PROJECT DATE ///
May 9, 2024
AGENCY ///
Code and Theory
ROLE ///
UI/UX Design
The Minnesota Star Tribune Redefined
To future-proof The Star Tribune, Code and Theory redesigned its digital experience, creating a modern, responsive design system that enhances accessibility, flexible publishing, and premium ad opportunities. The new system replaces a dense layout with immersive storytelling, modular tools, and scalable infrastructure, ensuring adaptability in a rapidly evolving news industry.
Overview
Facing shifts in technology, consumer behavior, and monetization, The Star Tribune partnered with Code and Theory to transform its digital experience. The goal was to create a modern, responsive design system that would improve accessibility, enhance publishing capabilities, and introduce new advertising opportunities.
Challenges & Approach
The previous Star Tribune platform was dense, text-heavy, and rigid. The new system needed to be scalable, flexible, and visually engaging, catering to younger audiences while maintaining the newspaper’s journalistic integrity.
Design Evolution: We developed a modern, adaptive layout with clear typographic hierarchy and immersive storytelling elements.
Publishing Flexibility: New page-building tools allowed for greater editorial control, ensuring adaptable templates across different content types.
Advertising Innovation: A premium ad system was integrated, unlocking new monetization opportunities while preserving user experience.
Read more > In good company: How publishers use Figma to help design the news
My Role
As a UI Designer, I played a crucial role in ensuring the system’s adaptability across multiple devices. My contributions included:
Moble and tablet Adpatation: I designed and refined the responsive breakpoints for all page templates, ensuring seamless adaptability from desktop to tablet and mobile.
Design System Support: I collaborated with the design team to build and refine key components, maintaining consistency across the platform.
Breakpoint Management System: One of my key contributions was developing a structured breakpoint setup that streamlined the adaptation of components across different screen sizes. Instead of manually adjusting each component for various breakpoints, I implemented a variable-based system, allowing seamless transitions between desktop, tablet, and mobile views. This approach significantly reduced the time required for breakpoint adjustments, cutting my allocated design time in half by enabling automatic updates whenever a mode was switched.
The result was a flexible, scalable, and future-proof digital experience that not only modernized the Star Tribune brand but also set a foundation for the future of digital journalism.
© Jorge Junior
2025