When did we take the designer out of the Web?
Author: Michael Higdon | 10.08.2008My design brain has reactivated and I’m thinking like a Web designer for the first time. There’s a huge problem with the web: there’s too much damn space.
When people told me “there’s unlimited space” on the web, I thought they meant memory and servers. I think half of them did mean that. The other half of people meant “I can put enough links and crap in one place to make my eyes bleed.” That’s not good.
The problem with news web sites is that space is not a commodity like it is in newspapers. News web sites also throw out all foundations for good design. Hierarchy, dominance, organization, flow, contrast, proximity, alignment and pretty much everything else don’t appear to matter.
Why? Because we lost our news judgment when we discovered the web and thought we could make our homepage (effectively A1) have EVERYTHING on it at once. (As a sidenote, I’ve started calling A1 a homepage by accident and it’s a little weird yet ironic)
So what if we grew news judgment on the web and started designing for our readers instead of making our follow journalists feel warm and squishy when their shit ends up on the homepage?
Think about it. There are two types of readers: drillers and surfers. Drillers need navigation, categories and filters, they don’t give a crap about serendipity. Surfers are the opposite, categories don’t interest them because they don’t know what they’re looking for until they find it.
Why do you think people like Recent Comments and Top Stories? IF the journalist isn’t going to provide news judgment for me, let the surfers do it, right?
Print products cater to surfers, not drillers. News web sites don’t cater to anyone except patient blind people. Okay, patient drillers and some surfers.
Why not build a web site that is designed for both users AND doesn’t make your eyes bleed AND doesn’t overwhelm you?
I have a bunch of drawings that I made of how that web site would actually look and operate. It’s more like a newspaper than you’d think but so much better because it’s online. I’ll do some Photoshop mockups and post them after I submit them to NewsChallenge.org at the end of the month.
I see the Society of Newspaper Design has a competition for best designed newspaper, and competition for best designed multimedia package, but no award for best designed news site. Am I overlooking something?
The Online Newspaper Association has a competition for general excellence in news sites, for multimedia features and for outstanding use of digital features. But not best designed news site.
Who is working on the full news site design, the user experience? I’m sure they are out there…off to find them.
One perspective on how much this idea bucks the homepage trend, look at the sites (and stats) of these Web pages, http://design2-0.com/articles/online-news-design-awful-or-brilliant/
SND is slowly moving forward, people have complained and during the workshop they talked about adding that to their ranks. SND is traditionally print and for print, so that’s where the controversy comes from.
Those homepages on that blog make my cry inside. This is where my idea *wink* comes in.