Comparing User Experience in a News Website across Three Devices: iPhone, iPad, and Desktop

摘要

Mobile devices are becoming an increasingly importantaccess channel for news resources and services. Eventhough providing a mobile site for mobile device users maygreatly enhance their news reading experience, many newsorganizations cannot afford such an additional option due tolimited funding and staffing resources. Therefore, analternative approach is to design a full website with carefulconsideration of both desktop users and mobile users. Thisstudy compared user experiences in a news websiteaccessed via mobile devices (iPhone & iPad) as well asdesktop computers. We aimed to discover similar anddifferent design requirements across desktop, iPad, andiPhone users. Users across three types of devices reportedto have similar perspectives on the organization schemes ofnews, the importance of currency of news, the need formore powerful image search functions and algorithms, andbetter visibility of menus/buttons. Meanwhile, differencesbetween mobile users and desktop users have also beenidentified: mobile users reported requirements of makingmore efficient use of space on web pages, less typing, moreuser control and flexibility, and more sharing options viasocial media. Based on the findings, we provided a series ofrecommendations for improving the design of a full sitewhich can meet the needs of both mobile and desktop users.