Please Vote in the TidBITS 2019 Reader Survey!

Originally published at: https://tidbits.com/2019/08/16/please-vote-in-the-tidbits-2019-reader-survey/

After nearly four years, it’s time once again for a reader survey to make sure we’re producing the kind of content you want to read. We’d appreciate it immensely if you would take a few minutes to give us feedback on our articles, Web site, and more.

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I forgot to mention in my survey that although I have never commented on Agen Schmidt’s column, I always read and appreciate it. And even though I have not used stuff like BBEdit for a few years, I might decide to use it again sometimes in the future. And though I might not have been very interested in an application when it was initially reviewed, I’ve been reminded about apps in the updates that now belonged on my Apple radar screen.

Yeah, those Watchlist items were popular last time around too, with much the same response. People like knowing what’s going on with major apps, even if they garner very few comments.

I have been reading the weekly email newsletter scanning for articles of interest and many times getting the information I needed without going to the website. I was surprised to see how much better the website is with the new design. It looks great and is easier to navigate. I think the images are a bit too big and some are not as relevant to the topic — for example, a train photo for the post on mapping apps. I have a 27-inch monitor, and that train took up the entire screen. It was an extra step to get to the text. I vote for a smaller image with word wrap, so I can get to the content faster.

I have been a Mac user since 1985 and I have been a faithful reader since you started.

The “featured images” are one of those things that we added because they’re expected in modern Web publications (see this example at The Verge) and because they’re essentially necessary for the articles to appear reasonably in Twitter or Facebook. And I do think they’re often pretty, although it can be quite a lot of work to find and/or edit them.

I will admit that I’m contemplating eliminating them since they may be more work than they’re worth. I’ve thought about a smaller presentation with word wrap, as you suggest, but I think that eliminates what useful impact they do have a full size.

The image size on the iPhone is good and does not take up the whole page like it does on a large monitor.

At least the list of articles do not have the images so I can quickly scan do what I want to read.

I know what you mean about web design trends. I have seen a few in my day.

I read the Washington Post on my phone a lot. I notice that they are using the featured image before the article. I also noticed that many of their images now are illustrations rather than an actual photo.

Unfortunately we are in an era of short attention span‘s and distractions so colorful images have become the norm to get peoples’ attention.

Keep up the good work and thanks for listening to me.

I signed up as a member again. It is worth it.

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