Putting yourself in their shoes

What is it?

A Web design team can only speculate in their offices about what readers like. But User Experience Research (UER) allows them to go and find out from primary sources what is enjoyable about a site and what does not work. UER is important for online news sites because there are many different options for newsreaders. News organizations must find out what these readers like in order to get business.

How does it work?

• The card-sorting exercise was fun, and made me question how I group different elements of news. I had never really thought about how everything fits together. It was a lot harder to organize than I thought it would be. But in the end I felt a kind of accomplishment at putting everything in groups that I thought made sense.
  
• The surveys were detailed but sometimes confusing. Although they had good questions like ranking the importance of news, I thought that some of the questions asked similar things.
• The observation of classmates' surfing was really fun. I felt somewhat like a human Poynter tracker. But I don't feel like a 5-minute period offers the chance to show enough information about a reader's daily routine.
  

These exercise were all good ways for researchers find differences between what Web designers may think make sense and how readers actually feel.

What does it all mean?

I am a grinder. This kind of reader is someone who is very loyal to their news organizations and has specific criteria for where they get their news. I definitely agree with my placement in that category because I don't check a lot of news sources. I mainly read the Los Angeles Times because I'm just used to it.

The card sorting exercise was hard because some of the news subjects seemed to stand alone. There are many topics that are unique and do not fit with others smoothly. But our group discussed the reasons why the subjects might fit in one category or another, and ultimately came to a well-negotiated result. I think a group can best figure out what works because they usually have different opinions, which is what the general public is made up of: different opinions.

Is this information useful?

UER is a type of research that needs to be factored in. It has a direct impact on a news Web site's revenue because readers need to come use the site in order for it to make money. The information from the UER may clash with an editor's ideas on the site's organization, but it also reflects the readers' feelings. The news organization is catering news to readers, and therefore should consider giving them something they actually want.