Mobile Design Pattern: News Ticker
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This article shows the "News Ticker" mobile design pattern. This pattern is part of the Mobile Design Patterns series.
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Description
According to the Wikipedia, a news ticker (sometimes referred to as a "crawler") is a small screen space on news television networks dedicated to presenting headlines or minor pieces of news. However, a news ticker is also used extensively on the websites.
- A small reserved area on the page to show constantly updated items, with relevant links, is called a news ticker.
Advantages
- Supplements the information user receives from the website.
Disadvantages
- News ticker can act as a distract the users from the original content of the website.
- Reserves screen space which might be used for other purposes.
Use when
The News ticker is used on information sharing, financial, news, etc. websites. When the user is engaged in navigating through the pages of the website the News tickers provides the user with latest news or any other updates the ticker is meant for. The news ticker is used when there is some free space on the website which needs to be filled. News may be filtered according to relevance. For example, news words may be while building the ticker so that it shows relevant news.
Use how
Generally the News ticker is placed on the Top or Bottom of the webpage. Along, with news ticker, stock updates can be provided using the same component. The ticker has a refresh button which would update the content of the ticker. When the user clicks on any news item on the ticker, he is directed to the appropriate relevant link.
Design Tips
- Additional components like the search box might be added to the news ticker if screen space is available. For example, the Get Quote box in above screenshot.
- Horizontal stock tickers are preferred while vertical news tickers are preferred to make optimum use of the screenspace.
- Besides a refresh link, more options could be added so that users can easily navigate to their point of interest.
- Make use of UGC (User Generated Content) to show more relevant items on the ticker
--Submitted by croozeus 17:33, 12 May 2009 (EEST)
18 Sep
2009
This article demonstrates a concept of News ticker mobile design pattern. News Ticker uses a box with scrolling text to display the latest information and place it at the top part of the page.
The author , croozeus , has explained this news ticker in details with attractive screenshots. He has also demonstrated how this News ticker places the information of interest (News, stock quotes, football scores etc) in a box and separating items using dots. The author has also explained how and when news ticker pattern should be used. The author has given some design tips like search box with screenshot.
One of the best article for developers who want to show constantly updated various items.