UX Heatmap of todays news. We must do better.
I've been a UXUI designer for more than a decade.
In short. It's part of my job to know and understand how to lay out information so the user (you) can interpret it in the most effective way and derive value from it.
What that also means is you design for particular needs, wants or goals.
If I'm a for-profit, I want clicks, I want views, watch time, engagement (comments, upvotes) I want retention (time you spend), I want DAU and MAU (Daily & Monthly active users)...
I want all of this so I can go to advertisers and make more money by selling ad space and after some time convert you to a paying customer (hence all the paywalls you see on news sites these days).
"So whats with the colour blops and numbers OP?" Great question Derek
Today the government hit a pretty incredible milestone "The goal was for 65% of patients to be treated within 18 weeks by March 2026". It's incredible because they didn't overpromise, they simply delivered on a very lofty but reasonable goal.
Yet its one of the least visible elements on the page, its tucked away to the far right of the page. We read left to right and hierarchical, in layman's terms you, me and everyone is going to read the big 'hero' section (1) on the left, then theres a huge % drop off that will read section 2 and another huge drop off for section 3.
What this means is the chaotic, over engaged reality tv show that old AND new media has turned politics into is almost always front and centre...well, front and on the left. With actual good news or progress buried away. Because as we know from the now famous MIT "Falsehood" Study (2018) negativity goes much further and therefore gets more retention, clicks, watch time, etc etc
The BBC News is one of the most visited news pages in the world, what they say matters and has impact in how our country literally see's a more importantly perceives news. WE pay for it. It shouldn't need to operate like a rag or clickbait news outlet.
Do better.