Pressly (2012-2014)
See you later, aggregator
Role: Senior Product Designer
Key Challenges: To provide brands with a more immersive and engaging experiences through touch screen interfaces for their audience. To help boost subscription and marketing opportunities with their products. To support Pressly’s partners with a modular, scalable, and dynamic content management system for the product.
What I did: I owned all creative direction, brand design tools, CMS, and user experience design for the Pressly startup and its digital product.
Pressly was a B2B product that helped brands put their content on the web and digital devices in the most interactive and delightful way possible at the time. Pressly offered a subscription model and we collaborated with our subscribers to help build their digital identities and experiences using the platform.
Our goal was to provide the most innovative and delightful product experience possible for any brand that we collaborated with. We achieved this consistently and often during Pressly’s run.
I was responsible for all product branding, identity, and owned all of the CMS and system design that was leveraged by our team and clients to run the platform.
We designed the Pressly app before I knew what a content aggregator was. It’s also the first time that I really learned how to use grids to my advantage in design. This toolset would later become essential in my role at Business Insider.
The Toronto Star, Canada’s largest news publication, was our top collaborator. We leveraged the Pressly platform to create a unique tool to help bring their product into the digital space like their users had never seen before. We also worked with Wired, GQ, The Economist, Accenture, Rogers, Scotiabank, and The Grid.
We were early to a shift that would fundamentally change how brands approached digital content. At Pressly, I helped turn that opportunity into products and experiences that gave established brands a more compelling way to compete in an emerging digital landscape.
That experience shaped how I approach product design today: helping companies put their best foot forward by translating their vision into credible, differentiated, and highly considered digital experiences. Whether working with a startup or an established brand, my goal is to help teams elevate their product, strengthen their identity, and compete with confidence in their space.