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Chicago Tribune Online: Why Old Print Subscribers Will Hate the Online Edition

I don’t spend much time writing about user interface or usability. My 86-year-old father, however, forced me to confront the interface for the Chicago Tribune Online. This essay has a search angle, but the majority of my comments apply to the interface for the Chicago Tribune Online. Now if you search Google for “Chicago Tribune Online”, the fist hit is the Chicago Tribune’s main Web site. There is no direct link to the electronic edition for subscribers. You can find this service, which requires a user name and password, here. An 86-year-old person doesn’t file email like his 64 year-old son or the 12-year-old who lives in the neighborhood.

My father prints out important email. This makes it tricky for him to type in the url, enter his user name and password (a helpful eight letters and digits all in upper case so it’s impossible for him to discern whether the zero is a number or an “oh” for the letter.

Why does this matter?

I set up yesterday (June 6, 2008) an icon that contained sufficient pixie dust to send him to the electronic edition and log him in automatically. This morning he called to tell me that he had nuked his icon. I dutifully explained in an email, which he would print out, how to navigate to the page, enter the user name, enter the eight digit password (remember there are two possibilities for the zero), click the “save user name and password option” and access the Sunday newspaper.

Essentially these steps are beyond his computing ability, visual acuity, and keyboarding skills.

Does the Chicago Tribune care? My view is that whoever designed the access Web page gave little thought to the needs of my father. Why should these 20 somethings? Their world is one in which twitching icons and subtle interfaces with designer colors are irrelevant.

There’s one other weirdness about the log in page for the electronic edition of the Chicago Tribune. My father has a big flat screen, and I set it for 800 by 600 pixels so he can read the text. The problem with this size is that most Web pages, including the ones for this Beyond Search Web log are designed for larger displays. I use three displays–two for the Windows machine and one big one for the Mac. Linux machines get cast off monitors which we often unplug once the machine is running because no one “uses” the Linux machines perched in front of the boxes.

Not my father, he gets up close and personal. The failure to design for my father is understandable. Life would be easier if people were perpetually 21. Here’s the full text of the help tips in the email the Chicago Tribune sent my father:

Getting started with your Chicago Tribune electronic subscription: 1. To view a story, photo, or advertisement click the item on the full-page image (left side of your screen). It will enlarge on the right side of your screen for easier reading. 2. Use the pull-down lists located in the top center to navigate through which section and page you would like to view. 3. Use “Advanced Search” on the top center area of the window to find a specific article. 4. Use the buttons on the right to email or print each page. Use the buttons on the left to set up email alerts through e-notify and download articles or the entire paper as a PDF. 5. For more help on all the features, just click on the “Help” button found near the top left under the Chicago Tribune logo.

So, here’s what my father sees when he clicks on the electronic edition link on the 800 x 600 display in his browser:

I had trouble figuring out what button and what option was described in the “help” with the registration email. Know why? The log in information requires my father to scroll to the left and then down. There is no visible clue about the log in.

Now he’s found the user name and password section of the log in screen. These fields appears next to an inducement to sign up for the electronic edition. This “sales pitch” is baffling to him and just confusing to me. Here’s what you see above the log in section. Do you understand what you are supposed to do? Remember, you just want to look at the electronic edition of the paper. I switched the screen resolution to 1024 x 768, which is better, but this site is designed for much higher resolution settings. Based on my check in the assisted living facility where my parents reside, my father has the most sophisticated computer system in the place, so I assume the Chicago Tribune is aiming at a demographic willing to pay for online access and equipped with the 24 inch high resolution displays in my office. (We use Google News and other online services. I got out of the print game a long time ago.)

I tell my father to ignore this stuff, go directly to the log in box, and enter his user name and password. I click the Remember my Username and Password option and we are now in the system. Here’s what he saw after he entered his user user name and eight random letter password:

What? No electronic newspaper. You have to click the “Browse” button and try figure out the options. Oh, if you click these links, the interfaces are uniformly lousy in my father’s view. I “sort of” know what the Tribune is trying to provide, but I just want to access the Zellian paper for which he paid. I show him where to click because the blue box with the black type is difficult for him to read. Click and here’s the electronic paper. Remember the help instructions are designed to guide the user through this default display.

I have a laundry list of comments and questions he asked me about this interface. I want to highlight three issues, and move on to the search function.

First, the colors are tough for him to handle. Web 2.0 goodness aside, the interface needs a color scheme that can be read.

Second, there are a heck of a lot of icons, labels, options, and junk at the top of the display. Whoever designed this interface decided that every control has to be available to every user. Not so. How about a simple interface and an advanced option? Nah, everyone’s 21, remember?

Third, in order to read a story, my father has to place his cursor over a story. The story is then tinted light yellow. My father then has to click on the tinted story. The right hand column then shows a text version of the story with an images displayed in the column. One problem. Since the entire page is not visible in the 800 x 600 or the 1024 x 768 display mode, my father has to find the elevator control and scroll down to see the parts of the page replica in the left hand column. I explained the notion to my father by taking a printed copy of the paper and drawing a black rectangle on it. He had to scroll down in order to see the part of the paper outside of the black rectangle. He got it.

I’m now about one hour into this explanation. He asked me, “How do I find the stories about the Cubbies?”

So, as a dutiful son who works in online electronic information, I navigated to the search box here:

I said a quick prayer to the search god, and hit the enter key.

No joy. Here’s what this fine system displayed:

No synonym expansion. No “Did You Mean”. Nothing. I reran the query as Chicago Cubs and got hits about both Chicago and Cubs. Faced with the advanced search explanation, I told him, “The search sucks. Just read the paper.” There’s a happy Google logo on the Zellian paper. Maybe one of the Googlers can lend a hand. Pretty useless system for an 86- year-old and for me yesterday.

Observations

I want to keep this short and focus on search.

1. The Tribune’s electronic edition does not come up at the top of the Google search results for the query “Chicago Tribune online” does not point to the electronic edition. This query does, “Chicago Tribune electronic edition”. Precious few people enter three and four word queries. Some work is needed by the Tribune in order to be findable in Google.
2. The failure to offer synonym expansion and “Did you mean” features is egregious. Enough said.
3. I had a tough time finding information on every single screen of the Web service and, as noted, the null set was truly annoying. Chicago doesn’t have much going for it in sports. One would think that team nicknames would be indexed.

I’m back in my office. It’s June 8, 2008, and I wished the time I spent with my parents was regular chit chat, not the needless wackiness with the Chicago Tribune electronic edition. What an eye opener. Sign up. Try the service now. Your mileage may vary. Let me know your thoughts and experiences via the comments section of this Web log.

A disgruntled quack from the Beyond Search logo on this design marvel.

Stephen Arnold, June 7, 2008

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