New journalistic platform for Swedish Kvartal

Kvartal represents a new kind of journalistic platform, one that both give you latest updates and goes deeper on the topics while bringing audiences and journalists closer together. Their vision is to foster a better public conversation, where readers and listeners don’t just consume content, but actively engage with both creators and each other.

Kvartal has always been a digital publication, but when they set out to become what they describe as Sweden’s first social news medium, their ambitions were held back by their existing technical platform. It was time to rethink the product from the ground up, and that’s where we entered the picture.

Together we designed and developed a completely new platform for both web and mobile, tailored to Kvartal’s long-term ambitions. The impact was immediate: following the launch, page views increased significantly compared to the same month the previous year. Development continues, with new features that will take Kvartal into the future.

"We have an outstanding collaboration with our team. In a very short time, they’ve done an incredibly impressive job together with us. With broad expertise, solid experience, and hard work, they brought our vision to life."

Ludde Hellberg, CEO at Kvartal

Our task was to redesign and rebuild Kvartal’s entire platform from scratch. This included developing a new mobile app for iOS and Android, a new website and a new editorial admin system. We also migrated all existing content to ensure that Kvartal’s full publishing history was preserved.

Our work focused equally on simplifying journalists’ day-to-day workflows and creating a modern, interactive experience for readers.

Our team of designers and developers worked closely with Kvartal’s product owner and key stakeholders. This collaboration is a clear example of how we aim to work with our clients: engaged, present, and transparent.

In addition to daily check-ins, we spent one day a week together in our office. This created a natural space for discussing even the smallest ideas. Rather than status reporting, meeting time was used for workshops where we explored and shaped the ideas that now define the platform.

"The team is honest, solution-oriented and exceptionally skilled, which makes them the best app developers I’ve worked with. They force me to prioritize, and that’s a very good thing."

Erik Verne, Product Owner at Kvartal

Our design team created the platform’s user flows, features and a complete design system based on Kvartal’s visual identity. The work was grounded in the reader’s perspective, with the goal of creating a platform that feels alive, relevant and encourages repeat visits.

On many digital platforms today, people increasingly consume content from specific individuals they choose to follow rather than from broad content categories. Kvartal brings this approach into journalism by putting selected profiles at the center of the experience.

In the design, profiles are clearly highlighted with names and images alongside the content, and the contributor’s perspective is transparent. Readers can also follow profiles and subscribe to curated newsletters created by them.

Profiles are key to fostering dialogue and keeping the platform alive. They can publish so-called thoughts, that are short analyses, reflections, or comments on other articles and podcasts on Kvartal.

This invites multiple perspectives on a topic and helps keep articles alive beyond their initial publication. Subscribers can also join the discussion by commenting on these thoughts, creating direct dialogue between readers and contributors – an essential part of Kvartal’s mission.

To reinforce the feeling of a constantly updated, living platform, we designed a new feature called events. Inspired by stories, the temporary feeds in social media, the events quickly gather the latest content in one place. Readers can swipe through articles, thoughts and podcasts in a smooth, engaging flow.

Today we don’t just read the news. We read, listen and might want to do both at the same time. That’s why it was essential to support audio versions of articles as well as podcasts in the app, with playback continuing even when the phone is locked or in your pocket.

With Kvartal’s strong focus on profiles, the platform is already prepared for future functionality where articles can be read aloud using AI-generated voices modeled after readers’ favorite contributors.

Kvartal’s previous technical setup had begun to limit future development. They needed a smoother editorial workflow and a stable foundation that could support new features and increasing traffic volumes.

Kvartal now consists of two applications, a website and a mobile app, which are both managed through a single system. A key goal of the new platform was to provide editors with a simple, efficient working environment while maintaining the flexibility required by different content types.

The previous platform used WordPress as its CMS, so we chose to build on that foundation while significantly streamlining administration. One major improvement was the introduction of a live editor, allowing editors to see exactly how content will look when published.

The news feed supports extensive variation: teasers can differ in size, color, media type, author visibility, subheadings and more. With so many options, being able to preview the final result live before publishing is a major advantage.

The live editor works seamlessly across both web and app, enabling editors to preview the complete experience in one place.

We developed a brand-new mobile app using React Native, enabling efficient development for both iOS and Android. The website was built in Next.js, with a strong focus on server-side rendering to optimize performance and SEO.

All development work was carried out with the goal of creating a robust, future-proof foundation that can evolve as Kvartal continues to add new features.

Kvartal’s new platform has been very well received by both readers and journalists. At the time of writing, the app holds a 4.7 rating in the App Store.

Looking ahead, Kvartal continues to develop the platform together with its readers. Upcoming initiatives will encourage even more discussion and make contributors’ political perspectives even more transparent.

So, what do you think? Take a look at the new website and do as Kvartal likes to say: think for yourself.