A comparison to the NY Times
This review compares the site redesign done at the NC Times to the NY Times. It should be known that the NY Times spends oodles of money on their electronic assets and has in the past developed entire programs for the display of their news.
Screen shot of the North County Times
Screen shot of the New York Times
These two screen shots show the pages in a standard Firefox window at 1024×768, the most common display size currently in use.
Both websites are displayed with a horizontal scroll bar, this is an artifact of replicating the screen size. The scroll bar would not be present for a user full screen on a 1024×768 display. The inclusion of this scroll bar does affect the percentage numbers below.
I have left the light blue-gray box on the top of the NY Times page even though it can be removed.
| Category | NY Times | NC Times |
|---|---|---|
| Number of Headlines | 10 | 5 |
| Number of Article Words | 48 | 33 |
| Number of Pictures | 2 | 1[1] |
| Traffic | No | Yes |
| Weather | No[2] | Yes |
| Content Begins | ~ 350 px (57%)[3] | ~ 380 px (62%) |
| Number of Columns | 5 | 3 |
| Widest Column of Text | 340 px (caption) 150 px (story) |
600 px |
| Ads | 3 to 4 | 1 |
| Ad Space | 180×90 (2) 80×30 (1) 340×80 partial (1) |
740×100 |
| Ad Space Total | 62000 sq px (10%) | 74000 sq px (12 %) |
What we can conclude is that the home page of the NY Times is able to convey more news and use more pictures. The NY Times places more emphasis on their content by having the navigation along the left hand side, rather than at the top of the page.
The most important difference is in the layout of the columns. By using many narrow columns the NY Times is able to present more headlines and has more story content as well.
The North County Times does have a dynamic element that permits the display of more than one picture on the homepage. The NY Times picture element is static and related to the story content. The placement of the dynamic picture navigation control results in picture captions not being immediately visible and therefore the pictures lack context.
When discussing ad placement, the NY Times is able to display 4 ads. Two of those ads appear to be linked and display the same content. One of their ads is mostly off the display. The NC Times shows a slightly larger single ad, but the space allocated for ads is actually significantly larger and not in use in the screen shot.
While both of these sites change frequently, this review attempts to address the major site elements to evaluate the recent NC Times redesign. I am not impressed with the redesign and hope that the NC Times will continue to attempt to improve the site with a mind towards increased usability.
[1] Five pictures dynamically rotate through one space.
[2] Available after personalization.
[3] ~325 px (53%) after personalization
