LAObserved, October 12, 2011
Now that I have had the opportunity to see the daily
journal for three days in a row, I am getting the hang of it. I did not understand the layout to begin
with.
The Front Page (above the fold)
Three columns – in a vertical format –
This blog doesn’t use the splash page well. I don’t see
enough information on that page to make me want to go further. I would like to
have more navigational clues to be able to pick what I would like to read from
the front page first, without wasting time. Many of the navigational clues/tags
are actually cross-referenced.
For example, what does an article on “Feds vow to prosecute
media that advertise medical pot” have to do with the tab called “A Sense of
Place”? I would expect an article about Los Angeles, very specifically, and
maybe a historic or cultural perspective from that tab name. The same article
appears on the front page and on the welcome page for subsequent tabs,
including media, politics and LA Biz.
I found the tabs a little misleading, confusing and difficult.
I may be too “old-school” to understand this, which is precisely what this
class in general, and this exercise in particular, is about. I hope that it
will help me to understand the navigational differences between the
print-to-online websites and blog websites. I see a huge difference. The old
way is hierarchical; there are sections and within the sections there are
logical sub-sections, ie. Sports –football, baseball, horseracing, etc.
This webpage has cross-references beneath the tabs, probably
for optimization.
I am unclear, even three days into it, what this website has
to do with KCRW. There is a radio show and the host has this website. One of
the reasons I may be so clueless is that I don’t listen to KCRW on Monday at
6:44 p.m. Evidently, there is a radio show entitled LA Observed that is hosted
by editor Kevin Roderick. There is a bio link on the front page that is long
and full of bona fides that explains three-quarters of the way down the page
that he has a weekly radio program that earned the Golden Mike Award, entitled
LA Observed.
I would rather see the spot entitled “Quick Scan” with all
the tabs to one side or at the top – for the front page. At least that way I
can get some idea of what is going to be there when I leaf through the website.
I can make an informed decision about what I want to read because there are
more than tags, there is a short dek-to describe what is in the article.
I am much more comfortable, to my horror, with the old-style
newspaper-type of website. I find it easier to get it when there are clear
headings, deks and sections. I find it easier to understand when I am not
hampered by colloquialisms and hipster language. I love the shortcutting and
the creativity, but in the end, most of the time, I spend a fair amount of time
trying to look cool while I am deciphering a word grafted together from two
other words. (I was also slow to using a mouse – I had worked hard to learn DOS
and I didn’t want to admit there was another way. So things can change.)
In addition, I found that the pages were not all refreshed
like a daily. Monday and Tuesday had the same “if you missed it,” articles.
Wednesday was better. That may have had something to do with Monday being
Columbus Day, I don’t know.
I am still a bit confused. For example there is a big photo today (Wednesday) of “Mark Lacter on business and money.” This is not an attractive or recognizable fellow. I wouldn’t buy a used car from him, I think. The article is entitled, “Universal dumps plan for early video release of ‘Tower Heist’
I don’t know what that is, but I guess it is Universal
Studios. I guess that Tower Heist is a movie. I would have to be a media
insider to understand what that is about. And for that, there is the Variety
and the Reporter.
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