Deutsche Welle

With 10 million monthly visits, Deutsche Welle—a German state-owned international broadcaster and most prominent news portal—wanted to unify its three main channels (TV, radio, and news site) into one seamless, accessible web experience. Facing the spread of fake news and operating across 30 different languages, DW needed a strategy that upheld transparency and authenticity while modernizing digital operations. Team led by me entered a competitive pitch (against agencies from New York and London) with a clear message: this wasn’t just a website redesign, but a transformation of DW’s entire digital ecosystem. We managed to capture the client’s heart and mind and sealed the collaboration instantly.

Over the course of a year, I led a number of extensive workshops in Berlin with various DW departments to define a new product mission and vision—one that ultimately became DW’s official guiding statement. Supported by in-house analytics, we distilled user data into personas, shaping a revised information architecture and creating comprehensive wireframes for both desktop and mobile. These prototypes demonstrated how to seamlessly weave together multilingual content, live TV, and radio under a single unified design system. The goal was to honor DW’s journalistic integrity and global audience needs while showcasing a contemporary digital brand.

I presented our final deliverables to DW’s board of directors, emphasizing how this holistic approach not only streamlined user journeys but also reinforced DW’s role as a credible source amid an era of rampant misinformation. Feedback was overwhelmingly positive: even 1.5 years later, approximately 90% of our recommended solutions remained intact on the beta site. By harmonizing all content channels and focusing on user-centric design, we helped Deutsche Welle evolve its digital presence to meet both its ambitious business goals and its commitment to truthful, high-quality reporting.