Offering a Helping Hand

For some people asking for help can be hard and can sometimes feel humiliating. I am one of these people who struggle with asking for help, so I was that much more impressed when LA Times staff members came to our class and asked for help in conducting User Experience Research (UER).

A Different Kind of Research

UER consists of knowledge gained first hand from primary sources. The reason why this kind of research is so beneficial to online news sites is because it allows the news organizations to gain access to information about how the consumers they are trying to attract operate. The more knowledgeable these companies are about their online visitors, the more these companies can do to try and make sure their visitors continue to visit their site.

Exercises can be Fun

The exercises the LA Times staff members used to generate data for their UER involved many different concepts. There were surveys the class filled out that shed some light on the kind of websites we go to when we want the news, and the process we go through in looking at the material once at the website we desire. There was also an exercise where we observed a classmate surfing the Web, which again helps to show how we as visitors to a website go through the process of deciding which articles are interesting enough to spend time reading.

Sorting Life by Categories

The one exercise that stood out to me most was the card-sorting exercise. In this activity the class had to sort cards with different topics on them into distinct categories, similar to how a news website usually sorts a variety of topics into several categories. This exercise made me realize just how difficult a task it is to sort all aspects of life that a newspaper covers into a minimum number of categories. The challenges of the task included trying to figure out which topics were most similar to other topics, and trying to find some similarities between what appeared to be random topics. 

UER as a Way of Increasing Revenue

By gathering UER, information becomes available about what editorial content interests various types of people, and how different sets of people prefer that editorial content to be displayed. It is then up to the people gathering this information to decide how to use it, depending on whether they want to try and attract more scanners, grinders, etc. However, if this information is used right, it can greatly effect the revenue and editorial content of a web site. Thus, I believe there should be as much emphasis placed on UER as both revenue and editorial content in determining the makeup of a news site, since UER is the voice of the customer/consumer, and the customer is always right!