Poor playing by the NFL New York Jets' quarterback Geno Smith leads to a switch to the back-up quarterback Michael Vick

The Jets, specifically head coach Rex Ryan, have lost patience with their starting quarterback Geno Smith. His poor play is a big reason the Jets stand with a dismal 1-7 record. Michael Vick, a 34 year old, will start for the Jets on Nov. 2 against the Kansas City Chiefs.

This decision questions the Jets’ plans for Smith in the future, for he was supposed to be their “franchise quarterback”, starting for the team for years. Ryan would not share if the quarterback change was permanent, and he claims the Jets organization still views Smith the same way after this move.

There may be some hope from the Jets that Smith will start playing up to his potential, but he has not shown much promise over his career. After Smith came into the National Football League in 2013, he has only gone 9-15, throwing 31 interceptions total in those games. In nine of those 24 starts, Smith has thrown multiple interceptions.

Smith is coming off one of those games, throwing three interceptions in just the first quarter last week against the Buffalo Bills. Jets’ general manager, John Idzik, called the performance a “cause for concern, an eye opener”. Idzik had been a supporter of Smith, for he did draft him, but even he may be starting to lose faith in Smith.

Social media sharing links and NFL statistics and podcasts personalize the article for digital users and football fanatics

This article is a great example of personalization because there are options to share the article via Facebook and Twitter, comment about it, or email the article to someone. These options suit the variety of users that wish to do more with the article in their own personal way. Digital users most likely use all of these platforms, and they would be pleased to find the article have such convenient sharing options.

In addition, the article is personalized for NFL fans. Users reading about a quarterback change for a bad team are most likely football fanatics. Thus, the article placed interesting statistics about the worst quarterback games statistically since the beginning of the 2013 season. There was also a football podcast in the article for fans that wanted even more information than the article summarized. 

Options to control video speed and offer article comments give users more content control, and thus more interactivity

The article addresses this interactivity component by including a video, podcast, and the option to leave a Facebook comment. The video and podcast give the user options to pause, fast-forward, or simply ignore supplemental information about the decision of the Jets to change quarterbacks. They offer opinions of other reporters and analysts aside from the author about the reasons behind the quarterback switch.

Finally, the option to leave a comment is essential to letting the user interact with other users and with the author of the article about the topic. The purpose of interactivity is to get the user to engage in the material. This is achieved by giving the user control over the content they see and offering ways for them to become sources of the content. Therefore, videos, blogs, and comments are perfect examples of interactivity.

Information in text and graphics go together to enhance user understanding of the switch to the back-up quarterback

Many factors went in to the Jets’ decision to change quarterbacks, and this is explained effectively with the coordination of the text and graphics in the article. The graphics elaborate on the topics of the text located next to the graphic.

For example, in the picture to the right, the text mentions Geno Smith’s high interception total and how the Jets’ general manager has begun to lose faith in Smith. The graphic then supplements these points with statistics that show Smith has had some of the worst games by a quarterback in history.

Thus, the Jets’ are moving on to their backup Michael Vick, who is also highlighted in the text. When contiguity, the coherence of the text and graphics, is achieved, the user is able to develop a connection between the two formats of information. Clearly in this case the user is able to use both types of information together to understand the message of the article.

Potential kick-outs for the article are mostly limited, but a link to a related story exists that could drive the reader away

The article avoids many potential kick-outs by not having overwhelming amounts of information, ads, long or slow loading videos, broken links, and information that’s hard to comprehend.

Having a Facebook comments section, which the article has, could be overwhelming with the number of comments, resulting in a potential kick-out. However, the article limits the amount of comments initially shown on the page and gives the option to show more.

One possible kick-out on the page does exist near the beginning of the article. There is a link to another story on ESPN that discusses this same topic of the Geno Smith benching. This should absolutely be moved away from the main content of the article, so that the user does not simply choose to read that article instead.

A kick-out is something on a web page that increases the chance of a user leaving the page. Articles are written, edited, and designed to attract and keep attention on their page, so a kick-out prevents this goal from being achieved. Clearly the link to another article could result in the user leaving the current page.