This document discusses the need for "layered stories" in online journalism to better accommodate how users read on the web. It notes users typically scan pages rather than read fully. A study tested layered stories, where text is divided into sections with headings, against "shovel-ware" articles directly transferred from print. Results found layered stories were better organized, easier to understand, faster to read, and less fatiguing for users. The document argues layered stories can help online journalism better utilize the internet by presenting information in a scannable, easy to access way.

1. More Than Shovel-ware
A Call for Layered Stories for Online
Journalism
Yanjun Zhao,
Ph.D.
Cameron
University

2. How users read on the
web?
They don’t.
 Instead of reading, they scan
pages.
 Reading something from a screen is
more tiring to the eyes than reading
the same information from a
hardcopy.

3. Web usability
 Visual design of pages and the logical
presentation of information
 Makes it easy for the user to find the desired
info quickly and efficiently
 This paper addresses the story page design in
online journalism

4. The focus of this study:
Text information design
 Visual design of online news text
 Not the multimedia add on
 This study studies the presentation of text
body of online news articles
 the limits of shovel ware
 The potential of benefits of layered stories

5. Literature review
Current status: shovel ware
 Transferring content from newspaper to the
webpage with little or no revision.
 This approaches assumes that people would read
an article online the same way as they would read
a print version

6. Wrong assumption
 The assumption under shovelware ignored some
crucial features of people’s online reading style.
 Scan v. read
 Less patient reading long text from screen
 Resolution
 72 ppi on screen
 300 ppi in print

7. Online Journalism’s capacity
Necessary to present the info in a
“scanable” way.
When info presented well, users
could have easy and fast access to
additional info.

8. Layering
 Dividing text-based stories into several
sections, and each section has a section
heading, which represent the whole section
 Advantage: structure
 Layering is like a map
 Provide a quick idea about the gist of the article

9. RQ: How effective is layering?
 Hypotheses: compared with shovelware, a layered story
will be rated as:
 Better organized
 Easier to understand
 Faster to read
 More visually attractive
 Less fatigue
 Less boring

10. Method: experiment
Three groups read the same
articles in three versions.
 Shovelware group
 Layer group
 Hard copy group (Control group)

11. stimuli

12. stimuli

13. stimuli

14. Results
0
1
2
3
4
5
6
organization easiness to
understand
visual
attractiveness
fatigue in reading boring in reading
layer
shovelwear
print

15. Discussion
 The Internet, as a medium, offers huge potential
for journalism.
 Layering offers
 Better organization of info
 Less time to read
 Visual attractiveness
 Less fatigue
 Less boring reading experience

16. Discussion
 Online journalism is still in its infancy.
 It is important for online journalists to understand
the visual principles that underlie online writing,
even though these principles don’t jump into our
eyes.
 The layering approach, with its clean and efficient
design, has strong potential to change the
landscape of online journalism.