— From print to pixels

The data-driven article page: Getting rid of over 60 modules through analytics.

[R] Junior User Experience Designer
[C] Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
[Y] 2017

My part 

Benchmarking, analyzing of tracking data and conception of a new and modern article page.

Learnings 

Around 80% of visitors won't read more than the first two paragraphs. This is because most articles are written in a way that transports the most important and general information at the beginning and get more detailed later on.

To keep users on the website Frankfurter Allgemeine developed over 62 modules for their margin column. Including e.g. Twitter feeds, graphics, newsletter application. This actually had the opposite effect: Users felt more disrupted and the actual article was harder to follow.

[Old – till 2017]

Solution 

We deleted the marginal column. Instead we added a module at the position where most users left the page before. This module would change based on factors like the article type, topic or author. It contains more articles to choose from based on the interest of the user seems to have.

By doing so the actual content got more space to breath and was presented more modern.

Result 

The average dwell time and scrolling depth went up. A streamlined user guidance that helped users find more articles they are interested in.