papers past - a redesign case study

The New Papers PastUser experience lessons learned

National Digital ForumNovember 22, 2016Michael LascaridesNational Library of New Zealand

@mlascarides

130 Newspapers~3.5 Million

Pages~40 million

articles~3M

pageviews/month

The Reasons

“WHY ARE YOU DOING THIS?!”

Business drivers:

Technical Debt +Content Workflow

Constraints:

Beloved serviceDifferent formatsSmallish budget

Opportunities:

Improve UXFuture-proofingDevice-friendly

Design approach:

Thoughtful discussionPrototypingUser testing

Agile development & iteration

The Iterations

“Sometimes I start browsing and then

search, sometimes I search and then

refine by browsing.”

Needs moar button.

Feeling disconnected.

Hello Click Suite!

The Redesign

OLD

A fundamental UX question: How do we get more materials to people without#&@king up their current experience?

NEW

OLD

NEW

NEW

OLD

NEW

OLD

NEW

OLD

NEW

OLD

NEW

The URLs

/cgi-bin/paperspast?a=d&cl=CL1.NZABIG&e=-------10--1----0--

/newspapers/mt-benger-mail/1881/3/2

format publication (or collection) year month day page

/newspapers/TS18691231.2.12

Publication

Date

Benefits:

Easy to understandEasy for GA to parseEasy for spiders to traverseBandwidth savings!

Google teething:

• PageRank slow to build back up after long decline• Getting indexing recipes right

The Result

Feedback in Beta:92% Positive

Feedback in Beta:92% Positive

Feedback immediately after launch:60% Positive

Signs point to more engagement:

• 14% more sessions with search• 35% more pages per visit on mobile• 7% more searches

More to come.

Future-proofed & iterative!

Thank You!

National Digital ForumNovember 22, 2016Michael LascaridesNational Library of New Zealand

@mlascarides