Usability Study on Mobile Web Newspaper Sites Wooseob Jeong

School of Information Studies University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee

P.O.Box 413, Milwaukee WI, 53201 USA wjj8612@uwm.edu

Hyejung Han School of Information Studies

University of Wisconsin - Milwaukee P.O.Box 413, Milwaukee WI, 53201 USA

hanh@uwm.edu

ABSTRACT Despite the explosion of mobile web on various devices, its interface is rather primitive due to the limited space available and it seems that the richness of interface studies for the desktop web display has not been adopted for the mobile web. To address this gap, we reviewed 775 American newspaper mobile web sites in terms of their space usage for important contents. The descriptive statistics showed various aspects of the selected mobile newspaper sites: the number of content words, percentage of advertising space, percentage of content image, location of content image, URL hiding, weather information, link to the full site, timestamp for individual articles, current date and time information, search box and search link. The inferential statistics showed the relationships between the number of content words and other aspects of mobile homepages. We identified various space wasting interfaces such as not hiding URL box, menu-only homepage, and too much advertising spaces. We also suggested necessary features such as weather information and current date and time. Issues on preference of mobile web to “apps”, search options and links to the “full” sites were addressed as well.

Keywords Mobile web interface, usability, HCI

INTRODUCTION Numerous human computer interaction and interface studies have emphasized the importance of better web interfaces. It seems that the normal desktop web interfaces have matured enough to provide easy-to-use and pleasing interaction, due to richness of user studies, technical development such as bigger and crispier monitors, and implementation of esthetic aspects in web design.

However, with the advent of mobile web, as Nielsen (2009) mentioned, it looks like the time went back to the early

stage of desktop web interface. Portability of mobile devices has to sacrifice their screen size and the limited screen size was exactly the same fundamental problem of desktop web interfaces before. In this context, the lessons we had from the desktop web usability studies should provide valuable answers to solve the problems on mobile web. Unfortunately, mobile web experiences did not support that expectation. Rather, it seems that we did not learn much from the previous studies. Therefore, in this study, the current mobile web interface is surveyed to address this important gap and reintroduction of what we have learned from the desktop web interface studies is made.

LITERATURE REVIEW The limited space of mobile web screen has been the most obvious issue since the beginning of the mobile web. To overcome this natural limitation, many attempts have been made. In a relatively early time, for efficient web browsing with text-only handheld devices, Buyukkokten and his colleagues suggested summarization techniques and conducted user studies with their developments (Buyukkokten et al, 2001). Later, as images as well as texts were available for mobile web, numerous novel approaches have been proposed, including summary thumbnail (Lam and Baudish, 2005), zoomable interfaces (Burigat et al, 2007; Burigat et al, 2008; Buring et al, 2006) and a single column narrow and long view that fits the screen width (Roto and Kaikkonen, 2003). To enhance the single column approach, Roto and others (2006) suggested Minimap, which is to provide both a single column view and a scaled-down original desktop view in a overlapped mode. These efforts led to customizable tailored mobile web view (Bila et al, 2007; Kaikkonen, 2008). The zoomable interface is considered significantly useful in education software developments on small-screen handheld devices (Churchill and Hedber 2006).

A significant number of researchers have focused on users’ information needs and information behavior as foundations for better mobile web interface designs. Ryan and Gonsalves (2005) conducted an experiment with 12 participants to measure the effect of context and application type on mobile usability and found contexts such as location context is significantly affecting on users’ mobile experiences. De Sa and Carrico (2008) reported their

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lessons earned from a series of prototyping for various mobile devices mainly constructed by paper, emphasizing the importance of user perspective in early stages of mobile development. Cui and Roto (2008) conducted in-depth interviews with 47 mobile users about their recent use of mobile web in real contexts to utilize contextual inquiry and analyzed phone log data from 547 smartphone users. Based on their data analysis, they proposed “personal space extension” as a new category in addition to existing popular categories of mobile web use: information seeking, communication, and transaction. Nielsen (2009) collected data from 14 participants from 6 countries in a form of diary study via Twitter, followed by in-depth questionnaire.

However, few studies have focused on the actual user interface of mobile web pages. The reason might be the fact that previous hand-held devices had much smaller screen than current smartphones. The current smartphones’ screens are still limited but, with direct interaction with fingers, their screens are much more usable than before. In addition, more and more web sites are offering mobile web pages. Therefore, it is necessary that those available mobile web pages should be evaluated, and that suggestions should be made for better user experiences.

THE PURPOSE OF STUDY In this study, existing mobile web sites are used to explore the current status of mobile web interface. The purpose of this study is to survey the mobile web sites for newspapers in terms of their user interface, particularly for space usage for contents.

RESEARCH QUESTIONS AND VARIABLES One of the basic rules in web interface design is to maximize the use of limited space by putting important contents at the most prominent area, where users can see them without scrolling down. In mobile news sites, the important contents can be represented by the words in titles and preview snippets of each article. Therefore in this study, the dependent variable is the number of content words and the independent variables are different aspects of mobile web pages’ interface design, which are described in the following section.

METHODOLOGY In this study, samples were gathered from news sites because reading news is one of the most popular activities on mobile web sites (Kaikkonen, 2008). More than 3300 U.S. newspaper links have been compiled at the web site of 50states.com (http://www.50states.com/news/). In late February 2011, all the news links at the site were manually examined by Apple’s iPod Touch (the third generation). Among them, initially 812 sites were identified as designated mobile web sites of newspaper. It should be noted that only those automatically redirected mobile sites from the normal desktop view ones were counted. For example, The New York Times has a designated mobile site, but when the data was collected, its desktop site did

not automatically redirect to the mobile one, resulting not being counted. The initial screen shot of each site was captured without any scrolling down. However, further examination of the image collection revealed dozens of invalid sites, such as duplicated ones under different names and sites in non-English languages, and after those data were removed, 775 screen shots were included in the data analysis.

With each screen shot, several features were measured: 1) the number of “content” words (excluding advertising, navigational, and menu words), 2) the percentage of advertising space against the whole screen space, 3) the percentage of “content” images (excluding advertising, navigational, and menu images) against the whole screen space, 4) whether the web address box (URL box) is hiding automatically, 5) whether there is any weather information, 6) whether there is a link to the normal full web site of the mobile site for PC, 7) whether individual new articles have their own timestamp for publication, 8) location of the content images (left, center, and right), 9) whether there is a current date/time indication, 10) whether there is a search box, and 11) whether there is a designated link to search options. The final data set was analyzed by SPSS19. Various analysis tools were used such as frequency, t-Test, and regression analysis.

DESCRIPTIVE STATISTICS

The Number of “Content” Words Content words are each news article’s title and text. It excludes each article’s timestamp, if existed, and texts in advertisements and words in navigational and menu areas. The average number of content words was 26.86, while there were 53 sites without any content words one hand and there is a site with as many as 178 words on the other hand.

Percentage of Advertising Space There were 303 sites which did not have any advertising, while there was a site of which almost 60% space was occupied by advertisement. The average percentage of advertising space was 7.81% of the whole space, while 301 sites had 12.68% of advertising space.

Percentage of “Content” Images “Content” images are only the images that news articles accompany. They may have a thumbnail format or a dominant “big” center image format. Content images excluded any images relating to advertising, navigation or menu. Almost half of sites (382 sites or 49.3%) did not have any content images. The average content images’ space against the entire screen space was 7.19%, while there was a site where 77% of its screen occupied by a content image.

Location of Content Image Among the 393 sites that had content images, 125 sites had their content images at the left side, 191 sites at the right side, and 75 sites at the center. It should be noted that those

images at the left side or at the right side are thumbnails, while the centered images are rather in much bigger sizes.

URL Hiding To maximize the use of space, the web address box (URL box) can be hidden automatically when a web page is loaded on a mobile device. In the data, more than half, 406 sites (52.4%), did not hide the URL box, while 369 sites (47.6%) did.

Weather Information In the news sites, particularly in local news sites, weather information is considered as one of the most popular items. However, the data shows only 292 sites (37.7%) had some kind of weather information.

Link to the Full Site One of the common recommendations for mobile web sites has been to have a link to the full site for desktop PC view. In the data, only 206 sites (26.6%) had a link to the full site.

Timestamp for Individual Articles In the data, 314 sites (40.5%) had a timestamp for each news article, while 461 sites (59.5%) did not have.

Current Date and Time Information Since any news site should have its currency, the display of the current date and/or the current time is considered as necessity. Among the sites in the data, only 124 sites (16%) had such information.

Search Box It has been emphasized that a search box should be available at any web sites, particularly in a normal desktop view. Among the mobile web sites in the data, only 68 sites (8.5%) had a search box.

Search Link Due to the limited space, it might be undesirable to have a search box. Rather some mobile sites provide a link to a separate search page. In fact, among the site in the data, 316 sites (40.8%) provided a link to a search page.

RELATIONSHIPS AMONG VARIABLES

Content Words vs. Advertising Space A regression analysis of the data showed that more space the advertisement occupied, the less content words were included, β = -.221, t(773) = -6.291, p < .005.

Content Words vs. Content Image A regression analysis of the data showed that more space the content images occupied, the less content words were included, β = -.340, t(773) = -10.061, p < .005.

Contents Words vs. URL Box Hiding The URL box and its surrounding areas occupy about 12% of the entire screen, so if that area is allocated for the

content area, it is assumed that more content words can be displayed. The data seemed to show that is the case, but a t-Test showed that the difference is not statistically significant, t(773) = .615, p > .05.

Contents Words vs. Timestamp There is a significant difference in the number of content words depending whether each news article has its timestamp, t(773) = -4.723, p < .05. If each article has a timestamp, less contents words are displayed.

Contents Words vs. Current Date/Time Display Since any display takes some space, it was assumed that if a site has the current date or/and time display, it would have less contents words. The data seemed to show that is the case, but a t-Test showed that the difference is not statistically significant, t(773) = -1.637, p > .05.

Contents Words vs. Search Box It appears that if a site has a search box, it might have less content words. However, the difference is not statistically significant, t(773) = -.107, p > .05.

Content Words vs. Search Link Search links also may limit the space for contents words, but the difference is not significantly significant, t(773) = -.006, p > .05.

DISCUSSION

Ways to Save Spaces for More Important Contents First, the address box (the URL box) should be hidden by a script. It can be done by a simple script written in Javascript. Hiding the box can save almost 10% of valuable space. Timestamps for individual articles are not desirable in terms of space usage. Second, even though almost 50% of the mobile news sites in the data did not have it, advertisement can be necessary or at least complementary for some companies. In those cases, less than 10% of the entire space should be allocated for advertisement for better use of space. Third, some mobile sites have only navigational menus on their homepages, but it is recommended to have their contents directly on the first homepages. Otherwise, users have to tap on a link to see actual contents which is an undesirable interface.

Necessary Features despite Limited Space There are certain features required for the news site, especially for local ones: weather information and the current time and date along with the last time updated. They might occupy some spaces, but they are imperative elements for local news.

Links to the Full Sites Even though Nielsen (2009) recommended that a mobile site should have a link to the full desktop view web site, it seems unnecessary, particularly at the first page of its mobile homepage. If a user has a bigger screen, the system

should be able to redirect the user to a normal site by a script. The normal web site is too small for a smart phone’s screen anyway. However, more importantly, a normal site should be able to redirect users to its mobile web, if users use smaller screens such as on their smart phones. For example, as of the data collection time, the New York Times normal desktop web site does not redirect when it is viewed on a smart phone, while its mobile site has a link to the full normal site at the bottom of it.

Apps. vs. Mobile Web Many sites recommend users to install a separate “apps” for better view of their mobile sites. However, apps seem to take more time to load and anyway apps require the internet connection. In this context, a common mobile web interface seems more reasonable, particularly if we consider the cumbersome installation of different apps. From developers’ point of view, making several versions of apps for the same web site does not seem efficient.

Location of Content Images The current data set shows that much more sites have their thumbnail content images on the right side of pages. However, since English is written from left to right, it is thought that putting those images on the left side would be more user-friendly. Further research will validate this speculation with more data and user experiments.

Using Template vs. Unique Design Many news sites, particularly multiple local news papers under a big company, uses a template for their mobile presence. Using a template can save time and money, but at the same time it makes difficult to show individual newspaper’s own identity. Therefore, even if they use a template, it is recommended that they put a distinctive logo for each newspaper.

Search Box vs. Search Link For normal desktop views of homepages, Nielsen and Tahir recommended to give users an input box on the homepage to enter search queries, instead of just giving them a link to a search page (Nielsen and Tahir, 2002). However, due to the limited space, whether this recommendation should be applied to mobile web sites would be debatable, particularly if we emphasize that a search box should be big enough to draw users’ attention.

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