This week we’re reviewing the Twin Cities Business Journal, which recently won a Best Web Site award from the Minnesota Chapter of the Society of Professional Journalists. This is how the site looked at the time of the test:

What Does This Website Do?

1. It is the website for the Minneapolis St. Paul Business Journal. It provides online content to compliment the printed magazine.
2. This webpage is best described as an online news resource. The page offers information regarding business news in the Twin Cities.
3. It’s a web page of different business in Minneapolis, St. Paul. You can also find latest news about the state and daily business news updates.
4. It features news, journals, newspapers, as well as business journals. It is mostly about Minneapolis. Also news in other places can be found by clicking Choose Another city option.
5. This website posts news articles about entertainment, life , technology, etc.
6. The website provides business news of the Minneapolis St. Paul area.
7. This site mainly deals with latest breaking business news, updated throughout the day, some of this week’s top stories from the Minneapolis / St. Paul Business Journal and other popular features from the print edition.
8. This website is basically a news website like nytimes.
9. This website has news articles about the Minneapolis / St. Paul area. The articles are about business topics.
10. This is a business website with information also about travel, real estate etc. You can find a job also from this site.

Best Current Feature

1. The business directory is the best current feature of the web page. If I lived in the Minneapolis St. Paul area, I would probably visit that directory via this web page often.
2. The keyword search option is the best feature of the site. It allows you to search the archives.
3. “FEATURED READER COMMENTS” is the best feature.
4. The best current feature is the latest news which is the first thing you see.
5. Order of representation of various links for various categories is the best current feature.
6. The best feature on the website would be the “Choosing different cities” because not everyone lives in the same city, and people love having options.
7. It’s very detailed. When I mouse over “more topics” there is a long list of all the industries in the area. I’m sure that’s very interesting for businesses in that area.
8. The best feature is the design. They made it look neat and clean and also simple.
9. I really like that you can choose different cities in the drop down box. That’s important for people like me who aren’t from the Minneapolis area and would like to learn about any current business news from a city closer to home. The “Featured Reader Comments” was also a nice touch.
10. The wide range of options provided, such as searching for a job, information about travel, etc.

This site has a lot of different things going on so it’s not surprising that the opinions are so varied. It seems that most of the site’s features and functions appeal to the reviewers. What would they like to see improved?

One Thing to Improve

1. The link to the job ads could be more visible. The general public would likely not see it under the “careers” button at the top quickly enough and would leave the page without being able to use that helpful section.
2. The home page is a little crowded. Maybe try splitting it into more defined sections.
3. Reduce the info on home page with better organizing, it is bit coarse near the bottom.
4. Use separate pages for some of the information, to better organize and clean up the main page.
5. The website feels unorganized. It feels very cramped.
6. The Latest News Published can be highlighted to stand out more.
7. I personally find the homepage too crowded. There are a lot of different topics and lists, boxes, ads, one below the other, seemingly without structure.
8. There needs to be more color or photos.
9. I would like to see the small “Blogs” area expanded. As it currently is, it isn’t all that clear about what is offered once I click the link. Perhaps having some text from the first paragraph of the blog’s article would help, also displaying posts from more than one blog entry in the box would make me more likely to check out that section.
10. The content on the home page is very dense and can be a little confusing.

With the exception of a few suggestions, the main focus is on the amount of information presented on the main page. They agree that it seems to get a little confusing as you scroll down, and there is too much going on. This site covers many topics and trying to get the latest updates and breaking news on everything all on the front page can be overwhelming.  A little organization and prioritization could streamline their nice 3 column layout. Following some minor adjustments the site could be re-tested to see if the reorganization clears things up for the visitors.