On recent redesigns, I offer random thoughts based on nothing except personal preference. (And then I have a point.)
First, I love:
Time.com
TimesOnline.co.uk
But I don’t love:
NaplesNews.com
StarTribune.com
The first two strike me as fresh and – uh oh, clean. The second pair feel cluttered and out of fashion. This puts me on the wrong side of the fence, since many of you love Curley’s Naples design and gawked the StarTribune’s print-to-Web makeover.
And lastly, I hate:
SavannahNow.com
How frustrating to visit a newspaper site and get road signs instead of news.
So there you have it. My random thoughts based on nothing. No facts to back it up, or anything. I’m told that’s how some actual focus groups on redesigns are conducted. Just give your gut reaction.
And I have to agree that if a reader’s gut reaction is to dislike something, then the likelihood of him or her using it frequently is slim. I much prefer impassioned fall-in-love moments.
Domino magazine likes to redesign rooms (yes, in your house) based on what a person is wearing. Makes perfect sense to me. Design is personality. Taking the personality of clothing and infusing it with a living room is not only possible, but also it’s what a lot of sites lack.
People judge you based on appearances, without exchanging a word. And we facilitate that judging by projecting a certain image through our clothing and manner, etc. It’s our way of helping out.
Same goes for Web sites.
Everyone should ask users to judge your daily book by its cover. See if they describe the site how you’d expect.
Comments (3)
Man, you're just trying to p*$$ off everybody, aren't you? :-D
I agree about Naples and StarTribune. I didn't know Curley did the design of Naples. He wasn't there very long, IIRC. But it's too text heavy. Ditto S-T.
I think you're wrong on SavannahNow, if only because the landing page isn't a newspaper site, per se. To me (based on nothing, as you say), it's a very clean design. Inviting, even. Much more so than being blasted with a bunch of jumbled headlines. If I want that I'll go to yahoo or google news.
And I have little use for Time.com anyway. No redesign is going to make me go to their site as it is.
fun discussion.
Posted by Bryan Murley | February 5, 2007 10:50 PM
Posted on February 5, 2007 22:50
My personal favorites are Time and El Pais.
I'm not a huge fan of Naples, but the site's content is so great that it overcomes the clutter.
I like SavannahNow. As much as I'm a news guy people are just as interested in the other stuff, so the design makes sense. It's great to see sites trying to experiment.
We just went through a redesign at theNorthwest Florida Daily News. We had to deal with a strict wireframe and quick deadline from corporate. In fact all we can take credit for is the color scheme, menu bar and content on the left side until you get to the AP stories. How do you think we did?
Posted by Isaac Sabetai | February 6, 2007 2:39 PM
Posted on February 6, 2007 14:39
Sorry for the long delay in replying. Way to put yourself out there and ask for feedback about the design.
A few things I like about the site:
- The search is prominent, which is an effective driver of traffic and a great way to make users happy if it actually works. So make sure it works.
- I like the use of mug shots to draw folks into the blogs. Poynter eyetracking research shows that folks are attracted to faces. And, I like the use of faces because it helps create a relationship with the user.
- The list of stories at the bottom of the page is effective in showing the sheer amount of content on the site. At the small point size, a sans serif font is probably easier to read.
- Featured classifieds is a good idea. Might want to add a count next to each category name to give users an idea of how much is there, give them a reason to clickthrough. For example, it would say "Real estate (33)" to show there are 33 ads.
One problem that repeated a couple times:
- When clicking a tab on the home page, it shouldn't take the user to a new page. It should just load the next tab on the home page. Otherwise, this is counter intuitive to how a tab functions in real life.
Posted by Lucas | February 14, 2007 9:42 PM
Posted on February 14, 2007 21:42