Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

I've just done a bit of code that grabs the Fletch score for each of the newest stories on the BBC News site. 90.0–100.0easily understandable by an average 11-year-old student60.0–70.0easily understandable by 13- to 15-year-old students0.0–30.0best understood by university graduates 60.6 Oprah Wi

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

2009/11/20 Paul Webster : > On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:18:31 -, you wrote: > > > >>As an example, I think for this story: >>http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8369764.stm >> >>"Procter & Gamble recalls 120,000 Vicks nasal sprays" >> >>...is much clearer than... >> >>"Thousands of Vicks spray reca

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

On Fri, 20 Nov 2009 12:18:31 -, you wrote: >As an example, I think for this story: >http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8369764.stm > >"Procter & Gamble recalls 120,000 Vicks nasal sprays" > >...is much clearer than... > >"Thousands of Vicks spray recalled" > >Especially if you don't know

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

I think that's what I was getting at. In less than one whole kilobyte ("seven tweets"), everything you need to know. Is concise a fad that has passed? 2009/11/20 Adam Sampson > Brian Butterworth writes: > > > BBC News headlines go from 33 characters (because of Ceefax) to 66 > > I always wond

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

Brian Butterworth writes: > BBC News headlines go from 33 characters (because of Ceefax) to 66 I always wondered if there was someone working for Ceefax who took great pride in working out how to word all their news headlines to be exactly the same length. A screenshot I took on 29th July 2001 r

[backstage] The Killing the Digital Economy Bill

http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/technology/8366255.stm Surely the "Killing The UK Digital Economy" Bill? http://www.boingboing.net/2009/11/20/britains-new-interne.html -- Brian Butterworth follow me on twitter: http://twitter.com/briantist web: http://www.ukfree.tv - independent digital televisio

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

2009/11/20 Alun Rowe > > If people took everything Jakob said as gospel the web would be a far > duller > place. He's the devils advocate of web development, by offering and > extreme > view he just gets you to evaluate the decisions you have made. > Fair point. > > I think it's an improvemen

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

On 20 Nov 2009, at 12:49, Brian Butterworth wrote: As an example, I think for this story: http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/business/8369764.stm "Procter & Gamble recalls 120,000 Vicks nasal sprays" ...is much clearer than... "Thousands of Vicks spray recalled" Especially if you don't know what Vi

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

It's like this http://www.cimt.plymouth.ac.uk/resources/topical/reading/reading.htm $FLESCH=206.85-(0.846*$S)-(1.015*$W) where $S = total number of syllables in 100 words $W = average number of words in a sentence. 2009/11

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

On 20-Nov-2009, at 12:49, Brian Butterworth wrote: > As I pointed out if you calculate the reading score for these longer > headlines, they score higher, meaning they are less good to those (unlike > ourselves) who have lower reading skills. > > For higher skilled people, they just take longer

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

what's a "reading score", brian? Best Cs Sent from my iPhone On 20 Nov 2009, at 12:55, "Brian Butterworth" wrote: 2009/11/20 John O'Donovan Thanks Mo, Hi Brian. We thought long and hard about this, but basically we think it's an improvement. Surely the idea should be to demonstra

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

If people took everything Jakob said as gospel the web would be a far duller place. He's the devils advocate of web development, by offering and extreme view he just gets you to evaluate the decisions you have made. I think it's an improvement. I think the SEO thing is a bit of a red herring a

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

2009/11/20 John O'Donovan > Thanks Mo, Hi Brian. > > We thought long and hard about this, but basically we think it's an > improvement. > Surely the idea should be to demonstrate that something is an improvement, rather than just changing it. As I pointed out if you calculate the reading score

RE: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

Thanks Mo, Hi Brian. We thought long and hard about this, but basically we think it's an improvement. For example, this headline may be short, but what is the article really about? http://news.bbc.co.uk/1/hi/7390109.stm "Great tits cope well with warming" As an example, I think for this story

Re: [backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

On 20-Nov-2009, at 11:45, Brian Butterworth wrote: > Here's a nice little dillemma. > > http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/11/changing_headlines.html > > BBC News headlines go from 33 characters (because of Ceefax) to 66 > > One the one hand, king of usability Jacob Neilson has said t

[backstage] BBC News - Googlejuice vs Usability

Here's a nice little dillemma. http://www.bbc.co.uk/blogs/theeditors/2009/11/changing_headlines.html BBC News headlines go from 33 characters (because of Ceefax) to 66 One the one hand, king of usability Jacob Neilson has said the BBC News headlines are the "world's best" http://www.useit.com/a