Comic circuit

News articles present important information in a lengthy, often exclusively textual way, which can be less accessible for teens and young adults looking to scan information quickly. News articles have the potential to reach a wider audience and tell more effective stories if presented in a visual, succinct, and engaging manner. Comics are a medium that can become an alternative to news articles, because their storyboard format has the ability to both inform and excite readers. We propose Comic Circuit, a website where users can create and consume news comics that are based on news articles. Low and medium fidelity prototypes of the system were designed after interviewing expert cartoonists and creating personas of potential users. We used our mid-fi mockups to conduct user testing with young adults, and did additional quality assurance of our design with a quantitative study. We present a high-fidelity prototype of Comic Circuit based on this testing and research. The community of users can benefit from this system by consuming news quickly, gaining recognition for their comic creation work, and expanding their skill set.