The Effects of News Site Design on Engagement and Learning

Several news websites have adopted a homepage design that emphasizes the reduction of visual clutter and the limiting of prominence cues. We examine how site design affects news engagement and what people learn from the news. Across three experiments conducted in the U.S., we provide evidence that a more contemporary, visual-based, grid-like design enhances page views and learning from the articles compared to a more classic, text-based, hierarchical design. The specific articles that people recall, however, vary across the two designs. We supplement these experiments with a qualitative follow-up to explore what site design means for journalism practice.