August 29, 2013

USA Today is leveraging adaptive delivery to enhance the experience for smartphone users according to their device type in an important revamp of its Web page.

USA Today is the primary of Gannett’s greater than 100 mobile products to be developed on a code base that leverages a brand new CMS to seamlessly deliver content across desktop and mobile devices with a single URL. Gannett expects this to enhance SEO and discoverability in addition to enhance the probability of reports going viral.

“The product represents a vital breakthrough within the adaptive delivery of our content,” said David Payne, chief digital officer of Gannett, McLean, VA. “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 proper experience in response to your individual device characteristics, operating system type, screen size, connection speed and screen resolution.

“As a client, you’ll now see not just a miles improved design and user experience, but additionally, you will now receive the best resolution photos and videos available according to your device and connection characteristics,” he said.

“Consumers will even notice the brand new app-like enhancements to the product corresponding to super-fast page loading, simpler sharing and improved breaking news alerts that go on to the tale if it’s available or allow users to simply dismiss them.”

A single URL
As news consumption increasingly moves to mobile, publishers has been searching for the best strategy to deliver online content across smartphones, tablets, desktop and other devices.

In the past year, many have taken a responsive design approach, which reformats content in line with device type, but USA Today is leveraging adaptive delivery, which delivers unique experiences for various devices.

Working from a single URL – www.usatoday.com – users will see different experiences in response to their device type.

The single URL system will enable USA Today to make more content available for the mobile Web than ever before. It would even be in a position to deliver more video and photo gallery content inside articles.

Additionally, features which include sports scores, stock market data and weather info should be easier to access.

USA Today decided to redesign the location according to the ongoing growth in mobile traffic that it’s experiencing.

“Our traffic across Gannett is increasingly mobile and already tops 50 percent on USA Today, with a variety of device types accessing our content,” Mr. Payne said.

“One size doesn’t fit all, and we would have liked to rethink and reengineer our systems to enable the delivery of the foremost optimized content available within the highest resolution and absolute best experience,” he said.

Faster page loads
For mobile users, USA Today is targeting not delivering an excessive amount of content in order that page load times are faster. The recent experience will even feature improved typography and a contemporary layout.

Some of the hot characteristics of the mobile experience will include a more prominent and scannable menu system to make navigation easier while queues will make it easy for users to get to the scoop they need to read faster.

USA Today has also improved the quest functionality on its site, so mobile users can quickly find the content they would like in line with keywords of interest.

When users find something they’re fascinated by, they could easily share articles, videos and photo galleries with friends and followers at the major social media networks.

“On the design side, the foremost significant changes consumers will see are a cleaner UI with simpler navigation and sharing in addition to the inclusion of great media assets to our home and section fronts,” Mr. Payne said.

Final Take
Chantal Tode is associate editor on Mobile Marketer, Long island

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