I really do love the <a href=”http://nytimes.com”>NYTimes website</a>. They just seem to truly get it and don’t mind investing in experimentation. The times seems to place the user experience as a priority, willing to explore innovative ideas without thinking only about the business side or strategy. I keep coming back to the site because I enjoy consuming their content on their site so much more than on my RSS reader. Two things I noticed today made me super happy.
The Times lets viewers decide how to consume the multitude of UGC comments. These are usually the ugly, linear tail that is added onto the back of news articles. Here, the list defaults to a curated pool of comments picked by the editor. Its super easy to get different views by clicking on the pull-down menu. The options are – Oldest first, Newest first, Reader’s recommendations, Editor’s selections and Replies. Throughout the threads of comments, the ones picked by the paper editors are highlited with a different background color.
Why am I so excited by this? Finally a substantial paper decides to do something with user generated comments. Although they do get spammy, I still believe in their potential to highlight aspects of the conversation which the article is tackling, or missing out on. I’ve been working on a variety of concepts for this, some more artsy and some an exploration of possible interfaces. Very early stage ideas, but enroute to something bigger. Defintely inspired by the Times!
Secondly, seeing the synchronized Mac ad on their homepage just made me smile. Probably the first time in a while where I watched the full advertisement not once, but twice. A fantastic use of both skyscraper and horizontal advertisement spaces, synchronizing the two by allowing the “PC” character to walk over from one to the other. That little thing made the whole ad. experience just fun enough to watch. In addition, audio was opt-in rather than opt-out.
Neat NYTimes features: comments, synchronized ads
I really do love the <a href=”http://nytimes.com”>NYTimes website</a>. They just seem to truly get it and don’t mind investing in experimentation. The times seems to place the user experience as a priority, willing to explore innovative ideas without thinking only about the business side or strategy. I keep coming back to the site because I enjoy consuming their content on their site so much more than on my RSS reader. Two things I noticed today made me super happy.
The Times lets viewers decide how to consume the multitude of UGC comments. These are usually the ugly, linear tail that is added onto the back of news articles. Here, the list defaults to a curated pool of comments picked by the editor. Its super easy to get different views by clicking on the pull-down menu. The options are – Oldest first, Newest first, Reader’s recommendations, Editor’s selections and Replies. Throughout the threads of comments, the ones picked by the paper editors are highlited with a different background color.
Why am I so excited by this? Finally a substantial paper decides to do something with user generated comments. Although they do get spammy, I still believe in their potential to highlight aspects of the conversation which the article is tackling, or missing out on. I’ve been working on a variety of concepts for this, some more artsy and some an exploration of possible interfaces. Very early stage ideas, but enroute to something bigger. Defintely inspired by the Times!
Secondly, seeing the synchronized Mac ad on their homepage just made me smile. Probably the first time in a while where I watched the full advertisement not once, but twice. A fantastic use of both skyscraper and horizontal advertisement spaces, synchronizing the two by allowing the “PC” character to walk over from one to the other. That little thing made the whole ad. experience just fun enough to watch. In addition, audio was opt-in rather than opt-out.