FT adjusting to the sense of a finite read

Stuart Dredge of The Guardian writes about how the Financial Times has continued to evolve its web application.

Dredge writes, “Grimshaw adds that 12% of the FT’s digital advertising revenues are currently coming from mobile devices. ‘We would like that to be higher, but it’s substantially above the industry average,’ he says.

“A large portion of the FT’s digital audience ‘channel-hops’ throughout the day, accessing the site from computers at work, then smartphones or tablets while commuting, and during the weekends. Indeed, the FT’s tablet and mobile traffic is ‘pretty much on a par’ with desktop usage at the weekend.

“Tracking these reader habits informed the web app’s redesign, particularly the decision to offer static and dynamic versions to be switched between at will.

“‘From the very early days, we’ve noticed that people like this sense of a finite read. Completion is a big thing for people, and in common with most publishers, we’re not great at giving people a sense of completion with our desktop experience,’ says Grimshaw.

“‘We were keen to do more with the app to deliver that to people. But the right approach was to offer people the best of both worlds: the morning edition is the finite read, then you can flick a switch to go over to this live experience, which will update throughout the day. It feels like the right thing to do.'”

Read more here.