The Redesign Process

My job as an online editor at a traditional newspaper company involves a lot of convincing…that is, convincing print journalists to rework their content so it is not just “on the web” but “of the web.”  Same can be said of designing content for mobile media. Content should be tweaked to take advantage of the unique constraints and abilities of the platform that delivers their information. 

So, for example, a 1,000 word story that works well in print, would not be the same if it was produced for  TV, would need to be altered to be broadcast on the radio and could be different online in a desktop browser. What if the same story is accessed by someone on a mobile phone? The traditional print version wouldn’t be ideal, nor any of the other iterations on TV, radio or online. It is best if the content is fine-tuned to fit the mobile browsers capabilities.  

Questions to answer first: Who is the audience for this product and what are their expectations? What content is relevant to the mobile user to fulfill their expectations? How can this information be beneficial to someone on the go? How can it be easily viewed and consumed on a small screen?  

With so much information available at people’s fingertips these days, publishing content in any medium seems to be pointless unless an audience actually can access it with the least amount of stress, and find it useful.

Yes, I Text.

Yes, I text. My friends. My family. I text privately when talking is inappropriate. I text when I don’t feel like having a long conversation. I once dated this guy who preferred to communicate a lot by text.  The relationship didn’t last very long because, in part, the communication remained really shallow. How much can you really say in 160 taps? How much is misunderstood?

I use some abbreviations when texting , but I prefer to type out the full words and use punctuation. Can’t help it. I’m a journalist. I want the recipient of my text to know what I’m talking about. When my mother texts me from the Philippines, I sometimes have no idea what she is saying because of her bizarre textspeak. Then I have to send her another message asking for a clearer explanation.     

You can certainly use text to communicate in the “backchannel” – like passing a note in class. But it shouldn’t ever be used as someone’s primary or sole form of communication. There is value in hearing another human being’s voice and seeing the expression on their face.