CNN.com's new look

[George Porter]

I sent the following message to CNN's comments section moments ago.  The
issue of information density and organization in organization's primary web
entry points (soliloquy on terminology available upon request) is a
difficult balancing act.  

Brian Kelly's WebWatch column in the current issue of Ariadne
<http://www.ariadne.ac.uk/issue28/web-watch/> examines "Size of
Institutional Top Level Pages".  An equally relevant study could be done of
academic library web pages, perhaps utilizing a combination of Academic
Library Peer Comparison Tool
<http://nces.ed.gov/surveys/libraries/academicpeer/> (US Dept of Education)
and LibWeb <http://sunsite.berkeley.edu/Libweb/> (Thomas Dowling's
incredibly useful library web page directory).

The issues -- whether commercial news service (CNN or other
newspaper/broadcast media-based), university, library (academic, public,
special) -- revolve around providing a sufficient level of meat to make
visiting the main page worthwhile, while providing some navigational anchors
to explore the site more deeply.  By meat, I'm referring to real
destinations whether it's links to news stories, the online catalog search
box (e.g. NCSU Libraries <http://www.lib.ncsu.edu/>), or the admissions form
for the university.  Far too often, in my experience, there are several
clicks required to get to a function or resource which should be readily
apparent when you go to a destination (top level page).

FWIW, CNN did acknowledge my email within a few minutes indicating that
there are redesign staff who are monitoring the feedback.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
Caltech, 1-43
Pasadena, CA  91125-4300
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681

-----Original Message-----
To: 'Comments at cnn.com'
Subject: CNN.com's new look


I find the new look, contrary to your assertion "...that our homepage is
shorter, brighter and better organized...", is less readable and offers less
content immediately than the previous version.  I do not mind vertical
scrolling to see several headline stories for a wide variety of segments.  I
am unlikely to dip into several different in-depth segments just to find out
what the 3 most important items are at the moment.

Please do not force me to choose a new primary web news source.  Restore the
previous version.

Thank you for taking the time to read and consider my thoughts.

George S. Porter
Sherman Fairchild Library of Engineering & Applied Science
Caltech, 1-43
Pasadena, CA  91125-4300
Telephone (626) 395-3409 Fax (626) 431-2681