Disqus - Latest Comments for btrpkc

Re: Why the mobile-preview feature in BuzzFeed’s CMS should matter to you

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 29 Jan 2014 22:04:04 -0000

Mobile-friendly preview is such a valuable tool for helping all editors think mobile-first. Good piece! Spurred me to blog about how we built our mobile-friendly preview at NPR. Even if your news org doesn't have the resources of a Buzzfeed, minimal coding plus minimal editor direction can do the trick: http://bit.ly/1icrKdj

Re: Do mobile-friendly redesigns run the risk of frustrating desktop users?

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 12 Dec 2013 16:02:59 -0000

Hi Sam, I managed the homepage-redesign project at NPR. I wish you had reached out to us in your reporting of this piece. We considered and tested for desktop extensively throughout the redesign. And the results have been great. Our homepage visitors and visits are up since the launch, and their pages per visit, pageviews and average visit duration are way up.

Miranda and Damon are absolutely right about where everyone's platform numbers are going and how news organizations should be reacting in the face of such disruption. But you're also right that desktop viewers still matter. Their numbers are still huge, and it's critical how an org handles that audience during the platform shift. Either you dump any attention to the desktop audience and chase a new mobile base, or you seek to manage the transition and bring your desktop audience along as they too shift to mobile. Either approach can be smart and viable. Your choice should depend on your audience history and outlook. At NPR, while the future is mobile, we still have a devoted desktop audience. We've embraced responsive design to let us work efficiently across platforms but still deliver more than a phone-design-fits-all result.

And while we've worked that way throughout our site redesign, it was especially important to do so on the homepage. Our desktop numbers are higher on homepage than inside pages; and while I've never seen an industry report one way or the other, I'd imagine other sites see the same. Users get to homepages by typing in URLs or using bookmarks, and both tasks are currently easier on desktop than mobile. Mobile so far offers a more competitive experience around social and search, and those users mostly hit specific content on inside pages.

So, our team worked in stages: first phone, then larger screens. For the desktop, we gathered user feedback on the existing homepage and closely examined its metrics. We found that for as many stories as we had crammed onto the existing desktop page, particularly above the fold, our pages per visit and average visit duration weren't great. A certain type of user -- the hardcore news junkie -- liked the page, but these users didn't visit us en masse. They were more likely to visit a Google News or CNN. Our users were far more "curious explorers" or interested in deep knowledge about certain topics. We established these personas through audience surveys, but we saw them clearly in site metrics as well. We had 100+ headlines on the desktop homepage. Seeing all the headlines, the average user clicked just one and left.

Paradox of choice was clearly in effect, so we went about studying how much to reduce the choices. We instituted Lean UX processes where we: established our assumptions about the homepage on desktop, did quick sketching sessions to play out the assumptions, conducted user-testing sessions every week, and iterated our assumptions based on what we learned. In about a month, we'd learned two key things. We'd learned our users had more awareness of each story and its unique qualities when we showed a focused flow and took more time and space to explain each. That connection, we believed, would lead to more clicks (and happier users). Also, just as importantly, we had learned our reductions could go too far. Our initial desktop designs showed only a central flow, and users pushed back, saying the page didn't "feel like a homepage." So, we tested adding a "From NPR News" box of quick, top-of-the-news headlines to the desktop view, next to the main flow. The user concerns vanished. To us, the burst of headlines was a desktop design convention. But the convention helped. For desktop users, that burst checked their mental box of homepage recognition and broad news awareness. They then felt more free to scroll, explore and enjoy the central news flow.

I give all these details in service of three points. One, we still care about the desktop user. We just care about the desktop user now in terms of site location and persona, instead of blindly. Two, we are not our users. As journalists, we love parsing tightly packed information, and we build up expectations about how news sites should look. Our users consistently surprise us. Three, metrics analysis and user-testing processes are critical in bridging that divide. Such details help construct user stories, challenge our assumptions and give us better predictions. While we're pleased with the leaps in our metrics, we know our audience led us to them.

Reasonable people can disagree on design solutions. There are lots of things about our new homepage our team plans to tweak, test and evolve over time. As mobile grows and demands new answers, much of the news industry appears to be in a similarly iterative mood. But it's important as we go about this work that we have a richer conversation, one that goes beyond mobile versus desktop and focuses instead on the disparate qualities of audiences, behaviors and organizations. More than just hopping a train, we have to run the whole railroad.

Re: Stream the new Neko Case | Crumbler

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 20 Aug 2013 12:28:47 -0000

"Some mumbo-jumbo" meaning we've had Open Graph tags on all NPR stories for a couple years now, and Tumblr appears to have begun using Open Graph tags...

Re: Fleetwood Mac is, to fans, not just a band but a... | Crumbler

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 16 Jun 2013 19:00:32 -0000

Great story. Love Nicks and Crow imagining their dating-service videos.

Re: NPR launches a new mobile site, bets on the scroll, and gets closer to being fully responsive

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 08 May 2013 14:31:10 -0000

Thanks for the coverage. There's more to come, for sure. Today's launch has just the basic elements, and more visual power and interactions are on their way. We'll roll out those features in coming weeks and months as the project team iterates the code and homepage editors adapt real-time workflows.

With scrolling, what you describe was exactly what we saw in user testing. On both phones and tablets (a breakpoint we haven't released yet), everyone's first (nearly immediate) move on load was to scroll. Reactions to the page length were positive, with the headline space and context cues appearing to help readability and user focus. But we know scroll behaviors are still evolving. We've coded various metrics to see how things play out live.

With underwriting, the market so far has indeed been fickle with responsive. You can't get truly responsive units at scale -- especially not when the content of the units also has to meet our public-media underwriting guidelines. But we launched a responsive-friendly "Adhesion" unit on phones and tablets when we introduced our first responsive pages in October. Based on an IAB mobile rising-star unit, the adhesion stretches well within the breakpoints, doesn't disrupt the page design and has delivered well for underwriters. We're trafficking it lightly today, but you should see it if you tap around enough.

Credits on this initial homepage work -- the cast has rotated over time. At different times... design was Wes Lindamood and Max Pfennighaus. UX was Stephanie Slobodian and Scott Stroud. Dev was Todd Welstein, Jason Grosman, Ben Brannaka, and Michael Seid. Editorial lead: Nicole Werbeck. Underwriting lead: Erica Osher. Metrics lead: Lauren Bracey Scheidt. Scrum master: Stephanie Oura. Product owners: Myself and Jeremy Pennycook.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/6610304789

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 19 Jun 2011 06:35:56 -0000

Good stuff. If you dig back on the web enough, you could find when he and Marah teamed up. Great Civil War song called Blue and Gray and other stuff.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/4054030499

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 24 Mar 2011 08:00:48 -0000

Aggregator? I hardly know her!

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/3281943534

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 13 Feb 2011 19:51:02 -0000

My favorite Black Keys read from today: http://www.ohio.com/news/to...

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/2950671300

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 26 Jan 2011 22:11:20 -0000

*Underdog theme song*

Re: How I spent my musical vacation

Patrick Cooper — Fri, 21 Jan 2011 07:11:01 -0000

Thanks for the Elvis recommendation, enjoying now.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/1600790483

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:05:11 -0000

What a fantastic title on that blog.

Re: http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/1195396885

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 26 Sep 2010 22:57:57 -0000

What ridiculously good sound from a YouTube video.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/1019534490

Patrick Cooper — Fri, 27 Aug 2010 09:02:12 -0000

Where in the world is this? Did you bike in the wrong direction today?

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/1014313856

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 26 Aug 2010 23:02:11 -0000

Is it possible everyone I know published great subway writing today? http://twitter.com/yurivict...

Re: http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/993836298

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 22 Aug 2010 19:32:56 -0000

Lots of comments from me this weekend. The Franzen piece was great, especially the cultural and historical parts, but as I read it, the question I couldn't kick was how much to read his rightness vs. his weenieness, which at certain points felt on display. A war correspondent, even if he completely agreed with Franzen, would have written the story differently.

A comparison that came to mind was this Esquire story I ran across this spring for some reason I now can't remember. "The Last Meal: A two-ounce songbird. A lemon-sized tumor. An imperial appetite for death, flesh, and the immortal gesture. It was time for dinner."

Re: http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/989143355

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 21 Aug 2010 19:25:44 -0000

Just asked this of a friend on Fb, so will ask here -- when was the last time a song broke like this on a Saturday? Bonus question: Given the name of the song, could it have broken widely during office-based weekdays, or did the weekend's audio freedoms help make it happen?

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/900420507

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 03 Aug 2010 22:25:57 -0000

2015? I'll resked my colonoscopy and foreclosure hearing.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/888720903

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 01 Aug 2010 12:26:21 -0000

They were light on side and outdoor shots. Had to play the odds!

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/853399300

Patrick Cooper — Sat, 24 Jul 2010 08:31:15 -0000

WP FTW! He should get with it and spend less time trying to cure children of disease.

Re: Pickup Game

Patrick Cooper — Mon, 19 Jul 2010 16:56:45 -0000

Glad to read this. Love the latest album, had heard varying concert reviews from friends. This will have me going next time they're in town.

Re: How to DJ your brother’s wedding

Patrick Cooper — Tue, 13 Jul 2010 00:35:48 -0000

Great post, great work.

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/783784480

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 11 Jul 2010 15:11:30 -0000

It's been forever since I've listened to the original. Forgot how noisy it was!

Re: http://sazerac.tumblr.com/post/738150183

Patrick Cooper — Sun, 27 Jun 2010 12:24:22 -0000

Go Threadless!

Re: http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/699841118

Patrick Cooper — Wed, 16 Jun 2010 06:17:26 -0000

Perfect, except missing milkshake-Max possibilities.

Re: http://crumbler.tumblr.com/post/683939186

Patrick Cooper — Thu, 10 Jun 2010 22:36:13 -0000

How do we feel about the Stereogum video with the dropping of the mic? I'm going with still liking the song but thinking the lip-syncing must improve before she arrives in America from... the place where she is from.