New York Times vs. USA Today:
iPhone App UX Review
Suzanne Ginsburg, Principal
suzanne@ginsburg-design.com
@suzanneginsburg
1
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thanks for your interest!
Please switch to full-screen view for
optimal viewing.
2
Thursday, July 2, 2009

UX Review Goals
• Review design strategies & patterns emerging in the iPhone
News app space.
• Suggest which of the above are working well & which could
use improvement.
• The goal is not to suggest that one app is better than the
other.
3
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Brief app intros
4
Thursday, July 2, 2009

The New York Times
• First print issue published in 1851.
• Web site launched in 1996.
• First iPhone app in July 2008.
• Version 2.1 is included in this review.
• Ranked #1 in App Store News
category as of July 1, 2009.
5
Thursday, July 2, 2009

USA Today
• First print issue published in 1982.
• Web site launched in 1995.
• First iPhone app in December 2008.
• Version 1.1 is included in this review.
• Ranked #3 in App Store News
category as of July 1, 2009.
6
Thursday, July 2, 2009

UX Review
7
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Content & Navigation
Category
navigation
closely mirrors
sections on web
Content
site.
primarily
accessed via
filters (latest,
popular)
Full list of
sections
hidden in
“More” tab.
8
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Header & Footer
Compact
design allows Refresh and
display of last update at
section name top.
& weather.
“Info” link,
last update, &
refresh at
bottom.
9
Thursday, July 2, 2009

List View
Images
slightly larger.
Headlines in
USA Today blue like web
shows three site.
headlines;
NY Times
almost four.
Prominent
ad gets in the
way of last
headline.
10
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Article View (with photo)
Article text
takes center Enables
stage in this navigation to
design. other items in
list view.
Blue plus
sign shows Beautiful
overlay with image but
larger photo where’s the
article?
Compact ad
format &
placement Ability to
doesn’t get in resize text &
way of article. save article.
11
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Article View (no photo)
The
differences
are less
striking when
no photo
present.
12
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Photos (Grid View)
Photos are
NY Times
organized by
uses same
category.
grid structure
Clicking
as built-in
category will
Photos app.
open up
pane.
13
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Photos (Detail View)
NY Times
USA Today uses Photos
presents grid to
photos in navigate to
slideshow stories.
format.
14
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Sharing
Clearly many
more sharing
options on
USA Today.
Both apps
take the user
out of context
when sharing
via email.
Update for
3.0, we hope!
15
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Visual Design
USA Today uses the same color coding from their web site.
16
Thursday, July 2, 2009

More USA Today Screens
Wide range
“Snapshots” of options for
includes trivia sharing via
& polls, Twitter:
perfect for
the mobile Twitterific
user with a Tweetie
few minutes TwitterFon
to spare. Twittelator
17
Thursday, July 2, 2009

More NY Times Screens
Users can
NY Times also save
has a search articles for
feature that’s viewing later.
accessible at
all times via
the tab bar.
18
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
19
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
# 1 Don’t hide valuable content in
“More” tab
The NY Times has a lot of rich content in
“More” but the user will never see it
unless they click on that tab.
NYT could take an approach similar to
USA Today (categories at top) or allow
the user to customize which sections are
shown, as done on AP News.
AP Customize screen
20
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
# 2 Make personalization easy &
transparent to users
USA Today asked to use my current
location but NY is still my “favorite”
location.
Apps should have a clear strategy with
regard to user-provided & GPS-provided
info for personalization.
USA Today weather
(defaults to Favorite pane)
21
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
# 3 Balance the display of images
and text
Images for NY Times articles can take
up an entire screen, getting in the way of
the user’s primary goal: to read the
article.
In contrast, USA Today allows users to
view a larger version as needed. Note
the NY Times image size works well for
a slideshow view. USA Today provides
overlay for larger image view
22
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
# 4 Keep form factor consistent
throughout app
NY Times byline search results leads to
a page that’s not formatted for the
iPhone environment. Ideally, this search
result should be the same as the app
wide search result.
NY Times has 2 search result
formats--the one in front is better
23
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Recommendations
# 5 Keep the user within context as
much as possible
Both applications take the user out of
context when sharing articles via email,
Twitter, etc.
This may change once both apps
upgrade to OS 3.0.
Whole Food share via email keeps
user within context
24
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Thanks for viewing!
• That’s all for now!
• There are many other notable design details but I’d like to
keep these reviews to under 25 slides. If there’s interest I may
expand future reviews.
• Suggestions for future reviews are welcome. Please send
email to suggest@iphoneuxreviews.com
25
Thursday, July 2, 2009

Suzanne Ginsburg: suzanne@ginsburg-design.com
@suzanneginsburg
Blog: http://www.iphoneuxreviews.com
Thursday, July 2, 2009