Mediaite.com was recently launched to provide “news, information and smart opinions about print, online and broadcast media, offering original and immediate assessments of the latest news as it breaks,” according to the About Us page. The opinions and assessments on the news separates Mediaite from other online news sites and zines, but that difference isn’t immediately clear, so we ran the site through our initial feedback test to see if people visiting the site understood its purpose. This is what the site currently looks like:

What Does This Website Do?

1. It describes various politicians and prominent individuals in the news and what is going on in their life. It depicts the opinions of well-known individuals & other interesting info.
2. Summarizes timely news stories from all types of media.
3. This website shares current media stories from different fields including television, movies and newspapers. There are news articles to read. Reviews/comments can be posted by members.
4. This site is mostly about media, online news, blogging section to make comments, media jobs.
5. Mediaite.com looks like a news aggregating site with a bit of original content. The layout and content remind me of The Huffington Post.
6. It seems like it compiles news stories from various websites, but it also seems to have some sort of ranking component. I can’t really tell what the purpose behind the page is entirely, aside from a collection of links.
7. It’s real news with an Onion twist to it; funny and sensationalized a bit, blaring at you, funny stuff.
8. Gathers news stories from off the beaten track as well as mainstream sources and organizes them by the media – print, TV, online. At first glance, I am unsure as to whether some of these are true stories; the manner in which they are presented do lend to a “hoax” feeling.
9. It is an online newspaper. It collects news from many different media sources.
10. This is a media website offering news and opinions. There are a variety of sources available on the website – TV, online, and print. There are also sections labeled rankings, columns, and jobs.

The reviewers all appear to have different ideas on what the website is about, which means the one aspect that differentiates it from a typical news site isn’t clear enough for first impressions.

What do the reviewers really like about the site?

Best Current Feature

1. It contains quite a few concise articles. The articles do not require a lot of time to read & the information is compact. The photos are quite colorful as well.
2. I think the Power Grid is a very interesting and unique feature.
3. The Power Grid is pretty cool. I also like the fact that the site has a special section devoted to news articles about print media (e.g. replacing Page Six’s Paula Froelich, the NYT having to sell its share in a classical radio station).
4. Great font! Nice toolbar. It seems to be a little sensationalized, though. Is that intentional?
5. I’m partial to the TV section because I watch so much and I could relate to it.
6. I like the manner in which the source is categorized and color coded. That makes the page easy to navigate and quickly find the source you want.
7. I like that it has headings showing the newest story under each kind of media.
8. Powergrid Section or Columinists Section.
9. The best feature for me is the layout of the webpage. It is well organized, put together well, and has an eye-catching design. I like that it is broken down by the different categories, and has some eye-catching titles and images from each category (TV, online, etc.) The layout is easy to understand and easy to find relevant and/or interesting media.
10. The best feature is the categories that are from differant media sources. The graphics are good and attractive. The site has additional links on the bottom.

They like colorful design and organized layout, which are very strong features.

What would they like to see improved?

1-Thing to Improve

1. While the overall look is eye-catching, it tends to be a little too busy and somewhat confusing and distracting. A more streamlined design might be helpful.
2. I am not sure that I would choose this website over another. I get a lot of news from MSNBC and NPR online.
3. The search algorithm could use some improvement, the results I’m getting are pretty inaccurate.
4. The color scheme needs to be a bit more muted–all that color in the header (where the site logo and the TV, Lists, etc. buttons are) gives me a headache. I like the idea of a uniform slate, cobalt, black, and white color scheme. Don’t color-code your site’s different sections! You want to be similar to HuffPo, not a cheap imitation.
5. Clarify the purpose with a logo or a mission statement. It’s sort of confusing to figure out. Am I looking at popular news stories, interesting links, or a combination of both?
6. Some of the headlines just don’t lend themselves to real journalism. You have me wondering what the story is about or if the story is true.
7. I think that it is pretty good overall. I would possibly like it a bit “cleaner” looking so that it is easier to see each story, rather than it all being bunched together and hard to focus on each part.
8. I would like to see a clearer idea of this website’s image – what is this website all about? What is the personality? I like to have a logo, a slogan, or something similar near the title of the website. Though I can browse around and gather my own general impression of what this website is and what it does, I would like to know what it is supposed to be giving me. What is the point of the website? I don’t feel like I can really evaluate the effectiveness of a website when I don’t particularly know its’ purpose. If it is supposed to be a high-quality news site to compete with the top online newspapers, it doesn’t seem to do that very well. If it is supposed to be more entertaining and opinion pieces, it seems to be more successful.
9. The links could be categorized or reduced as they take up more than they should. You could also have a “more” link for each media source to get more subjects.
10. You could have a feature of the day article.

Two issues stick out; the main page has a little too much content, and the lack of a clear purpose. A website’s first impression is a topic that has been covered here before. If your viewers don’t know what to expect from your website, they won’t spend too long trying to figure it out. If they worked some of these changes into their main page and retested for feedback, the value of the suggestions would be as clear as the site’s purpose.