In the age of misinformation: How BBC News strengthened trust in visual journalism
In a world of AI generated images and misinformation, even trusted images start to feel uncertain. I explored how making verification visible could turn trust into something users can see, understand, and act on.
Product:
BBC News
Platform:
iOS, Android
Role:
Sole product designer
Date:
2024
The Problem
The rise of misinformation impacts how people trust images online, including on BBC News
Images play a huge role in how people consume news on BBC News. But with the rise of misinformation, disinformation, and AI-generated visuals, it’s becoming harder for users to know what’s real, what’s been edited, and what might be taken out of context.
At the same time, the BBC puts a lot of effort into verifying images, by checking sources, confirming authenticity, and making careful editorial decisions. The problem is, none of that work is really visible to users. From the outside, BBC images can look no different from the unverified content people see elsewhere online.
That leaves users in a difficult position. They either have to spend time trying to verify images themselves, or make quick judgments that aren’t always accurate. Over time, that uncertainty can lead to confusion, mistrust, and disengagement.
The Opportunity
Making our verification process visible in a user friendly way, may increase trust on BBC News
This work tied closely to the BBC’s core value of trust. While a huge amount of effort goes into verifying content behind the scenes, very little of that is visible to users.
That felt like a missed opportunity. Instead of trust being something users are expected to assume, we could make it something they can actually see and understand, built directly into the experience rather than hidden in the background.
The Hypothesis
Transparency of information may help user feel confident in the aunthenticity of images
If we give users a clear and accessible way to understand where an image comes from and how it’s been verified at the moment they’re viewing it, they’ll feel more confident in what they’re seeing and trust BBC News more as a result.
My Role
I designed the end-to-end experience from discovery to development
I was the sole product designer on this project, working end-to-end from early discovery through to concept development.
I defined the problem space, planned and ran the research, and translated those insights into design directions. I also worked closely with product and editorial stakeholders to make sure the solution balanced user needs with BBC standards around accuracy, clarity, and responsibility.
Exploratory
Research
I started with exploratory research to understand how people interact with images in real-world contexts, before moving into any design work.
Journey
maps
I created and analysed journeys for different types of users, helping uncover patterns in how people think about credibility, attention, and decision-making.
Iteration and prototyping
I ideated on many design routes exploring different ways to surface information and testing how much detail users actually need to feel confident, without interrupting their flow.
The Process
Key Insights (from research)
When browsing online, users approach images differently, and need different levels of support
We conducted moderated usability research using BBC News App on mobile. Sessions were designed to closely mimic real‑world interaction scenarios on handheld devices, allowing us to observe natural behaviours and understand how users assess image authenticity.
What we didn’t know:
Whether users actively question images or simply accept/dismiss them without thought.
What we learnt:
Confidence levels varied widely…
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Some users were highly aware of mis/disinformation and approached images sceptically.
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Others assumed the BBC had “handled it already” and saw misinformation as something that existed elsewhere on the internet.
Decision:
We committed to designing a solution that could flex to both groups without fragmenting the experience.
What we didn’t know:
What users expect when they want to “check” an image. We needed to know whether users wanted deep investigation or quick reassurance, and the types of information that would make the user feel more reassured
What we learnt:
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Users want lightweight reassurance by default
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Overly technical explanations reduce trust rather than increase it.
What didn’t we know:
At what moment do users feel uncertainty when browsing images online. Was it at first glance? After reading context? When sharing or discussing?
What we learnt:
Doubt occurs immediately, often before users read accompanying text
Decision:
Information needed to increase trust, must be available at the point of image consumption. It should be embedded as part of the experience, and readily available alongside the image.
The solution
The balance between transparency and simplicity was the key to this solution
I designed a lightweight modal that sits alongside the image, giving users access to key trust signals in a clear and digestible way. This included things like where the image came from, whether it had been verified by the BBC, and whether any editing or AI tools were involved.
One of the biggest challenges was finding the right balance between transparency and simplicity.
Provenance data can be complex and technical, and editorial standards mean it needs to be communicated carefully. At the same time, space is limited especially on mobile, and users don’t want their reading experience interrupted.
The aim was to provide reassurance for users who were looking for it, while staying unobtrusive for those who weren’t.
A key trade-off was holding back on detail. While more information might support deeper investigation, our research showed that too much complexity actually reduced trust for many users. So I focused on keeping things simple and clear, with the option to expand in the future.
Experimentation
The balance between transparency and simplicity were the important factors to test
Through usability testing, I explored two different ways of presenting information, testing levels of detail, interaction patterns, and how the modal is introduced.
This helped validate key decisions around how and what to show, playing around with the balance between transparency and simplicity.
If taken forward, this would move into live experimentation, testing how different approaches impact both trust and engagement.
A modal that displays all provenance information on the screen in view. The user selects a button alongside the image to reveal.
Variant 1
A swiping carousel that progressively reveals the provenance information.
Variant 2
Impact
A shift in strategy on how trust is implemented on BBC News
Although the feature hasn’t been released yet due to roadmap changes, it helped define a clear direction for how trust could show up more visibly within BBC News.
It shifted the thinking from trust being something implicit, to something that can be actively designed into the product.
It also introduced a scalable pattern that could be applied beyond images, into areas like video or breaking news.
What I would do next...
Personalising the experience across our different user groups
The next step would be to test this in a live environment and understand how it impacts both trust and behaviour.
I’d want to explore how different levels of detail affect user confidence, and whether the experience could adapt to different types of users, offering more reassurance to those who need it, while staying lightweight for others.
There’s also an opportunity to build on this further through personalisation, and to extend the approach across other types of content where trust is just as important, like the live reporting space.
Designing for a diverse user base
Learnings and relfections
In this project, I learnt that when designing for multiple user groups, it's not always useful to treat their needs as opposing forces. This project taught me that needs and goals are rarely completely opposite, and most users are trying to accomplish something fundamentally similar, shaped by different contexts and expectations.
We focused on identifying the shared foundation that everyone relied on, and used that as the anchor for every design decision. As the project progressed, the design stopped feeling like it was serving different user groups and started feeling like it was supporting a system that could adapt gracefully to whoever was using it.