NGM vs. ZOO Weekly
So, I had to say my speech a la Speedy Gonzales because of time constraints…and the fact that we were pushing our attention span since we were nearing 9pm. To refresh your memory, I spoke about the National Geographic Magazine and the ZOO Weekly website - you know, the ultra tame and news-credible site?
First, let’s look at the National Geographic Magazine site that was the 2008 Webby award winner for Online Magazine of the year. Not only did it nab this prestigious title, but it also scored the People’s Voice Winner. So, why is it so damn good?
Well, let’s look at it’s design first.
- It links to the National Geographic site. So, it’s easy for the user to toggle between the online magazine and the actual National Geographic site – very effective in unifying the National Geographic brand across both mediums
- The main story features in the mag are also the main features on the homepage, so there’s symmetry of information between the two mediums
- No advertisements are on the site and Elmo did point out that the reason for this is because the site is a blatant advertisement for the magazine. But, considering it won a Webby award, surely it would garner some potential advertising dollars…? Maybe in a few months there might be some ads, probably they’ll be similar to those on the National Geographic site
- There’s a large gif. image above the fold that is the main attraction of the site, and feature stories are rotated on this gif. Image – easy for the user to navigate to the most important stories/part of the site
- Clean white background makes it very easy on the eye and is an effective contrast to the image-heavy homepage
- Site content is divided into three columns, which according to Jakob Nielsen, is a key to good website design because contents can be easily digeste
- The site is interactive with its quizzes/puzzles and by encouraging users to submit photos and rate them. Users can also download wallpapers and games and purchase photos. This interactive element is beneficial in sustaining user engagement with the site and the downloadable wallpapers strengthen user loyalty with the National Geographic brand.
- The story features aren’t text heavy and the tone of the articles makes them enjoyable to read, although the story topics may not be that interesting (but that’s just my opinion, remember!). Also, there are links to other content on the site on the right-hand side of the feature articles that makes site/content navigation easy
- There’s a healthy balance between text and pics on the site, which is effective because it doesn’t bombard the user with a plethora of words or pics. Again, I think the white background enhances this balance
- All in all, the site is very user friendly in that it’s simple to use, it’s consistent with the National Geographic brand and invites users to become part of the site with its interactivity.
Let’s see whether Nielsen’s web savvy advice had any bearing on this Webby-award winning online magazine.
Let’s take a gander at Jakob Nielsen’s Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design:
Note, I have only chosen a few points from Nielsen. Check out his site for all of them…if you’re that keen. Which, I’m sure you are.
1. Bad Search
“Simple search usually works best, and search should be presented as a simple box, since that’s what users are looking for.”
National Geogrpahic Magazine (NGM) does this perfectly – it has a simple box and refined search results.
3. Not Changing the Color of Visited Links
“Links are a key factor in this navigation process. Users can exclude links that proved fruitless in their earlier visits. Conversely, they might revisit links they found helpful in the past.”
Bow bowwww - doesn’t change links to visited sites, and it would be handy considering all the archived stories it has.
7. Anything That Looks Like an Advertisement
“Selective attention is very powerful, and Web users have learned to stop paying attention to any ads that get in the way of their goal-driven navigation”
No sign of an advertisement here – content is for the most part magazine-centric.
8. Violating Design Conventions
“The more users’ expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it”
The site is consistent; therefore users feel in control of the site.
Example of National Geographic magazine content - NGM blogs
- blogs relate to NGM mission statement.
- Specific to target audienc
- Purpose of post is evident thoroughout the article.
NGM Stats:
* 13M unique visitors/month
* 130M page views/month
* 63% Age 25-54
* 56% Coll Grad+
* 43% HHI $75+
* 92% Broadband Access
Check out last year’s 2007 Magazine Webby winner, which is about multimedia storytelling and see if you can find similarities in design between the two sites.
Now let’s compare this Webby-award winning online magazine to ZOO Weekly website that won the Best Use of Digital Media in the 2008 Magazine of the Year awards.
Firstly, this rod-raising site (apologies, my ‘bloke voice’ is pure reflex at times) has:
- 11.3 million page impressio
- 400K unique
- Its main driver of traffic is its Community section, that included users uploading pics, vids, blogs on their profiles
- And is the number one men’s lifestyle website in Australia.
So, as you can see, ZOO Weekly website has an impressive following in down under.
Firstly, let’s look at the site’s design… brace yourself.
- The site is picture-dense but laid out in three columns, similar to NGM
- The main colours of the site – red, black and grey, aren’t the best on the eyes and the plethora of flash advertising doesn’t help.
- Content is not organised - I think everything is everywhere and there isn’t a easily digestible flow of information. BUT, in saying this, we did ask ZOO users whether they thought the format of the site should change to become simpler and the majority said to leave as is. Go figure.
- Like NGM, the site refers to ZOO Weekly magazine by using pictures from the man feature (usually a girl shoot) and by having the latest cover of ZOO on the homepage.
- Also, the magazine relies heavily on its web counterpart to run competitions, source potential models and to post videos that relate to stories in the magazine. Thus, there is a unification of the ZOO brand between the two mediums.
- The site relies heavily on user generated content and invites users to chat amongst themselves which sustains site engagement and loyalty
Now compare ZOO with Nielsen’s advice Nielsen’s Top Ten Mistakes of Web Design and you’ll see that ZOO goes against pretty much everything this web guru advises. But why then did it win? I’ll tell you why. According to the criteria, The Best Use of Digital media “recognises excellence in digital executions of the magazine brand including websites and mobile applications”
And it has done just this by having a strong relationship, content-wise, to it’s print version and by offering mobile services on the site. For example, people can buy pics from the site and get it sent to their mobile. Oh, inocuous pics, of course. And like I’ve mentioned, the traffic figures speak for themselves.
So, it seems that whether you follow proper web-design conventions or not, your site still has a chance to prosper. But er, having a popular brand behind the site doens’t hurt either.
