Digital Daily Newspaper Redesign: A Prominent 'Edition' Homepage Alternative
Today's design feature: the "prominent 'edition' homepage alternative" representing that day's edition. For eager-to-be-informed readers, the path to today's edition is a tiny link hiding in the witness protection program on a regional newspaper's "branding" homepage.
Some readers want breaking news. Smart readers who plan ahead are actors, not reactors and want a slice of news, that day's "edition." And many digital readers want to see the same view that paper's print subscribers see -- that reader's retired parents, for example -- on that same day.
While the homepage is a nicely displayed "branding" advertisement, it is often a heap of time-indistinguishable linked story heds. Some headlines were published in that day's printed edition; some heds point to "resource stories" printed months ago on slowly developing topics like automatic vehicles; and and other story heds, while attractive, are resurfaced archive stories from years prior that were exceptionally reported - a chance for the paper to show off.
Certainly, these features on the branding homepage are all lovely.
But for the eager-to-be-informed reader, the branding homepage with mixed-time story heds create a lot of work and cognitive load to discern what gives him or her a slice of today's "edition" of the news. A prominent "edition" homepage alternative could help the region's residents gain a regionally-shared view of *today's edition* and feel less silo'd, less ad-targeted.
What it is - analog:
A daily newspaper connects a region. Readers either subscribe or buy that day's paper in dead-tree form. Or they log on, search the homepage, and click a hard-to-find "e-edition" link to load the pdf version of that day's paper into their tablet's or smartphone's web browser. (For a separate topic, the eager-to-be-informed reader then jumps through a few more hoops to arrange the pdf edition into the fullest most readable view.)
What it could be - digital:
With a more prominent link, and only a slightly more ready-for-prime-time "edition" paper at that link destination, the digital reader will be able see the same news layout the paper subscribers see. With the right layout software package (Adobe, are you listening?) that allows the newspaper's layout team to drop story text & photos onto a layout grid, the pdf version of that day's paper would have a much, much closer mirror in clickable form for digital readers to consume. If the digital "edition" paper also implemented the section-browse screen-swipe and section-page-browse screen-swipe features, the digital reader could discover, and jump into more of "today's" paper via alternative entry points.
Who wins - reader:
A "today's edition" homepage alternative takes the reader through more sections of the paper, allows an eager-to-be-informed-reader a chance to read more of the paper. Clicking "up and out" of that day's newspaper as a digital "place" provides the reader less long-term satisfaction, more short-term relief. Allowing the reader to "enter" and "stay in" the paper via a sunken living room contained UI experience gains the reader greater time orientation and a shared view of that day's news that was seen by other residents and visitors in that region.
Who wins - newspaper:
The old way is an opportunity cost - the eager-to-be-informed reader wants to read today's paper, but through navigation frustration and excess cognitive load, cannot. A more prominent "edition" homepage alternative allows the reader to load more pages, creating more ad impressions. The pdf version of today's paper displays the ads for longer time periods and earns higher visibility. The ads are not targeted, which readers and viewers appreciate because they know it's a shared view.
This work by AJ Fish is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial 4.0 International License.
