Clarity please

USATODAY’s website continues to impress me with its use of links, graphics and reporting. An article posted on Wednesday was a prime example of why I like USATODAY.com for fully informative articles and great extra information.

 

In the article, Study: a few extra pounds won’t kill you, there was a sidebar including six related topics to the issue of being overweight. Along with the topics there were one or more links to take you to that information. There was also more links within the article.

But, I bet your thinking… well, don’t a lot of news websites have links to related topics? And it’s a completely rightful question to ask. But, I believe the layout of the website has a lot to do with why I like it so much. USA TODAY does a very good job of making the webpage clean and organized while having a lot of extras.

One aspect that stood out to me was the sidebar with bullet points highlighting the study of which the articles was following. It makes it much clearer to a reader that doesn’t exactly understand something like medical studies to grasp what they are reading. 

I don’t see that on a lot of articles.

This particular article was great at wording the headline, and therefore, in my opinion, reported the topic best.  The report was stating that being a little overweight isn’t entirely all that bad. While breaking this new study, it made sure to specify it didn’t mean it was great either.

The news isn't all good: Overweight people do have a higher chance of dying from diabetes and kidney disease. And people who are obese — generally those more than 30 pounds overweight for their height — have a higher risk of death from a variety of ills, including some cancers and heart disease.

However, having a little extra weight actually seemed to help people survive some illnesses — results that baffled several leading health researchers.

In another article on the study on Washington Post’s website, the information was there, but seemed buried later in the story. For me, I was a tad confused at first because I was sure that in another article on their site they had stated that being overweight was connected with cancer. But, in until getting to the information USA TODAY stated earlier I was under the impression the site was running contradicting articles on the exact same day about a medical study.

Not to mention the fact that the headline seemed, to me, to be able to go with the fact that all overweight people weren’t at that much risk.: Being Overweight Isn't All Bad, Study Says Carrying Excess Pounds Does Not Increase Risk of Dying from Cancer or Heart Disease, Researchers Say.

It may seem as if I am being picky, but while reading the Washington Post article not only me, but a colleague of mine was confused that the article was saying being overweight wasn’t a big risk on a person’s health.

With the additional information to check into and a clear headline, I viewed USA TODAY as a winner in this round. But, there are many other times it should be applauded for it’s user friendly layout, providing what the public wants for information on a topic, including videos inset in specific articles.

Another article that is a great example of the site’s links and great distribution of information, including an interactive graphic: Televangelist Pat Robertson endorses Rudy Giuliani.