Do you remember the recent
New York Times redesign? (New becomes old so quickly online!) Executive Editor, Bill Keller, shares some words about the new look of the website in a recent "
Talk to the Newsroom".
Avnita, an NY Times online reader asked, "Where has the 'sexyness' gone?" and cited a shift away from the former site's "boldness, 3-D-ness, brevity, and focus... [to the new] flat, monotone, colorless, and long" format. Ouch. Gotta say, I'm a big fan of the new and mostly-improved website, but the "pop" factor does seem have have been reduced. I still can't articulate exactly what's bothering my eyes when I visit the the front page, but it does seem sort of flat. Too little color contrast in the ink colors, perhaps? Or too narrow a font? Still not certain, but it is somehow more challenging to read and navigate the actual pages despite the fact that the overall organizational and navigational handling is so significantly improved. Another reader, Kannan Nambiar, opines that the "cyan color that you use for the headings on the front page looks too light to me." Hmmm... could be.
Keller's answer/reaction is candid and obliging.
"My own first reaction to the redesign was that I, too, missed some of the pop, the brightness ("sexiness," one reader calls it). Within a day or so, I'd come to like it much better than the old version. The overall visual effect is a little calmer, but the energy comes from what it can do. There is a lot more stuff, and it is much easier to navigate."
Frankly my
initial reaction was limited almost exclusively to this massive improvement. The new Times online is quite simply a much more powerful tool. It bows to the conventions and desires of the blogging world (a notable act in and of itself!) and "opens up" arguably the best newspaper in print so that we can easily and quickly plumb the bowels of the Times and the perpetual flow of information from its stable of savvy, probing minds. Keller wraps up with a promise and some welcome levity.
"Good as it is, it will get better. It's evolving. Or, if you prefer, it's Intelligent Redesign."
