Interact with Today.com

In comparison to sites like nytimes.com, with its interactive maps and vibrantly moving graphics to tell a story, today.com seems to lack in the interactivity department.

Today.com is very user-friendly site, with accessibility to videos, and quick links to articles viewers may be looking for. However, it lacks in its ability to use a great amount of multimedia and graphics.

An important aspect of a site’s interactivity is not being strictly content driven, because the reader needs to see what they are reading. Normally an interactive graphic will found within a multimedia article, like the stories within the multimedia stories on nytimes.com. I was able to find an interactive map after using today.com’s search bar. An article or any other content did not accompany this interactive map, which can be another aspect of various interactive stories as well, however seemed lackluster to me compared to the pieces that included an article, photos, and possibly a video.

Most of today.com’s interactivity stems from interactive maps covering a variety of topics, however there was one interactive graphic that caught my attention: a voting poll. In a recent article discussing the candidates for TIME’s 2015 Person of The Year, today.com posted an interactive voting poll, in which site viewers can select who they believe should be the winner.

After they cast their vote, viewers can see the latest results. I found this interactive aspect to be not only beneficial to the viewers but also to today.com who broadcasted this interactive option of their live show most likely sparking an increase site viewer number.

Because today.com is a site that stems from its television show counterpart, it is not surprise that content on today.com is not full of widely interactive multimedia articles. That being said, if today.com were to incorporate a multimedia section to their site, viewers may be inclined to stay online after they re-watch that video of how to stay skinny for the holidays!