nw18 | Rohit kumar | UX UI Designer

Creating a Dashboard to create, assign, check status of the story - Case Study

BREIF

Network 18

Network 18 operates in various segments of the media and entertainment industry, including television, digital content, films, print, and more. Network 18 has been involved in the creation and distribution of news, entertainment, and other content across multiple platforms.

Creates, allocates, and tracks stories for reporters/stringers with specific instructions; views cross-channel stories and flags priority/breaking news.

Current Problem Area

Network18 runs a large multi-language news network with multiple regional channels.

Heads and Assignment Editors must create stories, check reporter and stringer (freelance reporter) availability, assign coverage, and track work status.

Currently, these workflows rely on verbal communication, WhatsApp, and Excel, causing Assignment teams to spend most of their time checking availability and story status instead of managing coverage efficiently.

Solution

Build a web application where Assignment Heads and Assignment Editors can create stories, view real‑time availability of reporters and stringers, assign coverage, and track status end to end.

Editors can monitor progress, preview submitted packages, and accept or reject work with feedback. Reporters and stringers—working from field or office—capture and submit assignments via the existing File18 app, which syncs seamlessly with the web dashboard for centralized oversight, auditability, and faster decision-making.

Persona's

No cross-channel visibility and ineffective communication tools lead to excessive time spent on manual status tracking and coordination.

Manages assignment workflow: creates stories, allocates to reporters/stringers, and access cross channel stories to edit and assign.

Struggles with multi-story tracking across stages and faces difficulty assigning optimal reporters/stringers during high-demand periods.

Manages user onboarding, role assignments (AH, AE, Admin), approves/rejects user requests, and maintains AE-to-Reporter/Stringer mapping database.

Assignment Editor Workflow

Admin Workflow

Insights

Struggles with balancing user approval decisions and ensuring optimal Assignment Editor mappings while preventing story misalignment with editorial direction.

Guided by persona needs and end‑to‑end workflows, we defined the key modules to address.

Patterning

Because this is a SaaS product and direct competitor UIs weren’t accessible, the problem space was decomposed into modules (Create, Assign, Track, Search/Filters, Status/Review), and patterning was performed for each.

For every module, alternative UI patterns were explored, then selected based on task efficiency, consistency, and scalability across tenants, resulting in a reusable pattern library that reduced clicks and improved time‑to‑task.

Story

The default landing dashboard shows real-time status of all assigned stories, who’s covering them, and each item’s stage and SLA so editors can see what’s on track or at risk at a glance.

My queue: stories assigned to the editor with status, deadline, and assignee avatar.
Assignees panel: which reporter/stringer is working on which story, current step, and blockers.
Filters and saved views: by channel, priority, region, assignee, and due time (e.g., due today).
Alerts: overdue or at‑risk stories surfaced first with quick actions (nudge, reassign, escalate).