Design recommendations for online newspaper front page design (2004)

This section presents an example of a genre analysis for information design and interaction desgin of online newspaper design from 2004. In this example, the genre analysis was used as a basis for deriving design recommendations, of "best practice", of design precedents. These recommendations thus do not take more recent developments into account.

Taking a genre perspective on design, eight design recommendations for online newspapers have been proposed based on an empirical study. These recommendations are based on features that mediate a specific purpose and use between publisher and audience, which we describe as genre rules in terms of purpose, form, and positioning. They are also based on genre change regarding design, and the heritage from print regarding form and shared content elements.

1. Use the length of the front-page to give an overview of the whole site.
2. Use the broadsheet metaphor for layout.
3. Provide navigation support in different ways.
4. Consider the use of navigation banners in combination with banner ads.
5. Place the news stream at a top position.
6. Use timestamps to indicate latest news. (same link as above)
7. Provide news valuation through positioning and markers.
8. Provide one joint search facility for both the archive and today's news.

The recommendations are published in: Ihlström, C. & Lundberg, J. (2004): A Genre Perspective on Online Newspaper Front Page Design. In Journal of Web Engineering, Vol. 3, No. 1, pp. 50-74.