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公众编辑
《纽约时报》改版将会与时俱进
玛格丽特·沙利文 2014年01月11日
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小中大 对于《纽约时报》在新闻和商业两个层面的数字化改革,今天是个重要的日子。经过数月的努力,我们推出了全新的版面设计,并首次试水原生广告。(《纽约时报》还更新了iPad应用程序)
许多读者和外界评论人士说,改版后的页面更加简洁、易于浏览。读者拉里·霍朗(Larry Hollon)写信给我说:
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……新的数码版式很赞。它很简洁,易于阅读,有许多空白的地方,信息的编排方式非常简单易懂。感谢称职的设计者们。很棒。
尽管如此,并不是所有人都满意。(话说回来,我真没听说过哪家报纸网站的改版能让所有人都满意。肯定需要一个适应的过程。)
我听到了一些人有具体的抱怨,其中包括利娅·格林沃尔德(Leah Greenwald),她写道:
究竟有什么理由把字体变小?阅读文章比以前要费力太多。如果我把屏幕放大,又会看不到页面边缘上的信息,而且这种设置对其他网站来说又太大了。这个选择让人无法理解。
另一名读者威廉·洛格(William Logue)写道:
你们的新版面很吸引人,但是请恢复左页边的网站索引。以现在的这个布局,它会使不同板块间的移转变得快捷、容易很多。
还有一位读者约翰·基尔希(John Kirsch)有一个很小但对他来说很重要的请求:
请让NYTimes.com的网站设计师们把“打印”工具重新放到读者一打开文章就能看到的选项列表里。改版之后这个工具被放进了“更多”的选项下面,要多点击一下才能找到。
我问《纽约时报》负责版面设计的副总编汤姆·博德金(Tom Bodkin),他和他的团队还打算做多少调整。
他告诉我,他的团队成员正在密切跟踪读者和用户的反应,他们有很好的方法来做到这一点。
“数字出版和交流的一大优势就是,读者有很多工具,可以方便地表达他们的反应,而我们也会用一些客观的手段来评估读者行为,”博得金说。“我们在版面开发的全过程都充分利用了用户测试,但是,什么测试手段也比不上在读者每天使用网站时观察和聆听他们的反应。”
他还说,《纽约时报》的编辑和设计者将根据用户评论和使用情况作出调整,这样的变化不仅是可能的,而且相对以前还更容易实现了。
他说,“在全新的设计背后是一个灵活得多的平台,这个平台将允许我们不断做出改进。用户体验将永远是这些变化的根本指导。”
读者可以把反馈意见发送至《纽约时报》客户服务部的邮箱customercare@nytimes.com。
上述对新的广告手段和改版的反馈来自CNN、Business Insider、Journalism.co.uk,当然还有Twitter,《纽约时报》的网页设计师伊恩·阿德尔曼(Ian Adelman)在推特上回复了很多评论。
新的@nytimes文章页面和经过改版的板块及主页已经上线。这仅仅是个开始。团队的卓越表现帮助我们闯过了第一道难关。
我讨厌改版这个说法;显得是在说一件人工制品的创造。真正激动人心的是我们有了一个更具活力的平台,可以让我们不断改进。
——Ian Adelman (@ianadelman) 2014年1月8日
你可以在twitter.com/sulliview 和 publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com上追踪公众编辑的Twitter账户和博客。 还可以发送邮件至public@nytimes.com与公众编辑联系。玛格丽特·沙利文(Margaret Sullivan)是《纽约时报》公众编辑(Public Editor)。
翻译:王湛
http://cn.nytimes.com/opinion/20140111/c11sullivan/
Public Editor
Times Designers Are Monitoring Reaction to the Redesign, With Adjustments Possible
By MARGARET SULLIVAN January 11, 2014
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小中大 It’s a big day for digital change at The Times, on both journalistic and business fronts, as the company unveiled a redesign that has been many months in the making, along with its first foray into native advertising. (The Times also updated its iPad app.)
Many readers and outside commentators called the redesign cleaner and easier to navigate. One reader, Larry Hollon, wrote to me, in part:
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… the new digital format is fantastic. It’s clean, easy to read, lots of white space and it organizes information in a way that is very accessible. Thank the appropriate designers. It’s great.
Still, not everyone was happy. (And if there ever has been a newspaper website redesign that made everyone happy, I don’t know about it. An adjustment period is always necessary.)
I heard from a number of those with specific complaints. One was Leah Greenwald, who wrote:
What possible reason could there be for making the font smaller? It is now much more difficult to read articles. If I magnify the screen, it loses information at the margins and the setting is too big for other websites. An incomprehensible choice.
Another reader, William Logue, wrote:
Your new format is attractive, but please bring back the site index along the left margin. It made navigation among sections much quicker and easier than with the present layout.
And still another, John Kirsch, had a small but, to him, important request:
Please ask the designers of NYTimes.com to restore the “Print” tool to the list of options available right away when the reader opens an article. The new design buries the Print tool in “More,” thereby requiring an extra click to find it.
I asked Tom Bodkin, The Times’s deputy managing editor in charge of design, about how much tweaking he and his design team plan to do.
He told me that the team members are watching reader and user reaction closely, and that they have good ways of doing so.
“One of the great advantages of digital publishing and communication is that users have convenient tools to voice their reactions, and we have objective ways to measure their behavior,” Mr. Bodkin said. “While we took full advantage of user testing throughout the development of the design, there’s no better test than watching and hearing from our audience as they use the site in their daily lives.”
He added that Times editors and designers will be making adjustments, based on comments and use, and that such changes are not only possible, but also relatively easy to accomplish.
“Behind the redesign is a new, much more flexible platform which will allow us to make continual improvements,” he said. “User experience will always be our fundamental guide for those changes.”
Readers can send their feedback to The Times’s customer care desk by emailing customercare@nytimes.com.
Reaction to both the new advertising effort and the redesign came from CNN, Business Insider, Journalism.co.uk, and, of course, on Twitter, where The Times’s designer Ian Adelman was fielding many of the comments.
New @nytimes article views, restyled sections & homepage now live. Just the beginning. Great work by the team to get us over first big hump.
I hate calling it a redesign; suggests creation of artifact. What’s exciting is a more dynamic platform for continuous improvement.
— Ian Adelman (@ianadelman) 8 Jan 14
Follow the public editor on Twitter at twitter.com/sulliview and read her blog at publiceditor.blogs.nytimes.com. The public editor can also be reached by e-mail: public@nytimes.com.
Copyright © 2013 The New York Times Company. All rights reserved.
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