In looking at this article on the New York Times website today, something just wasn't right. Informative headline with key content? Check. Links to share, comment and print? Check. Picture of Obama and Geithner looking contemplative?
Check. There is even a small box of related stories, and a video of protesters. Plenty of eye-catching graphics and different text sizes. However, I think the problem is the text of the story itself. It's LONG. I don't typically oppose reading - it's great. But this text is not at all broken up with the exception of paragraph breaks. I feel that bold headings breaking up information - what happened, why you should care, what's next - would be valuable in making the text appear more manageable. Or, instead of putting the picture, video and boxes on the side, they could have centered them to help break up the long blocks of text.
And the Washington Post did the same thing.
CNN had something similar, but I find the links for videos in red that are at the end of several of the paragraphs are somehow breaking points. People may not do it, but it is like you can watch a video after a block of text as a break of some kind, or read text while you wait for it to load. I am much more likely to read something if I am waiting for something else.
I also like CNN's Fact Box, though I wish it had a box or some other graphic element to make it more interesting visually. And, the picture gallery at the top is far more interesting than just one picture. I definitely clicked through all three and like that there is a link to see more. Even the menu at the top of the story has three tabs - Read, Photo and Videos.
Also, credit to all three stories for having links on important words/people throughout for the opportunity to get more information.
You make a lot of good points. I feel like the sites that you mentioned could definitely do a lot more to break the information up for online culture and make the news a lot easier to read for the online audiences. The thing that gets me about news online, however, is that the pages just seem so complicated. Just looking at the pages on the New York Times and CNN websites make my mind go crazy. There are way too many links, advertisements, pictures, and text that distract and intimidate the reader. Maybe if there wasn't so much going on on the page, these companies would actually be able to focus on the overall appearance, structure, and readability of the actual content.
ReplyDeleteIs it just me or do other people feel like online news pages are a little difficult to follow and actually concentrate on too?
Also, the second link you included to the Washington Post actually links to the New York Times article you listed above instead. I'd be interested in seeing how the Washington Post handled this article as well.