Tuesday, April 22, 2003

why radio stations should have a companion weblog

Great article by web usability guru Jakob Nielson on the superiority of Low-End Media for User Empowerment:
Almost every Web usability study we've ever conducted found that low-end [ie text and a few photos] media forms are superior to high-end [ie video,audio] media forms.
... The easier it is for users to get exactly what they need, when they need it, the more satisfied they will be...
Low-end media gives users control over three key processes: how they read, how easily they find relevant information, and how easily they can produce information.
[1.] Reading. With simple text and images, the user can scan the page and control what they read. Because their page access is non-linear, users can spend as little or as much time as they want on each element. They can focus on the information they want and ignore irrelevant parts...
High-end media often forces users to suffer through material designers want to showcase, rather than taking users directly to the material they came for. This is completely contrary to the freedom of movement that characterizes a happy user experience on the Web.

So what does this have to do with radio, which is typically not experienced via the web at all? Answer: radio is missing a segment of its potential audience simply because it is "fat media" and therefore unsearchable: the people who would be interested in some parts aren't listening, because they're not interested in wading through the rest. A companion weblog, giving highlights in a terse and service-oriented manner, can provide these people with the scannable information they crave and is likely to drive up listenership by drawing their attention to features of which they would otherwise remain ignorant.

(hint)

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