I forgot to say what I specifically like about the New York Times article skimmer. There are really two things that stand out to me:
1. It provides roughly equal weight to all of the content choices available under each subject heading. That allows me to focus on searching the content instead of trying to decipher the site’s visual and editorial hierarchy.
2. It loads everything into a single frame or viewer. When I select a new subject it just reloads the same frame with a fresh batch of results. I don’t have to scroll. I don’t have to try and understand a new environment. I’m in the same environment, it’s just the information available to me that has changed.
One of the missing pieces to the puzzle is that when I do click on a story in the skimmer it takes me to a standard story page. I hope that they’ll further develop the skimmer product so that it loads the story into the skimmer window in a layout that is specific to that environment.
It’s been my contention for some time now that most (all?) news sites have been blind to the fact that their determination to recreate “pages” on the Web is a mistake. I can navigate any major news site OK. But it never seems like it’s quite right. In fact, it is often a frustrating experience. So I was relieved and excited to see the NYT’s “article skimmer” the other day. It is a small, but significant, step in the right direction. It is the future of news. Here’s what it looks like:
You’re not overwhelmed, are you? OK, I oversold it. In fact, they don’t make a big deal about it. This simple prototype is not the future of news. But it points us in the right direction.
The Web is but a conduit for information. It is interactive. It is visual. It is not a printed page. It is a view upon the knowledge of all mankind, or it hopes to be. And that is how we need to think of it, as a view, a porthole, a frame through which to look at all that our fellow travelers on this earth want to share with us. The Web is not a moment in time. It is an ever evolving imprint of who we all are at once.
OK. Enough BS. My point is that people come to the Web looking for information. They’re only looking for depth and embellishment when they find the topic/information they’re looking for.
So the entry point for a specific producer’s “Web site” should demonstrate that the producer understands the consumer’s need for information. A site, or entry point, should understand that the seeker is looking for information. The information architecture and interface design should be focused on making it easy for the user to find what they are seeking.
The article skimmer prototype on the NYT seems to understand that. If only everyone did. Oh well. It’s a start. This is just another thought in a series of thoughts I’ve had on this subject.
Why is the Web organized into pages? Why? The Web is just a way of making information more widely available. It’s not intended to create a newspaper with 70,000 pages. That’s of no use to anyone. Lots of work has been done on the computer UIs. Why isn’t that work being applied to news Web sites? The Web is just a widely distributed computer — like John Gage apparently said. Why do we access it through a clunky interface intended to remind us of a paper? The Web is an almost infinite well of information that should be accessed in the most efficient manner possible. I can guarantee you that that manner is not in the style of a scrolling page on a computer monitor.
Something that has nagged at me since I started in the Web news business in 1996 has been the inability of anyone to design a site that is a satisfying experience for the user.
I’ve observed and participated in any number of design exercises and I’ve always been left wanting more when the process was over and the element, page or site was published.
After giving it some thought (yes, years of thought), I have come to the conclusion that the problem with many news and information sites — possibly all of them — is that they are based the the false premise that the information on the Web should be organized into “pages.”
The Web is not a newspaper or book. It is a tool for communicating all manner of information, much of which is not suited for the page metaphor.
It seems like the only people who understand that information on the Web needs to be organized and presented in new ways are advertising and marketing firms.
Why can’t news and information companies come to the realization that the Internet is best resolved in some form other than a narrow, scrolling page? Why can’t we realize that even our best attempts at presentation on the Web typically end up looking more like abstract modern art than rational attempts to inform and entertain users?
It’s high time we redefine the user experience for people seeking news and information on the Internet.