Online Newspapers begin to show Way Forward

Bill Gates, chairman of Microsoft, has set an agenda for online newspapers that will focus attention on their usability and commerciality.

He warned publishers who view websites as mere sidelines for their print editions that they are ignoring the next generation of readers. He told the annual convention of the Newspaper Association of America that Microsoft is developing new software to make articles as easy to read on the screen as in a newspaper. The intention is to reproduce the experience of reading a newspaper, but with added features, he said.

Newspapers might deliver information and services like video messaging and bill payment, he suggested.

Meanwhile, Slate, the online magazine backed by Microsoft, produced its first ever profit in the first quarter of this year.

While the paid-for online newspaper Wall Street Journal Online was the leading online news service for March, beating the New York Times website. Research, by Nielsen//NetRatings, showed that the "Iraq in Transition" section was one of the most heavily viewed areas of the site. A recently launched email service is also considered a factor in how it attracted the most news traffic. The site has 675,000 subscribers, making it the largest paid-subscription site on the web.

Internet access is 'a fundamental right'
Source: BBC, 12 March 2010
 
Almost four in five people around the world believe that access to the internet is a fundamental right, a poll for the BBC World Service suggests.

The Net generation, Unplugged
Source: The Economist, 11 March 2010
 
Is it really helpful to talk about a new generation of "digital natives" who have grown up with the internet?

Rewriting the Human-Computer interaction Handbook
Source: CIOL, 10 March 2010
 
Indrani Medhi of Microsoft Research India has developed text-free user interfaces (UIs) to allow any illiterate or semi-literate person on first contact with a computer, to proceed with minimal or no assistance.

Lip reading Mobile promises End to noisy phone calls
Source: BBC, 9 March 2010
 
A prototype device shown off at CeBIT could allow people to conduct silent phone conversations.

Games User Researchers band together
Source: UN, 8 March 2010
 
The number of UX professionals in gaming has reached critical mass.

Quince Pro enables privately-held UX Design Libraries
Source: Infragistics, 6 March 2010
 
Infragistics has launched Quince Pro, a private, secure and organized way to collaborate, communicate and cultivate private UX design libraries to ensure consistent user experiences across teams, departments and companies.

Announcing a new issue of the Journal of Usability Studies
Source: UPA, 5 March 2010
 
UPA is happy to announce the publication of the second issue of volume 5, the Journal of Usability Studies.

Impatient versus Bored
Source: Gerry McGovern, 4 March 2010
 
Customers are much more likely to get impatient with your website than they are to be bored with it.

Futures Thinking: Writing Scenarios
Source: Fast Company, 3 March 2010
 
A valuable skill for UX folks (that's 'how to write scenarios', not 'scenarios in which one writes').

How to Conduct a Usability Review
Source: UsefulUsability, 2 March 2010
 
Never hurts to be reminded.