Women’s Health Website Review

Women's Health magazine's website

With Lady Gaga and Ellen DeGeneres gracing newsstand covers today, we've come a long way, baby, in media targeted at women. Women's Health is a great publication when it comes to representing the demographic today. I cannot argue with the magazine's placement as No. 2 on Adweek's Hot List 2010. And I found the same is true for the magazine's digital site.

Strength of Content
Score: 8
Timely, authoritative content is present in every article. I have no doubt that the butt toning exercises are safe for my knees, information in the natural allergy remedies article is backed up with science and the low-fat summer recipes will work in my kitchen. I'm especially thankful that WH doesn't promote gimmicks or fads; it promises no shortcuts when it comes to eating, living and exercising well.

Usability and Navigation
Score: 6
Womenshealthmag.com gets the basics right. The navigation bars are consistent throughout the site. Everything has a category tag, and most of the freshest content is featured right up front, or along the Daily Picks menu. That said, WH does seem to use some of the tactics of an IKEA store—driving you deeper and deeper into the environment so that you're not sure how to get out quickly or shortcut to something specific.

I particularly feel this in the recommendations of other content, and this page is a good example. It's an article on appetite-suppressing strategies. It shows me other content designed like this (what they call unhelpfully a "list tool") in a nav along the left; it suggests four random features under the heading "Inside Women's Health" on the lower right; and then below that it suggests four other weight-loss stories. But oh, wait, did you notice? I can't search unless I go back to the Weight Loss section's landing page.

Use of Technology
Score: 4
I think the most advanced piece of technology I found here was the interactive quiz on my "purseonality" and that was a little like a Survey Monkey form. I might be missing some of the fancier bells and whistles by not creating a user account or paying for premium content like the Fit Coach personal workout and diet tool.

Design & Layout
Score: 4
If good layout on the Web is primarily functional, usable placement of links, then womenshealthmag.com is a success.

But if users are expecting a visual experience like they have in the print pub, with luscious fashion features, professionally styled shopping spreads, food porn next to the recipes, and clever concept imagery illustrating stories about sex and relationships, they'll be sorely disappointed.

Some content is text-only, like this interview with actress Lili Taylor. Then again, the celebrity interviews with Lea Michele and Paula Patton include behind-the-scenes video that you don't know about until you reach the article pages and scroll down.

Social Media Sophistication
Score: 5
It's decent, but not inspired. E-newsletters, RSS, one-touch e-mailing of articles, the invitation to comment on the site and through Facebook—it's all there, plus a few games and a Twitter feed. The tools are there for me to link to that Lea Michele video on my Facebook wall and make a snarky comment about her claim that a vegan diet cured her acne.

It seems as though the site abandoned more topical blogging about two years ago, to judge by the age of the posts on projects like this one. There's just a general blog for the magazine.

WH does have a presence on Facebook and Twitter, both of which solicit reader interaction and promote new content at the site.

"Sophistication" is a hard thing to measure. Does WH deliver content I can connect to my online life? Yes, I can search for a recipe and forward it to my friends. Does WH create a community where I can form relationships with other fitness-minded women? Not really. Many of the comment boards are clogged with spam posts trying to get me to visit the site of an online supplement store.

I enjoyed this Min Online interview with publisher Jack Essig about the magazine's social media strategy and iPad version.

Summary

The final word: Written content is king, or should I say, it's queen, at womenshealthmag.com. On Pace's 50-point ranking, WH only got a score of 27, but the site's strength of content means I would still recommend it to anyone who wants sound fitness and food advice.

Posted By: Britta Waller