Among newspaper or web design elements, the humble index may be among the most mundane. But it’s among the most important to readers.
Surveys and focus groups galore have proven that readers treasure navigational devices such as this, and are aggravated when they cannot find the items they seek. Anecdotally, I’m astonished how often — in my travels, or doing critiques for workshop participants, or judging a design contest — the index does not appear at all, or does not tell me where to locate the most basic features of the paper or website.
Though some designers treat the unglamorous index with disdain, its design and inclusion in the paper or home page each day is not to be neglected. Here are some tips on using indexes well.
1. Index as many of your daily standing elements each day as possible: advice columns, editorials, horoscopes, movie listings, obituaries, sports results, weather (and yes, in alphabetical order!). Any standing list is a good candidate for indexing. In the newspaper, don’t cut items to make the index box “fit,” just because other information (text of stories or whatever) encroaches on a particular day. Readers rely on completeness and consistency.
2. These routine items should be indexed especially if their location in the paper changes from day to day (for example, the color weather map might move depending on your press configuration), but index them even if they don’t move around. While your regular subscribers may automatically know where to turn, tourists or periodic buyers may not, and will find the index very helpful (thus reflecting well on the professionalism of your product).
3. Duplicating index items on multiple section fronts is not a bad idea. We know that some readers automatically pass by the front page to pick up their favorite section, or bookmark their favorite topic page. Thus, it might make sense to index the movie times and comics pages on the front page or home page, as well as on the front of the feature supplement or the department in which they appear.
4. Anchor the index if possible. Many papers find it helpful to put the index in a lower corner of the front page — or the next best option, on Page Two. A “moveable anchor” works for some papers, where the index must always touch the bottom of the front page but can move from left to right, depending on how other elements like stories are laid out. Meanwhile, for websites, different kinds of indexes (editorial versus advertising) can be anchored on the left or right sides of the screen.
5. The typography for index items does not have to be overly large — seven- or even six-point type, depending on the font, may be suitable. Sans serif fonts often prove more readable than serif. This is “phone book” type of information, and if not presented in abundance, is quite readable in smaller formats.
Contact Ron Reason ron@garcia-media.com
–All or a portion of this column was originally published in the IFRA newsletter
