Design: I made very minimal changes to the UI components at the beginning of my exploration. While I was researching other media sites and looking for inspiration, I quickly mocked up all instances where we could improve on to discuss options to scope out the amount of work and set priorities.
It was clear at first that I should not focus on the right rail. I did not want to hide any content in folders or accordions. The right rail could not alternate different widgets, so I turned my focus on article promo cards. UI felt a bit outdated, the scaling of the related, interstitial, and product widgets irrelevant and uninteresting with the catchy headline and a short blurb.
Pulling in from UI elements from the eCommerce sister site. product description text stylings and tag stylings.