Our group consisted of members of the Community and Ask teams who are eager to drive more reader engagement around our journalism. Our hypothesis was that an open-ended Comments box can be intimidating for some readers, and that specifying a prompt might encourage readers to participate. Highlighter could also provide an opportunity for writers and editors, and they could prep a story by pointing out passages to their readers. The hypothesis still stands that more people will want to contribute their reactions and thoughts to a story if the prompt is more specific. Our prototype also included the ability to share the passage or ask a question about it.

Source: New York Times August 30, 2018 15:22 UTC