April 3, 2006

The new NYT web design.

The NYT redid its webpage. I find it incredibly hard to judge because I was so used to the old look that the new look feels uncomfortable. The right sidebar is so wide now that the page feels lopsided to me. Is that only because the old page is burned into my brain?

The print has gotten light. There is something elegant about gray and not black print, but when you're used to black, gray gives you that failing eyesight effect.

I do like the way it looks from about mid-page down. The line of square photos is especially nice.

I'll get used to this, I guess. And the fact is, I've long preferred the paper Times to the webpage, because I feel I have a better view of things. Will the redesigned page beat the paper version? Do they want it to?
Posted by Ann Althouse at 8:31 AM
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4 comments:

Paul Rinkes said...

still one of the best designed papers in north america ... i recently got a home subscription, and there's not a day that goes by that i'm not blown away by at least one page of the paper.

as a former paper designer, i love the times. as a fan of unbiased reporting ... well, there's always drudge. :)

4/3/06, 8:55 AM
divine angst said...

NYTimes has simply done what CNN did recently (and what the Washington Post did last year): make their page wider. All three papers' websites are now fixed at 1024 pixels wide.

For those of us who use small laptops, whose monitors are no more than 1024 pixels wide, what this means is that to effectively read any of these papers online, I have to let my browser window obliterate everything else on my screen. From a usability standpoint, this is extremely poor design, because the design forces use, rather than being flexible for a variety of users.

(Of course, from a marketing perspective, I'm sure all of these paperes want their pages to be the only thing a reader is seeing at any given time, but that's egotism and will drive many users off. At any rate, I almost never go to the main page anymore, and just click through to the articles I want via Bloglines.)

4/3/06, 9:22 AM
High Desert Wanderer said...

Questionable design at best. Too cluttered and busy. They're still basing their design as if it were on paper. They need a new unique approach, not small changes to a poor design.

4/3/06, 9:38 AM
Unknown said...

Well, thanks to their new design, I won't be reading anything in the right-hand half of their new sidebar. I hope they don't put important stuff there :-)

4/3/06, 12:46 PM

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