Which news Web site is the easiest to navigate for entertainment news? By Xiang Li and John Stang.

Which news Web site is the easiest to navigate for entertainment news?

By Xiang Li and John Stang

Background

Seattlepi.com is thinking about improving how to search for entertainment on its site

Questions

? How easy is it for someone today to find entertainment information on the PI's site and those of its competitors?

? How can the PI improve its entertainment searches?

We looked at…

• seattlepi.com• The Seattle Times• The Stranger• The Seattle Weekly

Usability Tasks

We gave 10 people three tasks to do on each site to find out• Showtime information for the movie "New Moon" in the

University District• Showtime information for a performance of "The Nutcracker

Suite" in Seattle• A Chinese restaurant in the University District

Test Subjects

Subject No.

Sex Age Internet Savvy

1 Male 47 Very

2 Male 53 Very

3 Female 47 Little

4 Male 18 Some

5 Male 45 Very

6 Female 47 Little

7 Female 26 Very

8 Male 26 Very

9*New York Male 62 Some

10 Male 29 Very

General Information

Test Conditions

• Person started on a news site's home page• Person could take any path to the sought-after information• We took notes on the person's actions• Person talked out loud on his or her thinking processes• Although times were kept, differing downloading times made

raw minutes and seconds irrelevant• We noted the fastest, second fastest, third fastest and slowest

sites to navigate

Task A Find showtimes for "New Moon" in the University

District

Task A Result

Subject Fastest Site Second fastest Site Third Fastest Slowest

1 Quit

2 Quit Quit Quit

3 Quit

4 Quit Quit

5 Quit

6 Quit Quit

7

8

9 Quit Quit

10 Quit Quit

Task AConclusion

• The easiest way to find a movie time is in The Stranger.

• Several became FRUSTRATED by the weekly and Times sites

"Screw this. I'll see another movie."

Task B Find a performance of “The Nutcracker Suite” in

Seattle

Task B Result

Subject Fastest Site Second fastest Site Third Fastest Slowest

1

2 Quit

3

4

5 Quit

6

7

8

9

10 Quit

Task BConclusion

• The easiest way to find a showing of "The Nutcracker Suites " is Seattle Weekly

• The Times' site appears to be the slowest to work through.

• site without any showtimes.

I don’t want to see the burlesque version of the

Nutcracker;and why the PI kept

giving me review articles?

Task C Find a Chinese restaurant in University District

Task C Result

Subject Fastest Site Second fastest Site Third Fastest Slowest

1 Quit Quit Quit

2

3 Quit

4 Quit

5

6 Quit Quit

7

8 Quit

9 Quit Quit

10 Quit

Task CConclusion

• The Stranger and the Seattle Weekly are easy to use to find restaurants. Each has easy-to-find "cuisine" and "neighborhood" search functions.

• The PI site's search functions specifically told six subjects and one PI producer that there are no Chinese restaurants in the University District.

No Chinese Food in U-District?!

Some observations

• Almost no two searches were alike• Some people immediately went with the search engine on the

sites, while others explores menus• Skill level appears to have no correlation to search patterns• People prefer searches include a Google Map navigating the

locations• Some people went out of sites by clicking sponsored links to find

the result• Listing neighborhoods is preferred by people are familiar with

Seattle • As soon as subjects cannot navigate through the menu or content

to find relevant information, they turn to the search function

Major observation

Almost every subject said he/she would avoid a news site and do a Google-style search for the information instead

Why should I go to these other

sites unless they have some value

added?

Why on-site search function is crucial for Seattlepi.com?

• On-site search improves the user experience, because the visitors can find quickly find accurate, relevant information.

• An on-site search box promotes ease of use, which keeps readers on your site longer.

• Visitors have more control over the browsing experience .• On-site search can increase the return on investment by

converting visitors into customers and increasing the conversion rates.

• If designed and organized correctly, this functionality can make the site appear more professional and credible.

• Most on-site search programs come with tracking metrics that explain how customers are searching for information on the site

Our Recommendations

• Seattlepi.com would be best served by imitating The Stranger’s entertainment search functions

Task A Task-flow diagram

Task B Task-flow diagram

Task C Task-flow diagram

What Seattlepi.com is really going to do?

Exploring entering a contract with Zevents