ABSTRACT

Several news websites have adopted a homepage design that emphasizes the reduction of visual clutter and the limiting of prominence cues. We examine how site design affects news engagement and what people learn from the news. Across three experiments conducted in the U.S., we provide evidence that a more contemporary, visual-based, grid-like design enhances page views and learning from the articles compared to a more classic, text-based, hierarchical design. The specific articles that people recall, however, vary across the two designs. We supplement these experiments with a qualitative follow-up to explore what site design means for journalism practice.

摘要

一些新闻网站采用了强调减少视觉混乱和限制突出线索的主页设计。我们研究了网站设计如何影响新闻参与度以及人们从新闻中学到了什么。在美国进行的三个实验中，我们提供的证据表明，与更经典的、基于文本的分层设计相比，更现代的、基于视觉的、类似网格的设计可以增强页面浏览量和从文章中学习。然而，人们回忆的具体文章因两种设计而异。我们通过定性跟进来补充这些实验，以探索网站设计对新闻实践的意义。