Starch Test

We analyzed the patterns of which articles in a publication readers actually read. We found that they often read articles of a type they didn’t admit to liking in focus groups. We also discovered that one type of articles that they did want to read were in a section of the publication that was so confusingly designed that most of them gave up after trying a quick scan of the pages. We also discovered that in a section with short items labeled geographically, they read only about their own locations, even though many of the items would actually have been of use to them. One of our recommendations was to headline the items with the useful informational tidbits, not the site name, to maximize the readership of the best practice ideas.