— From print to pixels

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

c – Frankfurter Allgemeine Zeitung
y – 2017
r – Junior User Experience Designer

My part 

Benchmarking, analyzing 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 gets 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 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 breathe and was presented more modern.

Result 

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