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04:25
30 Aug
2013
Thanks to MobileMarketer.com for this great case study.
As with many organisations around the world, responding to changing consumer behaviour, as well as improved design and user experience opportunities from the web in recent years (e.g. through the availability of HTML5, better coding practices etc), the USA Today newspaper has recently overhauled its entire online offering.
And, again like many online destinations around the world, it has taken the decision to build a responsive website (which reformats content based upon screen size) so that its readers get the best possible reading experience of its content, no matter what device they are choosing to read on.
Unlike most responsive sites, however, USA Today is leveraging adaptive delivery (responsive CSS plus server side content!!) to improve the experience for smartphone users based on their device type.
USA Today decided to revamp the site in response to the continued growth in mobile traffic that it is experiencing. And the new site has been developed using a code base that leverages a new CMS to seamlessly deliver content across desktop and mobile devices with a single URL (www.usatoday.com).
To further increase page loading times, USA Today are focussing on not delivering ‘too much’ content at one time, but through improved search and navigation, as well as reduced content per page, readers will be able to tab through stories much more quickly.
“One size does not fit all, and we needed to rethink and reengineer our systems to enable the delivery of the most optimized content available in the highest resolution and best possible experience,” said David Payne, chief digital officer of Gannett, McLean, VA (owners of USA Today).
“Unlike responsive design which essentially reformats and scales desktop sites down into mobile browsers, our adaptive delivery strategy enables us to detect your device and serve you the best experience based on your personal device characteristics, operating system type, screen size, connection speed and screen resolution.
“As a consumer, you will now see not only a much improved design and user experience, but you will also now receive the highest resolution photos and videos available based on your device and connection characteristics,” he said.