Message in Medium
Discovering Stuff to Read
I’ve mentioned before I’m keen on the subject of discovery. Particularly for Indonesian content space — there’s just too much junk and very few (if any) ways to sort out the useful bits. Semantic/contextual discovery is one part, but it’s also about visual discovery.
Well, mostly visual anyway. The way people read magazines and papers and catch the headline or the pictures. Or the colors.
My old blogs are mostly structured on some sort of periodical archive. After staying for more than five years on the same platform, it’s obvious that simple chronological ordering just don’t work.
The readership suddenly expanded so much more, fewer of my friends in Europe and more of them in Asia. Then the way they read content changed, from the web at work, to their smartphones on the road. It’s very clear that the media consumer of the future want different things. The problem is figuring out how.
In one particular project with a consumer facing startup exploring visual content, we brainstormed focusing mobile content discovery on a linear basis. Like, we don’t offer any navigational tools — the only way readers find what they want is by reading the next article.
Everybody looked at me funny in the meeting room. Most people think consumers want buttons and menus, selections and more sophisticated choices. I think consumers just want good, high quality stuff. They don’t want too much of it, but they will always return for steady fix when they find the right one. The trick then will be making sure that we always have the right one, the right content, to meet the right audience at the same time. Discovery.
On mobile device, I noticed that Medium currently uses the same discovery model. Very plain, almost primitive, one after another, linear content — we can’t even access the bookmarks (I wish we could). At least, (I think) we always get new posts. Pete Davies explains more here.
It’s a novel approach, slightly annoying, but honestly, it’s a brilliant way to learn how people actually read stuff on the a new medium, and a great way to build a better product.
