The HuffingtonPost.com iPhone app is possibly one of the best news applications I have used. The HuffPost, as both an aggregated blog and news website has the challenge or organising a vast array of specialised topics and blog streams. This requires a greater degree of user empowerment and control, instead of relying on a linear homepage for editorial authority. The manner in which this user control is exercised, as well as customisation and sharing functions, are detailed below.
Sections are colour coded and navigated via a scrolling bar at the top of the screen under the HuffPost mast head. By swiping the home screen for a topic (i.e. politics) the reader is taken to the following home screen of the next topic (i.e. media). This is a very easy way to flip between sections. The order these appear in can be customised in the app settings (see bottom of post).
When reading an article or post the menu hides automatically. It is returned when you touch the screen without scrolling. This provides a greater portion of the screen for the body of the article or post.
Articles can easily be saved for later reading or reference via the footer menu that also contains links to sharing, comments and text-size controls. The app allows the reader to comment using their HuffPost login or Facebook Connect.
Saved articles are accessible via the main footer navigation. The can easily be deleted after reading. Other settings allow the customisation of topics in menu, city control for local news, and user controls (such as landscape viewing, swipe settings, Twitter client for sharing and HuffPost login details).
Overall, this is an app that I personally feel is a better reading experience than the actual website because it puts so much control in the hands of its user. And while this is not necessarily a requirement of all news sites, for the HuffPost it is essential in order to navigate the myriad of content it feeds out every hour.
What was missing?
1. I didn’t notice any advertising and the app is free. I assume guess that HuffPost are waiting to v 3.0 before introducing advertising to the app after they build up a strong audience and can scale their offering to advertisers.
2. Customisable aggregation – I think there is an opportunity for HuffPost to allow readers to add a non-HuffPost blog feed or news feed to the app – so that it could take on the role of both publisher and aggregator. This might increase daily usage and app loyalty.
3. Night mode – or black-background mode. This something I have noticed creeping into other news or text reading apps that allows the user to invert the main body area of the app to be black-background with white text. This is less glaring on the eyes of the reader if they are reading at night. This is something the HuffPost should definitely implement soon.
Links:
iTunes link to Huffington Post iPhone app
HuffingtonPost.com
