During the recent INMA Webinar Unlocking Premium: How to Elevate Your Digital Product — and Its Price Tag, Eva Günther, head of digital product of NZZ, and Daniel Marx, product manager at Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung, shared their insights on how navigation changes can significantly impact user experience. 

Their discussion resonated with me, and I wanted to delve a bit deeper into some of the navigation strategies they’ve implemented.

A while ago, I showcased the The New York Times’ app and its intuitive navigation. I noticed The Washington Post has adopted a similar approach, splitting navigation between content in the top bar and format options in the bottom bar. This dual-layer navigation strategy is emerging as a popular trend across news apps.

When NZZ revamped their app, they reimagined their top navigation to mimic the social media style, similar to the way Instagram showcases content through stories. 

In this design, the top navigation acts as a dynamic content carousel, inviting users to swipe through different stories or highlights. Importantly, when these stories are active, the bottom navigation remains visible, ensuring access to the core content is never lost.

The bottom navigation on the NZZ app is focused purely on content access. Arranged from left to right, the buttons provide direct pathways to key areas: home, editions, explore, search, and a personalised area labeled “My NZZ.” This thoughtful layout separates content discovery from content consumption, making it easier for users to navigate without feeling overwhelmed.

In contrast, FAZ’s new premium product, Der Tag, offers a distinct experience. Although not the main news product, Der Tag provides a limited number of curated stories in a beautifully designed app accompanied by a fresh user flow. 

One of the innovative design elements in Der Tag is the introduction of a bottom right navigation for each story. From top to bottom, this navigation panel reads: summary, listen, save, share. This feature is designed to give users quick, context-sensitive controls, allowing them to engage with individual stories in a more interactive manner.

Of course, one of the biggest challenges with any navigation redesign is changing user behaviour. For users accustomed to swipe gestures and updated navigation styles seen on many modern apps, the transition might feel quite intuitive.

However, for a segment of users who are more set in their ways, an onboarding process for the new design is essential to prevent confusion or frustration. This is a challenge but certainly one that can be solved with thoughtful design and user education.

The evolution in navigation design leads us to an interesting question: Are we witnessing the gradual end of the traditional hamburger menu, at least for content-rich news applications? 

As news apps move toward more streamlined and visually engaging navigation structures, the old paradigms may be replaced by more innovative solutions tailored to today’s digital consumption habits.

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