[Sigia-l] Next article in Opinion (10 of 14)

[Jared M. Spool]

At 10:16 PM 8/16/2005, Listera wrote:
>Are you happier with the C|Net "semi-opaque sectional navigation" example I
>gave? <http://tinyurl.com/7kz23>

[I'm assuming this was a serious question. Can't completely tell in this 
thread.]

It's interesting. The text is better than "10 of 14", certainly, with words 
like "Graphical Plans at Microsoft" and "Indie Studio takes Wing". Because 
they are headlines, they run the risk that a lot of news sites run -- the 
text is less informative and more "catchy", thereby not communicating as 
much scent as they could. I wonder if these links communicate the best 
trigger words for their content.

The images, for the most part, don't seem to communicate anything about 
what the story is about, so they feel ornamental to me. (Ornamental is one 
type of graphic. Two other types are Navigational -- an image that 
communicates scent -- and Content -- an image that communicates 
information.)  Our studies consistently show that ornamental graphics don't 
add any real value (either for performance measures or subjective ratings), 
but do increase development time. Could you get the same value from the 
links with just a text-based presentation?

The fact that the reader needs to use the little scrolling controls to see 
the other articles is problematic. I actually never noticed this element 
before until you pointed it out (and I probably visit the site 3-4 times 
per week). Our studies show that, on a site like this, most users keep 
their mouse on the scroll bar (or, when using a scroll wheel, keep the 
mouse still) until *after* they've decided what they are going to click on. 
( http://www.uie.com/articles/users_decide_first/ ) I wonder if this 
presentation performs better than "The Pulse" presentation of links in the 
right column.

I'm also intrigued that the image is placed in the middle of the article, 
instead of at the end. If the reader is not done reading, will they be 
distracted by the article? Would it work better for most users if it was 
placed *after* the text? The question I have is where is the best placement 
for this, from a seducible moment perspective. ( 
http://www.uie.com/articles/seductive_design/ )

So, to summarize my answer to your question:

Pros: More useful text, potentially useful graphics
Cons: Graphics could be a lot of work, not necessarily placed in layout 
well, must use mouse to see links, trigger words may still be missing

I'd love to test it to see how it performs. (But, I bet you guessed that.)

Jared


Jared M. Spool, User Interface Engineering
http://www.uie.com    jspool at uie.com    blog: http://uie.com/brainsparks

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