usability testing and iteration
    Front-end website: Remote usability testing with 20 participants (ages 18-45) - 100% task success rate on mobile, 70% task success rate on desktop)
    Back-end platform: Moderated testing with 10+ consultants

  • Implementation: Close collaboration with engineering through build and launch

Solution

A. Public-Facing Platform

I designed a search-first interface that prioritized findability, as user research showed most visitors arrived looking for specific notices rather than browsing. The homepage featured prominent search with filtering by notice type, location, and date.

Key features:

  • Categorized browsing for three main notice types: Funeral notices (highest volume), Government tenders and auctions, and Commercial notices

  • Card-based layout that accommodated varied content lengths and formats from print sources

  • Mobile-optimized design since analytics showed majority mobile traffic

  • Clear information hierarchy making legal information scannable and accessible

The design balanced simplicity for public users with the complexity of handling diverse notice formats inherited from decades of print publishing.

Above: A high fidelity prototype of the Notices platform on desktop (News24 branded)

B. Back-End System for Sales Consultants

I designed an internal publishing interface that enabled sales consultants to efficiently capture, format, and publish notices from clients across multiple properties. Working within the technical constraints of Google's Material Design system chosen by the engineering team, I customized the interface to align with the Nova (our internal unified codebase) brand guidelines through strategic use of typography and color while prioritizing functional efficiency.

Key capabilities:

  • Structured data capture that guided consultants through required fields while accommodating varied notice types

  • Preview functionality to check formatting before publishing

  • Multi-property publishing allowing selection of which flagship properties to publish to

  • SAP integration for billing, client management, and workflow processes

  • Template system for common notice types to speed up publishing

The interface balanced efficiency for high-volume publishing with accuracy for legal content, while working within the constraints of existing SAP backend systems.

Above: The Dashboard of the back-end system

Impact

Successfully launched across 3 flagship properties:

Public-facing impact:

  • Enabled digital-first access to legal notices, government tenders, and job listings

  • Improved findability compared to print archives through search and filtering

  • Mobile-optimized experience for majority of users

Internal impact:

  • Streamlined publishing workflow for sales consultants

  • Maintained existing business processes while modernizing the interface

  • Successfully integrated with legacy SAP systems for billing and workflow

Technical achievement:

  • Created scalable design solution deployed across multiple properties

  • Designed for both public users (mobile-first) and internal users (desktop workflow)

  • Multi-sided product serving two distinct user groups with different needs

Long-term success:

  • Strong stakeholder confidence led to expansion of the design system to a separate Jobs platform also rolled out across 3 properties (with UI customizations)

  • Both platforms have operated successfully for 2+ years with no major issues or user complaints

  • Design framework proved robust enough for reuse across different product verticals, demonstrating scalability and stakeholder trust in the solution