Unless news articles are constantly reformatted it is impossible to keep a dynamic page optimized with regard to open space. One story will be taken down and the new article will not cover the hole unless it is reformatted with the new space in mind. Doing so would delay the presentation, and the result could look awkward. But, virtual news space is cheap and since one white block will not multiply into large areas of white paper the problem is not critical.
9.3.1 The Layout in the Sections
As described in chapter 5, The Electronic Broadsheet has one front page and several section pages. The layout in the section follows traditional layout rules and tiles the articles. Each page is laid out in a grid with a 5x8 resolution, and space is allocated as stories come in. The Electronic Broadsheet will search the grid for all possible positions. If more than one is found, it will use some simple rules to pick the final destination. The rules are:
* if the priority of the article is high, it will try to get a position in the upper part of the page
The layout program never moves an article after it has been placed since that could interfere with news reading. However, there are situations where one would want to move articles to make room for the new story. E.g., if a high priority article comes in and there is only room at the bottom of the page, it would be better to move the top articles down instead of placing the new article at the bottom, which is where it goes now.
. Ideally, the whole story should be displayed to avoid jumps, but real estate on the front page is expensive and there is not enough room to show articles in full unless the number of front page stories is severely limited
. * The traditional: The newspaper front page is a highly successful channel of communication and should be transferred intact onto the screen. The most important articles are displayed with a tiled layout. This approach wastes screen space in a dynamic environment where articles come and go, but it is the most organized. Also, it is consistent with the layout in the sections.
* The volcano: The front page displays all articles in full with overlapping windows. Important stories float to the top of the stack, less important articles may be partly visible, while the articles with the least priority are totally overlapped. The page contains a lot of information and looks chaotic at times.
By clicking in a partially visible article, it will float to the top. This alternative quickly fills the front page with a segmented compound of articles. It is both serendipitous and chaotic.
* The headlines: As many articles as possible are stacked with the headline visible. By clicking and holding down the mouse button, a user can temporarily bring an article to the top of the stack. This approach offers a structured interface to a lot of data.
People feel strongly about front page design and opinions are diverse. The three alternatives all have their merits and some users might want to use them all.
9.3.4 Nameplates & Section Heads
To improve the look of the pages they all carry a nameplate on top. The nameplate identifies the front page as a part of the Newspace project while the section pages are labeled accordingly. Colors have been used indiscriminately. Appendix B shows some nameplate designs.The Electronic Broadsheet - 30 JUN 95[Next] [Previous] [Top] [Contents]
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