Presentation given at the WordPress VIP Developer conference May 2013.

1. CHANGING THE PARADIGM WITH SWIPE

2. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 1
David Jensen (@elgrom)
Head of Development
Metro (metro.co.uk)
UK’s third largest daily newspaper
Migrated to VIP last December
WHO AM I?

3. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 2
CSS transition that mimics the horizontal
browsing animation commonly seen in apps.
WHAT IS SWIPE

4. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 3
53% of readers of our tablet app that read past
the 3rd page go on to complete the whole edition
WHY SWIPE?

5. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 4
A set of posts that have been generated from the content
we have on our category pages
We saw much higher engagement when we moved from
homepage only to one per category
WHAT DO YOU SWIPE THROUGH?

6. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 5
HOW WE BUILT SWIPE
Check browsers support for History API
Initial content loads into the centre of three divs
Next and previous pages are loaded via ajax into divs either side
Older browsers gracefully degrade to work like a traditional site
https://github.com/stephanfowler/responsive-swipe

7. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 6
As there is only one page we need to constantly adjust the height of adjacent
divs to allow the swipe action to come in at the top of the next page
CHALLENGES

8. Creating a single page Web App is exponentially more
difficult than a traditional website
Some third party JavaScript libraries don’t support
refreshing due to Document Ready having already fired e.g.
DFP Ad Words
Cross browser support is patchy, Firefox has given us a lot
of issues as has the stock Android Browser so we have had to
disable swipe for both.
Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 7
CHALLENGES CONTINUED

9. Getting people to understand that you can swipe on a web page has been an
ongoing challenge.
Relevant content either side is key to this
Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 8
CHANGING THE PARADIGM

10. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 9
Average Page Views / Visit are 200%
higher for swipe users
Roughly 13% of our Page Views are
now delivered by a swipe action
Almost 7% of unique users are now
engaging in some form of swipe action
STATISTICS

11. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 10
Swipe or scroll?
THE FUTURE?

12. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 11
Metro’s weekly unique mobile traffic growth since 2011
THE FUTURE IS RESPONSIVE
0
200,000
400,000
600,000
800,000
1,000,000
1,200,000
1,400,000
Feb28,2011
Mar21,2011
Apr11,2011
May2,2011
May23,2011
Jun13,2011
Jul4,2011
Jul25,2011
Aug15,2011
Sep5,2011
Sep26,2011
Oct17,2011
Nov7,2011
Nov28,2011
Dec19,2011
Jan9,2012
Jan30,2012
Feb20,2012
Mar12,2012
Apr2,2012
Apr23,2012
May14,2012
Jun4,2012
Jun25,2012
Jul16,2012
Aug6,2012
Aug27,2012
Sep17,2012
Oct8,2012
Oct29,2012
Nov19,2012
Dec10,2012
Dec31,2012
Jan21,2013
Feb11,2013
Mar4,2013
Mar25,2013
Apr15,2013
Responsive Theme Launched

13. Metro.co.uk Swipe Editions 12
THANKS FOR LISTENING