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PlayStore URL: Click here

AppStore URL: Click here

My Role: UI/UX Designer & Mobile App Developer (Frontend / React Native)

Year: 2021

Results: Achieved 50,000+ downloads, a 4.7-star rating, and ranked Top 4 in Malaysia’s news category — behind only Twitter, Reddit, and Newswav.

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Background

In 2021, COVID-19 accelerated an already growing trend — print readership was shrinking, and physical newspaper circulation became harder to sustain. Oriental Daily News, one of Malaysia’s leading Chinese-language newspapers, made a bold decision:

Go fully digital.

No more print. No fallback. Just mobile app and web.

But going digital wasn’t just about survival. It was about reimagining how a legacy newspaper could stay relevant — across generations, formats, and platforms.

The Challenge

Oriental Daily was ready to go fully digital — but building a mobile app wasn’t just about putting articles on a screen. We had to create a mobile experience that felt native, relevant, and rewarding to readers across generations.

Our goals were clear:

• Make the app easy enough for older readers, engaging enough for younger ones
• Create space for ads and monetization without ruining the reading experience
• Build in features that drive habit, loyalty, and discovery
• Design for scale — in content, traffic, and revenue

What We Built (And Why It Mattered)

We designed an app that was more than a newsreader.

It was a platform for loyalty, eyeballs, and growth.

#1 – A Personalized Experience for Every Reader