Comments on: The Times update their paywall UI, and guess what…?

By: Ben Sauer

Ben Sauer — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 13:00:18 +0000

Iteration is a good thing, but I’m still in amazement that they got it so wrong in the first place.

Spectacular arrogance or ignorance? Did they not test it at all? With so much at stake? I’m imaging comical meetings post-launch: “oh F*** LOOK HOW MUCH MONEY WE’RE LOSING!!!”

With the kind of resources they have, its mind-boggling, hence my previous comment about decision-making, and by extension process.

By: Simon Thulbourn

Simon Thulbourn — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:37:47 +0000

It’s better, but there are so many points they can still fix.

They have so much empty space they could capitalise on, when someone gets to the pay wall, make it an actual page, not a modal dialog screw up.

Make the paywall the first step to registering or to login. At the end of the login or registration process, take them to the article they were just trying to read.

Although, they have deeper issues than that. I actually tried to register and their process needs changing.

As for figuring out if they read the first article and comments, you could check your access logs for their hostname/IP addresses.

I can’t help but feel The Times will end up losing part of their readership because of their paywall.

By: Harry Brignull

Harry Brignull — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:22:18 +0000

It’s entirely possible that they didn’t read the original blog post, and they just came to similar conclusions through their own research. But yes, I too like the idea of a big org responding to points made in a comments thread… :-)

By: Paul Gordon

Paul Gordon — Fri, 02 Jul 2010 12:17:58 +0000

Who at The Times do I send my invoice to? Consultancy doesn’t come cheap you know… ;)

Seriously though, good to see a big player take heed of good UI suggestions. Hat tip to them for that at least.