The document discusses the layout, design, and content of regional newspaper websites. It analyzes the layout of index pages, noting main stories, links, menus, and news tickers. It finds the Birmingham Mail's layout most professional. Font and color choices aim to match the print papers. Article pages mirror the index page layout. Content is similar or identical to print. The evaluator prefers the Birmingham Mail's aesthetic and thinks category menus could be improved.

1. Layout: The layout of a regional newspaper incorporates similar choices
from the newspaper itself: there is a ‘main story’ which takes up a larger
share of the screen than other articles on the page, and a multitude of links
to other articles, there is a masthead of the newspaper name, that either
uses the logo of the paper or simple text, however there are some
differences: there is a dropdown on each index page to go to multiple
categories of story type, and there is a live news ticker bulletin that would
obviously be impossible when dealing with a printed medium.
The dropdowns are an important implementation of selection
theory as the viewer can easily navigate to any category that interests
them specifically, rather than.
Design: Each website uses the colours of it’s paper as part of
the colour choices, such as blue for the Star and red for the Birmingham
Mail, the effect of this is that the reader will immediately know they are in
the right place.
Fonts seem to be less coherent: The Birmingham Mail uses
similar style fonts for its headlines , a horizontally compressed serif however
with the other two papers the font choices bare no resemblance to their
paper. This is a good thing , because print and screen based type are
entirely different situations and require different fonts for the job.
Content: Content such as articles and images seems to be very similar, or in
places completely identical to print based media.
My thoughts: Of the three websites I believe that the Birmingham Mail
does everything better: the layout is much more professional , tighter and
clean looking than the other two, even if functionally they are all identical,
and design wise I think the same is true, for example the fonts are closer to
the newspaper than others, as well as better use of colour being employed
with more page elements than the other two. The only thing I don’t like is
the category dropdowns are less useful and much more ‘tabloid' than the
other pages, so I will likely use categories similar to the Manchester Journal
or Shropshire Star
Index page

2. Another important piece of design that I was not able to mention in the previous slide is
that minor stories below the upper area in the previous slide is often a grid like layout of
minor articles, such as those shown on the left here although I have compacted them into
a list so they would fit on this slide. Most of the time they use an image and headline with
no strapline or other elements cluttering the already small text. This is something I will try
and reflect in my designs.
Index page - pt2

3. Article Page
Layout: The layout of each article page is based on the index page.
Every site has the same header an categories dropdown on the top of
the website as the index page does. Most sites also have the right-
aligned 'social' bar, with videos and most popular stories advertised.
Again I prefer the Birmingham Mail's layout, even though it is
functionally identical to the other two websites simply due to
aesthetics.
There are also social buttons for the Manchester Journal and
Birmingham Mail, allowing for the sharing of stories over Facebook,
Twitter and other social media sites. These sites follow the inverted
triangle design layout the same as newspapers do, where a headline is
followed by a strapline and usually an image, then body text, although
in this case it is marginally less useful as the user cannot scan around
a physical newspaper page to find the articles they want, but must
first click a link
Design: The designs of each page are similar to the index pages, such
as the content bar along the top, font choices are also similar, as are
the colours which are in keeping with the print based colour scheme,
I.e red for Birmingham mail, blue for Shropshire Star as well as the
Shropshire Star.
My Thoughts: Due to the fact that the designs are so similar to the
front page, I still prefer the Birmingham Mail. An important design
choice I must follow when creating my pages are that the top bar with
the categories and the sidebar which has a live news feed must be
similar, giving a common design link between each page.