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JUMPLIST

Context

Problem

Market Positioning

Hypotheses

Basic Architecture

Design

Innovation

Cross-Platform Scaling

National Scale Impact

Solving Information Chaos for Gen-Z Investors

One Man Army

Dec 2025 - Jan 2026 (2 Months)

I led the design of a mobile-first, AI-native experience, by architecting a system that handles massive data-density with a next-gen visual language, We pivoted a 70-year-old brand to capture a new audience.

The Interventions

  • Mobile-First Design: Redesigned the entire Budget hub for high-concurrency, thumb-driven navigation.

  • Budget GPT: Built an AI-native interface to translate complex fiscal policy into natural language.

  • Branding: Created a new 3D visual identity.

4M+

Unique Viewers

35%

Increase in GenZ Footfall

8M+

Total Page Views

Context

A basic understanding of Budget

The Union Budget is the Indian government's comprehensive blueprint of estimated revenue and expenditure for the coming financial year. It is presented by the Finance Minister, it shapes economic policy, allocates funds for development, sets taxation, and ensures fiscal management.

Budget Day @The Economic Times

Budget Day is the single most volatile 24-hour period for the Indian economy. At The Economic Times, this translates into a massive "Information Chaos" i.e. millions of users hitting our app or website simultaneously.

Where is the problem?

First, we analysed all available data from the past 7 years:

Here are some key insights

40+

Current Median User Age

78%

Bounce Rate | Aged 18-30

<45s

Average Session Duration for GenZs

Data confirmed a median user age of 40+ visit our platform on Budget Days. The brand clearly faced a UX barrier for younger audiences. My mission was to design a high-energy, visual-first design language that directly captures the attention of the Gen-Z audience. At the same time, we did not wanted our legacy group (40+) to feel alienated.

What did I do?

I led the design of a system that ultimately drove a 35% increase in youth footfall while maintaining record-breaking 2 Lakhs+ concurrent active users.

Market Positioning

The Economic Times has a legacy of being an Institutional brand for the 40+ demographic. This year we wanted to make a design pivot. By shifting into the 'Experimental/Next-Gen' quadrant, we directly challenged the visual dominance of digital-native players like Finshots.

Hypotheses

3 core hypotheses we established

  • Younger users feel the Budget is a "Macro" event that doesn't affect them.

To maximize retention, I implemented an Interleaved Content Strategy. By 'sandwiching' high-engagement sections between foundational news blocks, we prevented audience drop-off at both ends of the spectrum. This architecture allowed us to serve the 22-30 Next-Gen investors without alienating our core audience (40+).

  • Dense, text-heavy news creates "Visual Fatigue" for mobile-first users.

To maximize retention, I implemented an Interleaved Content Strategy. By 'sandwiching' high-engagement sections between foundational news blocks, we prevented audience drop-off at both ends of the spectrum. This architecture allowed us to serve the 22-30 Next-Gen investors without alienating our core audience (40+).

  • Financial terminology is a language barrier for first-time investors

To maximize retention, I implemented an Interleaved Content Strategy. By 'sandwiching' high-engagement sections between foundational news blocks, we prevented audience drop-off at both ends of the spectrum. This architecture allowed us to serve the 22-30 Next-Gen investors without alienating our core audience (40+).

Basic Architecture

Balancing Trust and Engagement

I implemented an Interleaved Content Strategy. By 'sandwiching' high-engagement sections between foundational news blocks, we prevented audience drop-off at both ends of the spectrum. This architecture allowed us to serve the 18-30 age group without alienating our core audience (40+).

To maximize retention, I implemented an Interleaved Content Strategy. By 'sandwiching' high-engagement sections between foundational news blocks, we prevented audience drop-off at both ends of the spectrum. This architecture allowed us to serve the 22-30 Next-Gen investors without alienating our core audience (40+).

Designing for Engagement

Tri-State Live Blog

Designed the live feed into a Tri-State Navigation Toggle (Budget | Markets | Tax). This allowed users to context-switch between different tabs without losing their scroll position.

New Interaction

Implemented a Vertical Section (Autoscroll) for the sectoral news feed. The system automatically cycles through the key industries (Defense, Agri, Tech).

  • The automation is designed to be Interrupted by Intent. The loop runs infinitely until a user-initiated touch event is detected. At that point, the system hands over full control to the user, transitioning from Passive Discovery to Active Consumption.


  • The UX Goal: Attention Retention. By introducing motion into a traditionally static news list, I created a "Look-at-Me" moment that captures the Gen-Z user’s attention within the critical first 3 seconds. This ensures the user sees the personal relevance of the Budget (e.g., "Tech" or "Pharma") before they have a chance to bounce.

New Entry Points

To solve for "Scroll Blindness," I deviated from the native ET Red (#E72341) and implemented a high-contrast sapphire blue palette for the Budget '26 widgets.

'Blast from the Past'

Architected a storytelling module using a vintage aesthetic to house historical budget data/articles.

Innovation

Introducing BudgetGPT

The Goal: Provision of providing instant, personalized answers to complex fiscal queries to younger users via 'BudgetGPT'.

  • We thought of developing BudgetGPT that solves user's personal questions ("How does the new capital gains tax affect my mutual funds?") that a generic search results page or long news articles cannot answer instantly.

  • Dual-Layer Validation: The response can dynamically fetch and display relevant ET articles alongside every AI answer, providing a dual-layer of validation and deep-dive reading.

  • To validate the concept, I designed a functional in-house prototype. This allowed us to stress-test the interaction logic and data-fetching patterns (mapping GPT responses to relevant ET articles) while evaluating the backend required for a large userbase.

View Prototype
However,

While the idea provided high utility, the project was strategically paused for public launch this year because of tech constraints, sponsorship acquisition and monetisation goals :(

But we are on this! May we see it live in Budget 2027.

Cross-Platform Scaling

Resilience at Scale

  • I scaled the core variations (Free Use/Prime User, with/without TV, with /without Live Blog, Ad placements etc.) to adapt dynamically. (Thanks AUTOLAYOUT!)

  • Responsive: These were designed for Web as well.

  • High-Concurrency Performance: To maintain 99.9% uptime, I worked with the tech team to optimize visual assets.

National Scale Impact

My design decisions directly contributed to record-breaking engagement metrics for the 2026 Union Budget:

4M+

Unique Viewers

8M+

Total Page Views

200k +

Concurrent Active Users

#1

SEO Ranking

35%

Increase in GenZ Footfall

15+

Corporate Sponsors
Subscription Growth

Led to a double-digit percentage spike in ET Prime sign-ups.

Sponsorships

This slight design pivot also helped bringing JioHotstar as our main sponsor (which never happened before!).

Solving Information Chaos for Gen-Z Investors

One Man Army

Dec 2025 - Jan 2026 (2 Months)

I led the design of a mobile-first, AI-native experience, by architecting a system that handles massive data-density with a next-gen visual language, We pivoted a 70-year-old brand to capture a new audience.

The Interventions

  • Mobile-First Design: Redesigned the entire Budget hub for high-concurrency, thumb-driven navigation.

  • Budget GPT: Built an AI-native interface to translate complex fiscal policy into natural language.

  • Branding: Created a new 3D visual identity.

4M+

Unique Viewers

35%

Increase in GenZ Footfall

8M+

Total Page Views

S G X T O J K L R M P

D E S I G N Q A W Z Y

I S B Z W P A M N C U

E V E R Y W H E R E K

S T L O H D Y O G V F

S G X T O J K L R M P

D E S I G N Q A W Z Y

I S B Z W P A M N C U

E V E R Y W H E R E K

S T L O H D Y O G V F

S G X T O J K L R M P

D E S I G N Q A W Z Y

I S B Z W P A M N C U

E V E R Y W H E R E K

S T L O H D Y O G V F

Work In Progress. More to come.

Handcrafted with 🧡 by Brijesh.