Should your redesign include a social network?

On the surface - an easy answer is yes. You can always make your site more useful to an individual by providing them a login and giving them personalized information. Extrapolate out from that - you can almost always figure out a way to make your site useful to a group of users by allowing them to share their preferences with each other, and building a community from there is a logical extension.

But what exactly should your network consist of? In-depth user profiles like Facebook? Or cursory ‘following you, we’re not friends’ á la Twitter?

Confronted with this question in my own redesign process, I took a step back and created a series of framework questions.

1. What value can you provide to the individual by giving them user preferences?

2. What value can users gain from each other - on a one-to-one level?

3. What can value can an individual gain from a social organism?

Thinking through these questions, keeping your content and your audience in mind - determine what kind of social network is best suited for your site.

[This post is the second in a series on Redesigning AltWeeklies.com]

One of the first steps in any redesign project should be identifying who your users are. From there, you assess what the needs of your users are. As you proceed with your project, these groups will give you a framework for testing your design - does it meet User A’s needs?

Many folks will create demographic or pyschographic [wiki] profiles to use when beginning a design project.

As AltWeeklies.com has a wide range of content but a singular goal - getting folks to click on links to read stories on our member papers’ sites - I decided to draw up behavioral profiles, which outline the different ways that folks can interact with our site. Since these are behavioral profiles, individuals can shift between the groups at will - and our long-term goal is to convert as many of our site’s casual users into addicts. I did not treat RSS-users as separate entities, reasoning that people access sites via RSS in similar consumption patterns to browser-based readers.

I used past surveys of user behavior, in conjunction with anecdotal user feedback, site metrics/statistics and accrued knowledge about web behavior to create these profiles.

Behavioral User Groups for AltWeeklies.com Readers

Addict

Addicted to our site, the Addict visits on a regular basis and reads all updated material.

Proto(typical)

The proto(typical) user pulls up our site along with other staples (cnn.com, gmail.com, etc.) throughout the course of the workday. This user considers us a destination for news and remembers the brand AltWeeklies.com.

Binge

The binge user finds our site in the course of research, and devours archival content in pursuit of topical interest (environment, gay+lesbian news, political coverage). Ideally, the binge user will be converted into a proto user (loyal to site brand) or a snail user (newsletter recipient with occasional clickthru).

Media

The Media user is a media professional who uses AltWeeklies.com as a barometer to check on industry trends. (Considered separate from the Purchaser in Group Two).

Snail/ Passive

The snail user receives our newsletter content, but only occasionally clicks thru to read stories of interest.

Linked

The linked user visits our site via a random link on the web, and immediately clicks thru to read an article without engaging with our brand.

It should be noted that AltWeeklies.com teasers on other sites offer links to publications via redirects; i.e. we garner a click via the redirect, but users do not visit our site. This is changing!

Google

A Google user finds our site via search, and immediately clicks thru to read an article without engaging with our brand.

Of course, readers are not the only users of AltWeeklies.com - story-sharing, the initial focus of the site, is still a site function.

Overview of Behavior for AltWeeklies.com Purchasers

A section editor or editor in chief, the purchaser is a motivated buyer who is seeking stories to fit specific criteria for a specific purpose. We assume that purchases happen on a ’seek’ vs. ‘find’ basis.

• Purchasing Criteria: ‘Section’ of content (news vs. music), Topic (Metallica review), Word count, Publication, Author
• Purchasing Motivation: Last minute hole in editorial content, scheduling content to cover for a staffer’s absence, accompaniment to locally-produced content

Step One was identifying our users - next will be identifying their needs and goals - without identifying solutions, which will come later in the design process.

What do you think? Did I miss a user group? Are there other ways people use the site that I have not thought of?

More on Redesigning AltWeeklies.com

Here at AAN, we’re taking on a redesign of AltWeeklies.com, the Webby-nominated aggregate site featuring the best reporting and arts and entertainment coverage from our members in the U.S. and Canada.

I’ve decided to blog the redesign process here at web.aan.org - to get valuable feedback from readers, and to share the work that we’re doing in the hopes that it might serve as inspiration for redesigns elsewhere.

Step One: Figure Out What You Got and Where You Wanna Go

AltWeeklies.com poses a unique challenge for redesign. The site launched in Summer 2004 as a story-sharing site. The idea was simple in concept - member papers will post articles that they think others might be interested in purchasing. Web forms will automate the purchase, and search tools will make it easier to find content that will work for your paper.

But there were a few bumps in the road - staff-starved alts just didn’t have the time to flll out the form to post links to their material, and in many cases, it was easier to pick up the phone to purchase a story than use the site.

When Senior Editor Jon Whiten joined AAN in January 2006, he began adding lots of stories; rotating top stories in the sections, and highlighting newsworthy articles at the top of the site. Soon it became clear - AltWeeklies.com was a good story sharing site, but it could be a great site for readers to find alternative news and arts coverage.

So, what did we have?

• Human-edited aggregation site, featuring links to the best content in alts.
• Site design optimized for story-purchasing.
• Production process consisting of databasing fields related to the purchase of articles.

Where did we wanna go?

• Destination site for finding alternative news and arts coverage; a one-stop-shop that will drive traffic to our members’ sites, and help them create brand awareness beyond the local or regional level.
• Site design optimized for readers to find content that interests them, while maintaining and improving the ‘members only’ tools that allow editors to purchase stories.
• Streamlined production process that minimizes tedious cutting and pasting work, and only databasing relevant fields.

That’s a very condensed version of the process I used to figure out ‘where we were’ and ‘where we wanna go’ - but having those condensed goals in front of us will serve as barometers during the design process to gauge how well our efforts match up to our users’ needs.

[This post is the first in a series on Redesigning AltWeeklies.com, which can be read in full at web.aan.org/content/redesigning_altweeklies]

Here’s a quick improvement idea for your site - where is your newspaper website located?

Take a fresh look at your website - the way a first time reader might, if they happened upon a story link or a classifieds page. Looking at the header (the top part of a website that has the site name and slogan) - can your first-time reader identify where your paper is located?

I gave this a test on randomly selected AAN papers.

Where is this paper located?

This paper has a great name, but it’s not immediately clear where it is located.

Some information is better than none …

But to a worldwide audience, a city name or county might not be descriptive enough

I like the header on this site, which lists the internationally-known city name three times, and gives a clear overview of what this site is about: Everything Toronto.

Scroll down to the bottom of your site to check the footer navigation.
This is an easy place to list the full address and contact information for your paper - without making any design sacrifices.

Counter Argument

So what? Our readers know our name. They certainly know what city they live in! I don’t see how this matters.

Well …

it is true that your print readers certainly know what city they are in when they pick up a copy of your paper. But your online readers could be, well - anywhere. And while there is some truth to the argument that local online readers are the most valuable to your paper and your advertisers, it’s just not good business — or journalism — to confuse potential audiences.

Recently, the editor of an AAN paper asked for suggestions on improving his paper’s website. I received permission to blog my answer to him - so that we all could offer ideas.

Above the fold

“Above the fold” is a term leftover from print newspaper days, but it has relevance in the online world, where users rarely scroll down the homepage to view additional content. [See Poynter’s EyeTrack Studies.]

So what’s visible above the fold? Navigation, ad content, a rotating story/image teaser, a link to the cover story, and 3 upcoming events.

What’s below the fold? Tons of articles, more ad content, and listings search engines.

Five Quick Ideas for Improving this Site

1. Revamp the ‘above the fold’ space on the homepage. Move search for events and restaurants into a prominent position. Shrink the size of the rotating image (if it is kept), and add navigational elements that allow readers to flip back to the 3rd or last image they saw.

2. Make it a conversation. Add commenting functionality to articles. Consider displaying user comments on your homepage or on the section fronts to let readers know their voices are being heard. Including “bloggers linking here” links from technorati on articles.

3. Write headlines for the web. “Lonely Rose,” “Hay Ride,” and “Fuzzy Math” are clever headlines that work well in print layouts with images and subheads as context clues, but to readers who scan online, they don’t contain enough information. (Nor are they particularly search engine friendly.)

4. Invest in events listings. It can be a tremendous amount of work on the backend, but users expect the robust events listings functionality that they can find from sites as varied as Pollstar, Upcoming.org, and Eventful. I could only find 1 music event on this site, but I know there are many in the print edition.

5. Consider a ‘daily’ content strategy. This one is a toughie. But no matter how well designed a site of Thursday’s content is, it will be old hat to readers on Tuesdays. Brainstorm ways to get material on the website daily - publishing syndicated or feature stories online before they are printed, for example. Create robust events listings that feature ‘things to do today’ on the homepage every day.

Does anyone else have ideas for improving this website? What has worked for you?

What are your readers actually seeing when they visit your website? Eyetrack studies may help you make some educated guesses.

Eyetrack studies started back in 1990. Today, odd gadgets on people’s heads track exactly what users are looking at when they visit sample websites. The studies have progressed over the years, becoming more sophisticated.

More about Eyetrack Studies

• History of Eyetrack Studies
• Eyetrack Accuracy
• Poynter’s Overview of the first Eyetrack study

The most recent batch of Eyetrack data was taken in late 2005. The full results will be debut March 28 at the 2007 ASNE conference in Washington, DC, but the USC Annenberg Online Journalism Review [ojr.org] has published a highlights article this week.

Among the findings?

Write - or reformat - for the web

• Readers get through material faster, remember it better, and have better reading experiences.

Use precise titles and simple navigational structure

• Use scannable text and eliminate useless graphics

Use only relevant images

• No stock photography.

If you’re not familiar with the Eyetrack studies, it’s worth taking the time to read through the complete Eyetrack III report from 2004. It will change the way you think about your paper online.

The full results from the 2007 study will be published at Eyetrack.poynter.org.