washingtonpost.com's new look
The site looks less cluttered and there's more white space than before. The left menu on the homepage has been reorganized into clearer categories, and sports are given more prominence on the homepage. Expanded horizontal navigation is now at the top and bottom of pages and, following the lead of the NYTimes.com, left navigation has been removed from article pages. There's a new Arts and Leisure section that brings the entire site's cultural reporting into one location.
In a letter to visitors, Chris Schroeder, CEO and Publisher, addresses the changes and points out innovations such as:
Focus on Areas of Interest. The news and features that readers have told us are most important are now easier to find. Notice that sports and opinion are highly featured on the home page.Emphasis on Interactivity. We've put interactive features and multimedia front and center. You'll now find easy access to our live discussions, photo galleries, videos and virtual visits for popular attractions, venues and events."
Although the make over is an improvement, it doesn't fully solve the problem of how newspapers can best use the web to present their products. The three/four-column style that's become standard is sagging under the weight of the rapidly increasing amount of articles, photos, video, audio, advertising and marketing. The quantity of information being created in newsrooms is outgrowing the designs meant to display it. What to do?
No easy answers to that one, I'm afraid, but it might be worth taking a look at what Jason Kottke, the talented New York blogger, is doing at the moment. Of course the magnitude is different, but it's interesting to read Kottke's approach to grouping information in his incremental redesign. Equally fascinating are the comments (more than 100 at last count) left by visitors. The challenges involved in displaying and archiving information on the web are huge and the move to multimedia presentation is adding to the complexity of the task. A rethink is needed and that's why Jason Kottke's ideas are so important.
Diarist of the day: Brian Cox, 24 November 1990"This has been an infamous week because on Thursday morning, Thanksgiving Day, Mrs Thatcher resigned. It was a cause for great celebration by the company. After the performance champagne was brought and we are all feeling a backlash because of it. In a way I think her resignation is a good thing but I'm not sure how good yet, it's early to say. From the point of view of a change of government, I think it would have been better if she had held on a bit longer and then, we could have definitely got rid of the Tories. I also think there is a feeling that she was stabbed in the back."
Comments
Hmm, haven't seen this Kottke's page before, but I don't think it's such a major design and ergonomics gain. The main structuring element appears to be the timeline, everything else is thrown in and mixed merrily. As a neophyte to his page, I think it's lacking more structural elements. For example, if I want to access only his film reviews, where do I go (maybe I just didn't find it, but that's already a bad sign - I didn't know his page before...)?
Of course, no homepage is perfect, but I fail to see the major gain in his "approach". But maybe then it's just me.
Posted by: hans ze beeman | November 24, 2003 8:01 AM
Well, I just think that he's thinking about how best to display his content. That's the same game the Washington Post is playing. As I said, the scale is different, but the challenge is the same. Whether you are a blogger or a newspaper publisher, you have to try to get the message across that the stuff is good, that it's easy to find and that the whole thing looks good.
Posted by: Eamonn | November 24, 2003 6:09 PM