Content Home Design Experience

Some days ago, an old colleague came to talk to me about the design of the homepage of the channel, which reminds me that I used to do the media, before I painted a lot of content page prototype. Tragically, my understanding of the content page is becoming more mature after the transition, and those that were previously painted are quite mediocre. How many people do the media to study the interactive psychology of the content interface?

The past experience from practice and reflection, may wish to speak.

1, positioning
The first and the interface design does not matter, and positioning is related. Do network media The biggest trap is "greed", from the media to the media, especially greedy people, feel content unlimited, reprint cost Unlimited low, anything want to plug inside. But your promotion is limited, up to 20; Your area is also limited, up to 30, twenty or thirty content to convey a clear and powerful media image, must be greedy, have a choice. The choice of the way does not depend on what kind of content you have feelings, but for the main station user groups to do local selection.

Some people say, in addition to the promotion and the news area, I have more columns and columns page. This remark is absurd. The promotion bit and the news area is the new user contacts you the way, is also the entire channel's façade. Trickery this kind of thing, have no good end. So "positioning" plus subtraction, is the test Channel Editor core competencies.

2, Transparent
The most important term for designing content pages is "Transparent", which means maintaining a unified layout of columns from top to bottom while maintaining similar content styles in the main column. The advantage of permeability is easy to form browsing inertia, the user from the process of pulling down without jumping feeling, partition sense, even if the impulse of reading gradually fade, it is still customary to pull down, increase the opportunity to contact new content.

Many network matchmaker like to pursue the visual expression of content, want to be different in style, stand out from the crowd. I've had this problem before. It's stupid to tell you as an experienced. The pursuit of style is basically narcissism, the more unique, the more understanding of obstacles. The content view unification helps the user to obtain the information efficiently, the more concise the browsing process is fluent, the PV is higher, the user stays the time is also longer. Visual ostentation will only produce more "partitions"-this does not cause discomfort, but produces a "meal" of the bad rhythm. Hurdles are better than long runs.

3. Headlines
The structure of the content page is the same, the first is the news area, followed by a long row column block. The old colleagues mentioned above have come to talk to me about the headlines, and there are two ways to press precedent: a summary under the headline, or a 12px headline under the big headline. The former is not desirable, 15-20 words of the title are not clear selling points, is it still qualified to make headlines? Heap in the following can only say that the visual more beautiful, but wasted a lot of money in the head screen space.

If 12px of small headlines, in accordance with the idealized design ideas, should be the headlines related reports, merged into a micro-topic, so that users quickly contact more of the same topic content. But sometimes can not find the weight, corresponding to this headline related reports, had to put some approximate report up, the effect is not very ideal. Therefore, the small headline should not be much, NetEase news and Sina News usually control in one line (3-4), the effect of the micro-topic, but not too difficult to worry about choreography.

4, column
The network media operation has a common mistake, uses the content the physical attribute to divide the column, thinks it should be a Class B class C class. This orientation deviates from the original intention of the column setting. Why is there a column under the channel? Because users love to see a certain type of content, you use the column to sum up the contents of this batch, http://www.aliyun.com/zixun/aggregation/17453.html "> Convenient for users to find." Therefore, the column classification criteria can only be based on the user's search criteria. They love to search for what types of content, you will be divided into which areas of the column.

Frankly speaking, the network media is the information service industry, basically does not have the illumination of the medium, guide sex. The network media needs to serve the immediate needs of the user rather than the mirror, and you need to study your users rather than show off your talent.

5, landing
Then introduce a content page design term: "Landing". Where is the landing point of the user's view? In the first three screens, the user browsing more patience, is willing to read down. Then the patient continued to fail, it is possible to quickly pull to the column of their regular block. Therefore, the column block should have eye-catching identification of the district, user-friendly positioning.

There is a user habit is to quickly pull the page to the end, so the column block (in the column) should be added to the headline design, so that the page in the process of rapid scrolling, the line of sight is easily blocked by some prominent content elements. "Headline" is the best form to intercept attention without creating a sense of partition.

6, or landing
Then talk about the landing. When the sight is set at a point, the peripheral light is usually centered on this point, shooting into a small piece of location nearby. Experienced designers will be in the middle of the headlines, left and right column to put a small number of pictures, or forms, or deliberately leave white, set a moderate point of placement. The left column and the right column of the picture can not be more, especially can not contend for work, in the same horizontal line, the left light is the right weight, the right light is left heavy, guide the user's line of sight more in the left, or between the two columns in the right to move.

This is because the best reading width is 500-600px, if the eyeball rotation distance is too long, the eye is very easy to fatigue, from the left column to the right column horizontal jump should be avoided. On the page everywhere is the point of view, the vision is erratic, seemingly dazzling (this in the content page evaluation is a derogatory), but reduce the user's browsing patience and stay time.

7, Underline
I used to know the answer to a question, why NetEase news is not underlined, Sina underlined? At that time the answer was a bit long, the most important one again. The advantage of the underlined is easy to distinguish the same line of multiple titles, the disadvantage is that the visual too "rise, full" and not enough refreshing.

So NetEase's visual style is praised, but the same area of information density than Sina lower (the main subtitle in my opinion is not a successful design). If you want to put more than one row of headings, the user is not clear whether it is more than one line, or a title with a space for more than a section. This is the price of refreshing, but also netease and Sina media style differences.

8, Tab
Try to avoid using tab on the homepage of the channel. Even in the first page of the site, also try to avoid tab. In the display link, it's not easy for the user to focus on the Little tab. Content directly exposed and tab in the amount of clicks can be 10 times times the difference-only "nothing" four words to describe.

However, this is not an absolute truth. The tab setting is similar to the column, which is for the user's retrieval needs. If the tab is exactly the same as the user's search keyword, and he is highly sensitive to the subject's content, it is possible to actively click tab, which is faster than opening a new channel or column page. The trade-off here is the efficiency of information acquisition.

In addition, it is recommended that the same bar tab not more than 3, otherwise very detrimental to user identification and memory.

9, Cheat Point
A lot of people scold the website is insane, greed, click the title does not go directly into the article page, must take you to the topic page, even the channel homepage, the column homepage, does not force (cheat) you to order once more.

Well, it's not exactly a trick. Editors will think, I worked hard to do a project is not easy Ah, this also rolling update, but the external extension of the title must change every day, and then put the theme headlines, link or to the topic. And editor-in-chief will think, my channel is very good ah, but most users in the main station to promote a few news points, he did not come in, how to know inside caves? So the external promotion bit of news replaced the channel home page URL. In other words, the pure motivation of the Direct Link topic page is to ensure that the promotion is updated at the same time, increase the exposure of the topic; The pure motive of the direct-Link channel homepage is to advertise, let you know there are more good things inside ...

Users do not care if your motives are pure and not pure, he spoke to scold, but did not go to scold. NetEase has a period of time to enforce the mandatory rules, prohibit the "cheat point" operation, so after a year or two, did not find how much extra word-of-mouth, even mention is not mentioned this point, the promotion and PV losses are the practical. Then he stopped insisting on it.

In my opinion, the motivation of the direct link channel and the homepage of the column has its rationality, but the results are very little. User initiative point into the Channel home page, the fundamental motivation is not the flowers inside, but he needs more than the main station to promote more content. If the demand exists, he will naturally touch it by promoting a bit of contact and agreeing to the quality of the channel, whereas even being cheated will quickly click the title again and turn off the current page. Therefore, even if Ayu, NetEase home only part of the channel to engage in straight chain, you can see that the editor of the different understanding of this.

10. Crisis
This month I sent a micro blog saying that the big frame of the "information portal" is declining.

Portal users are not less enthusiastic about browsing hot news, but only need a home page or news center to meet them. Due to the increase in access to information, the "channel" of this vertical aggregation page is declining dependence. The polarization of news readers is more and more serious--light users pay attention to browsing efficiency, more willing in a page (such as the portal page) to browse the hot news, another from the frequent microblogging, social networking sites, app access to information; Heavy users focus on content quality, in the portal home overview of the diversified headlines, more easily attracted to the vertical site.

In this context, the design of the portal home is very difficult to weigh. If the amount of information is less, can not adapt to changes in user needs, if the information is large, more and more diversion of the possibility of access to the Channel home page users. This makes the status of the channel awkward, although the main advertising revenue, but more play the role of the portal home information provider. In the long run, it means that the value of the portal advertising is shrinking, and that the cost of maintaining a large editorial team is becoming lower.

From the point of view of page design, this problem is basically no solution. The information entrance is dispersed is the general trend, but the user must be in "browsing efficiency" and "content quality" dual drive, seek own optimal solution. The multilevel index structure of the Portal > Channel > column does not conform to the optimal solution, and the flattening of the content path is an irresistible change direction. The old mode of network media is being challenged, the crisis and opportunity coexist. In late summer and early autumn, winter spring.

Source: http://firecacada.blog.163.com/blog/static/707437620111119114840862/