Sun 'worst for digital usability'

It may be the biggest-selling daily in the UK, but the Sun has come bottom in a report looking at how user-friendly national newspapers are on platforms including the internet, iPad and iPhone.

The study, by consultancy Webcredible, gave the Sun the lowest rating across a range of daily newspapers due to a "poor utilisation of the platforms and low usability in particular for its iPad app and mobile site".

Webcredible's 40-page report looks at the digital offerings of 10 newspapers – the Guardian, Financial Times, Daily Telegraph, Times, Metro, Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Independent and London Evening Standard – on a range of metrics using a scale of 0 to 5.

The report looked at each newspaper's internet and mobile website, iPhone and iPad version. The report did not penalise a publisher not having an iPad edition – four of the 10 newspapers surveyed do not, including the Guardian – given it is still a "relatively nascent market". But it noted that not launching an iPad app soon would constitute a "significant failing in the months and years to come".

Webcredible looked at a wide range of elements including navigation, content and design as well as user experience across all platforms – including the printed edition.

The Sun came lowest with a score of two, with a range of criticisms including a "confusing" mobile site that often runs full-screen ads and an iPad app that is "like a scanned paper version".

The Guardian – part of the group that publishes MediaGuardian.co.uk – the Financial Times and the Telegraph scored the highest, each awarded three or more out of five, with the Times and Metro coming ahead of the Daily Mail, Daily Mirror, Independent and Evening Standard.

The FT got the highest points of all publishers for its iPad app design but "lacked basic features such as viewing videos, where critical points were lost".

Metro received the lowest mark in the content category for its website, with the criticism that it has "limited news content and lack of comments and opinions ... the site has no business section and only covers football in the sport section".

The Telegraph's site was praised for a "good balance between news articles, images, blogs and adverts", while the Daily Mail – the most popular UK newspaper website by some distance – was nevertheless criticised for a "confusing" home page "due to very long article titles, poor quality images and the adverts in each side".

Generally the iPhone apps of each publisher received the highest average scores of any digital platform. "It is clear that news providers have managed to take advantage of the platform offering well designed apps, which are easy to use," the report said.

Overall, the report found that publishers generally launched separately on each platform – internet, mobile, iPhone, iPad – with little integration between the services.

"An unexpected finding was the limited cross-channel integration among the providers," said Trenton Moss, director at Webcredible. "The underdevelopment of platforms is most evident with iPad apps where is seems like common design conventions, especially navigation, is making it difficult for users to familiarise with the apps."

The full report is available here.

Newspaper usability report ranking

1. Guardian

2. Financial Times

3. Telegraph

4. Times

5. Metro

6. Daily Mail

7. Daily Mirror

8. Independent

9. Evening Standard

10. Sun

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