Read our lead story: We dare you

Written by Adrian Holovaty on February 11, 2003

A fun challenge: Visit The Woburn (Mass.) Daily Times Chronicle and time how long it takes you to figure out how to access the lead story.

This interface takes news Web sites to a new level of user-hostility.

Not only is the headline unclickable; once you locate the 12-by-12-pixel circular image link that takes you to the story, its measly size makes it unnecessarily difficult to click.

Users of non-graphical browsers, such as Lynx, aren't much better off. That circular image link lacks an alt attribute (explanatory text that non-graphical browsers substitute for graphics), which means Lynx and its text-browser cousins won't display helpful text explaining that link.

How to fix this? Make the headline clickable. And if the graphic must remain, enlarge it; Fitt's Law dictates it'd be a lot easier to click if it were bigger.

Comments

Posted by prawnFresh on February 11, 2003, at 4:06 p.m.:

4 Seconds. What do I win?

Your absolutley right! - It's a shambles!

Posted by Adrian on February 11, 2003, at 5:39 p.m.:

Nice one, prawnFresh. You win the knowledge not to do this on your own sites.

Posted by BenM on February 12, 2003, at 4:34 a.m.:

Not too long as there was a spoiler in your post! Anyway from what I could see it doesn't even take you to the right story. I clicked on the small grey disc underneath the main story, about construction planning, and was swiftly taken to a story about cathode ray tube disposal.

Intuitive is most definitely not the word,

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