It seems more and more evident that modern society’s longstanding ties with printed text are being overtaken by visual images. Today, magazines and newspapers alike have large color images on the front page, seeking to grab readers attention. No longer are simple text titles enough to convince readers to indulge in the contents of printed media, but instead we rely on images. Interestingly enough, I was surprised to see that this evolution has become especially apparent in the Washington Posts’ new website feature, Topicly.
Topicly presents news in a very smooth and visual way. Instead of stories denoted by written text, the general topics are separated into large images. Once the user decides what he wants to read about, entering into one of the topic sections brings you to a page with stories paired with more images. Finally, after clicking on the desired story, the user will arrive at a more typical online news story.
I feel like this new addition is a bit pointless. If you are too lazy to discover what story you want to read on the normal website without images, what is the benefit of a feature on the site that will give you a visual guide to finding the story which you once again will still have to read in text. I understand its purpose is to capture readers who are more prone to look through visual portrayals of the news, but at some point they are going to have to read, and it seems like they are just delaying that realization.
-Nick