A look at the Al Jazeera App

Most notable news sites have apps to keep up with all of their different publications. Some apps are horribly designed, others are the best way to keep up with that particular news organization. Al Jazeera has a few different apps that are in different languages, but I only downloaded the English version since that is the one I can understand.

Upon first opening the app, it looks incredibly user-friendly. It opens up to the top stories section of the app which is similar to their website in the sense that it has it broken up by types of stories. It also has a section at the top dedicated to whatever they are live streaming at the time. It seems like the organization constantly has something streaming for viewers to tune into as it is happening, showing their dedication to getting the current events out as they happen.

As you can see, you can scroll at the top for different segments. One particularly interesting feature of the app is that it includes a tab for shows and a tab for documentaries, both of which the news organization produces. The shows appear to be segments that have new videos produced under them often and the documentaries seem more like one-time productions, though there is some overlap.

I think this is a great commitment to visual news. The only issue is that most of the content under the features tends to be 20-30 minutes long, so I wonder how many people watch the entire video. Some of their show segments include "The Bottom Line" "UpFront" and "The Big Picture." Below, you can see screenshots of their documentary section, their shows section, and a specific documentary available on the app.

Another interesting feature is that you can sign in through a few different social media sites to customize your feed within the app, or you can remain signed out. There does not appear to be any paywall within the app and there are not an overwhelming amount of ads. This makes the reading experience more enjoyable and uninterrupted.

Once I signed up, it created my own page where I could save articles, topics, and programmes. I like the personalized experience available within the app, something I have not seen in other news organization apps.

Lastly, they have a "watch" and "browse" section at the bottom as well. This might seem like an overwhelming amount of content to some people and I think the first page of top stories and the browse page could have been combined to cut down on too many buttons within the app. Some slight consolidation of information might make the app appear less busy.

Overall, I think the app is pretty well designed and more user-oriented than most. Oftentimes, news organizations just replicate exactly what is on their website, but Al Jazeera adds more content to their app and also gives a personalized experience.