Converting Science News for the Web

Text conversion

Both New Scientist and Science News have chosen to address these challenges in similar ways. First of all, both magazines present a table of contents identical to the print version on the homepage, perhaps to preserve continuity with the print version, but they also follow each feature story headline with a short summary of the article. A reader wanting to learn more can click on the summary to be taken to the full story.

This blend of strategies allows the magazines to preserve their print style while adapting for the restlessness of the web. Presenting the contents in a traditional format has the advantage of providing readers with a familiar schema. Strain and Berry (1996) suggest that mental models and pre-existing schema provide a framework of understanding for readers. Busy readers may not take the time to understand unfamiliar systems that are not encompassed by pre-existing schema. Thus, providing this familiarity could lead to ease of navigation and increase "stickiness," or the ability to hold viewers, for a website.

The magazines also preserve the full content of their print stories on their websites, a strategy that has advantages and disadvantages. On the plus side, a reader who chooses to view content through the web is not faced with a tradeoff between convenience and quality. This may be a satisfying alternative for an individual that wants the full content but prefers the accessibility of the website, or for a consumer already familiar with the print product.

However, if the magazines' goals include increasing readership through the website, preserving full content may pose a problem. According to Nielsen (2000), many readers prefer reading print to reading from a computer screen. Thus, he has advocated cutting converted text by an astounding 50 percent. Failure to cut text at all forces the reader to either scroll down the page or to click on buttons taking them to a new page where the story continues.

Both magazines have chosen the scrolling approach. Both Farkas and Farkas (2001) and Nielsen (2000) recommend that web designers avoid long scrolling pages. Nielsen found that users often scan content and will rarely scroll down to get the complete story, although this study was carried out in the mid 1990's, and users tolerance for scrolling may have increased since then.

However, even though users must scroll to read the full page, both websites chunk information into small, bite sized paragraphs, and fill only about two-thirds of the page with text, two strategies that make the text more scannable and palatable (Farkas and Farkas 2001, Nielsen 2000). The strategy of filling only two-thirds of the page with primary text leaves ample room for navigation elements, which go a long way to defining the boundaries of the online magazine and preventing the disorientation that users may experience in a poorly designed site (Farkas and Farkas 2001).

Abstract, 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, Works Cited

 

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