At some time during this election week my local newspaper, The News Chief, updated their web site. It is a change, but not for the better. Newspaper sites are utilized by a wide range of users with varying capabilities. Usability is crucial. There were so many glaring usability issues that I just had to address them.

Where to start....this list is in no particular order and is only a result of spending about ten minutes reviewing the site. I know I could find more issues with more time.

Links

- One of the first rules of usability is to properly visualize links for the user. Not a single link on the home page is underlined. The style sheet does allow an underline to appear on the left hand navigation when you mouse over it but that is the lone exception.

A user is forced to move their mouse over the page to determine what is a link, and what is not. Links should be obvious.

- Picking up on that last statement, you would think the major headline of the top story would be a link, it is not. This was the most obvious thing that I saw when I first visited the home page. I attempted to click on the headline, like most users would, no luck. To read the article I must click on 'complete story' at the bottom, which of course is not underlined, nor does it become underlined when I hover over it.

- On section level pages, such as Community News this convention is reversed. The headlines are the only links to stories. But once again they are not underlined and do not provide an underline with a mouse over. Be consistent, and offer multiple options.

- Visited and unvisited link colors are the same! This was one of the foundations of HTML. A link's color would change to let the user know they had visited that page. Nowhere on the site is there any differentiation between visited and unvisited links.

Navigation

- There is no consistency in the naviation. On the left hand column, sections such as 'Community News' and 'State' are links to those categories. In the center content area, the titles "Community News' and 'State' are not links. Other headings in the left hand navigation such as 'News' and 'Sports' are not links. More on this in a bit.

- Story pages lose the left hand navigation column. Major site navigation is performed via a drop down menu. Nielsen gives his thoughts on drop downs. Ultimately there are two major issues I see with the drop downs.

1. They hide the options available. At first glance the user has no indication of what choices are available. A user is forced to interact with the page to determine which direction they wish to proceed.

2. Consistency (I mentioned this above): On the standard left hand navigation bar the links are: Community News, State, Local Sports, etc. These options are not available on the drop down menu. The items on the drop down are: News, Sports, Entertainment, etc. Which are headings on the left hand navigation, but are not links!

Looking at a story page, why is the drop down even used? There is plenty of space below the masthead to provide a navigation bar listing all the options.

- Hidden Options: I touched on this in the drop down section. With the use of drop downs, options are hidden from the user. In the previous version of the site there was a link to a dining guide. First glance at the home page shows no link. I would expect to find it under the 'Entertainment' heading on the left hand navigation but it is not there. Digging a bit further I found it. The link is listed in the drop down menu titled 'Other Links' at the bottom of the left hand column. It would be interesting to see how much traffic drops to those 'Other Links' sections now that they are hidden from users.

Those are just a few quick thoughts, but they represent major usability issues. There are a few other more technical issues such as search relevance and the use of icons that I won't go into.

Let's hope the News Chief addresses some of these issues in the coming weeks.

Update A visit to the Feedback section of the site reveals that the left hand navigation can also be placed on the right. But all the links still refer to the previous design.