A user study on TagesZeitungen.ch is intended above all to provide new impetus for further researchWayne Sutherland, currently Content Manager of the online job platform Human Line, evaluated 35 Swiss online newspapers in December. In doing so, Sutherland primarily wanted to stimulate the implementation of new, more broadly based usability studies.Those who visit the website TagesZeitungen.ch to see a ranking of the best to the worst on-
line newspaper is looking for will be disappointed. Almost all the newspapers studied scored two out of a possible three points in Sutherland's overall assessment, with only a few scoring one or three. "A precise ranking was not the goal of the research," Sutherland explains. With the pilot study, he rather wanted to provide food for thought and define evaluation criteria.
The quality should come before the quantity
For Sutherland, the first study is just the beginning of a whole series of qualitative investigations on the subject of usability. "So far, almost only quantities have been measured," Sutherland criticizes.
He himself would like to conduct another study in the summer, and for this purpose he would like to expand his criteria, base them more broadly and combine them with qualitative measurements. "I would like to work with a neutral research company, such as Wemf, a CMR software company or Siemens," Sutherland explains. Also, in the spirit of scientificity, many more users, not just one person, would have to evaluate sites according to defined criteria. Then it would be possible to make a more accurate assessment.
The assessment is still subjective
The criteria defined by Sutherland together with Peter Züllig, lecturer for visual media at the University of Fribourg, leave - depending on the point of view - some to much room for interpretation. There can be no question of an objective assessment in the user study.
When, for example, is a site too colorful or too complicated in design? A good example of the subjectivity of the Sutherland study is the website of the Tages-Anzeiger, which scored rather poorly in terms of orientation and navigation, but received good marks for precisely these two criteria in a study by the German magazine for digital communication, kress Internet.
The ratings on TagesZeitungen.ch have in any case become less important since the study was conducted in December. Finally, some of the online newspapers studied have already set up a new presence.
Different reactions to the study in the publishing houses
The online managers in the publishing houses have taken note of the study. Marcel Sennhauser, TA-Media, said that the study was certainly good as an impetus for qualitative comparisons, but that it should not be overrated. TA-Media AG is building on scientifically collected, hard data and is therefore participating in a pan-European survey by Pro Active International.
Wolfgang Frei, NZZ, is particularly bothered by the fact that the study did not take into account the quality and scope of the content. "Transferred to books, this would mean that a bound Simmel is a better book than a paperback Grass."
Most online newspapers are only copies of the print product anyway, says Sutherland, justifying the exclusion of the content. That's why he only examined the verifiability, the topicality and their medium-appropriate preparation. Clemens Hörler
tops, but no flops on Tageszeitungen.ch
Sutherland, while studying communication science at the University of Fribourg, has already been
dealt with the topic of usability. That's when he came up with the idea of examining Blick Online and worked with visual media lecturer Peter Züllig to develop the criteria for assessing usability. In December, he used these criteria to examine 35 online newspapers in a field study.
The criteria, which are described at www.TagesZeitungen.ch, include the possibility of interactivity, loading time, additional services, navigation, insertion of advertising into the overall picture and topicality. Sutherland, together with the consulting firm Crusius, Bern, and the Internet provider and software company ClassicCom, published and widely communicated the evaluation of the online newspapers, broken down by the individual criteria.
The fact that Sutherland himself now works for Human Line (in which Ringier holds a majority stake) and ClassicCom for eBund is not a problem for Sutherland. ClassicCom had no influence on the content of the study. He himself had worked out the criteria while still a student and obviously did not favor the view... (ch)