A great deal of effort, money and time has goneinto companies indexing the content of the Internet and making it easilyaccessible. Google makes it extremely easy to search forspecific information. The results are then displayed as a list of links toother pages. People are most familiar with this style of discovering content,but there are some other unique ways that have emerged that aid people indiscovering the content of the Internet.

Rather than just formatting search results differently,there are companies that are inherently changing the way people discovercontent. Search and discovery of Internet content is undoubtedly a lucrativeindustry as advertisements on search results are Google’s main money maker. WhileGoogle is extremely difficult to directly compete with, by having peoplediscover content in a uniquely different way, there is a huge potential to see someof the revenue that is associated with search be transferred over to these otherways of discovering the internet’s content. For this reason, it is worthanalyzing the interface and method of some of these other internet discoverycompanies. There is a huge potential for them to be lucrative, and people areusing them an increasing amount, which is apparent from the increasing numberof companies that are presenting content in this new way. One of the mostsuccessful of these companies is StumbleUpon.

StumbleUpon is a site/toolbar where a person canselect interests that they have and by pressing one button, have content inthat category, seemingly randomly appear on their screen. Rather than searchingfor the best of the Internet, the best of the internet is brought to the userwith the click of the Stumble button. This model is different than Google in that a personis not directly looking for specific information but rather is looking tobrowse through a subject and discover content that they otherwise would nothave found on their own. It is important to critique this system, because thismethod of searching the Internet is becoming increasingly more prevalent. Apps andsites like flipbook, pinterest, pearl tree, and many others are showing peoplecontent based on subjects they are interested in and/or that other people havefavorited. This method of searching allows people to easily peruse through thecontent they are interested in.

StumbleUpon is particularly interesting because ofthe sleekness and simplicity in which one navigates and uses its tool bar. StumbleUpondeserves hall of fame recognition rather than shame, but like all interfacesthere are improvements that can be made. StumbleUpon is successful because itis only a toolbar that sits at the top of a webpage on your internet browser.When you stumble through different web pages, you primarily see the web pageand the content of the page and the toolbar is almost invisible. StumbleUponprovides a blank canvas in which web pages can then fill in content. Thisallows people to view content in the setting that one would find it normally onthe site.

StumbleUpon recently made small tweaks to theirtoolbar. The mapping of StumbleUpon's buttons are appropriate with the way that people anticipate using a toolbar. Information about one's account is on the top right of the toolbar, which is the general trend of web apps and web pages. It is next to the search bar, which also is generally in this area. Because the Stumble button is the only object on that toolbar that is a different color and appears to be a button, it affords people to know that it is meant to be pressed. It's placement in the top left is also proper mapping because since we read from left to right, the most important information and commands on a web page tend to be in the top left (i.e. the navigation of a webpage). If one were to make tweaks to the device it would be only small tweaks because there is a limited amount of interaction that one can have with the toolbar. Rather, StumbleUpon could make grander changes to the waypeople use the device to better line up the way people view content and the reasonpeople use StumbleUpon. A redesign that looks at the bigger picture of what StumbleUponis trying to accomplish could be successful.

When StumbleUpon presents videos and certainphotos, it removes the backgrounds and extra content on the page and shows onlythe primary media. In this way, it makes it extremely easy to stumble throughpages and see the main content quickly without becoming distracted byextraneous material on the page. This material includes advertisements, linksto other pages and articles and site navigation elements.

There are benefits to leaving these elements on thepage in that if a person is truly exploring and trying to find new sites theylike, then this allows them to further explore a site. However, if they areusing StumbleUpon to find information about a subject and they only want to seethe content StumbleUpon presents them, then this extra information and materialis only distracting. For StumbleUpon, it is likely best for them to have peoplecontinually use the Stumble button rather than get lost on a site and haltstumbling. This is because after ever 15 or 20 times a person presses Stumble,they throw in a page that is actually an advertisement. The less peoplestumble, the less advertisements they can include and the less money they make.

While browsing with Safari, on many blogs and webpages, the “Reader” button in the search bar becomes lit up. You can click thisbutton and it turns the page into a document that looks more like a book pagerather than a busy web page. It puts up a gray skrim behind the page so thatyou focus only on the main content. StumbleUpon has begun to do this with someof its videos and photos but a redesign could have it doing it to most photosand videos and also doing it to text and blogs.

Rather than being distracted by ads and extraneouslinks, one could stumble through pages that show only the content one isinterested in. It would be important that access to the primary link is stillavailable in case one wants to do further exploring.

StumbleUpon would make it easier to experience thecontent without being distracted and people would likely press Stumble morerather than getting lost. However, it would also take some of the allure outbecause getting lost in a site and discovering that you like a site is animportant part of StumbleUpon. Websites that are being accessed by StumbleUponalso likely would not want their information pulled from their website anddisplayed in another company’s format. Changing the design of StumbleUpon to anall-immersive, content only tool would likely benefit StumbleUpon, hurtwebsites, and both benefit and hurt the end users, but mostly benefit.

Websites like Pinterest pull information from sitesthat people have liked and display them information in their own format. Theirformat is visually appealing and allows their users to quickly see a great dealof content. The way that Apple has Safari displaying documents when one pressesthe Reader button is also a conscious choice. In both cases, content isreformatted to better fit the brand identity of the tool in which people areviewing the content. StumbleUpon could do a similar thing and increase awarenessof their branding and make a stronger brand by the way they reformat the text.It would have to be subtle so that it could work with all the content that isshown. If their branding seems inappropriate with the content it is showingthen people will be less likely to want to view content through StumbleUpon. Iftheir branding is overwhelming, they will lose the blank canvas feel that theyhave now. However, with an appropriate amount of branding and reformatting, theway that text, images and movies are displayed could make viewing contentthrough StumbleUpon much more enjoyable than dealing with the potential poordesign and distractions of a website.