4 sins of news design reveals biggest sin: web co-opted print content, but not print's soul

4 sins of news design reveals biggest sin: web co-opted print content, but not print’s soul

Designer Lauren M. Rabaino (she of the redesigned PressThink.org) expounds on the 4 sins of news design, which are as follows:

1. Clutter.

2. Clutter.

3. Clutter.

4. Clutter.

She has a point, no? If the design of news sites is failing, it is failing precising because it fails to do what the design of their print antecedents did so well: Distill what news is important and create an enjoyable reading experience. It’s bizarre when you think about it. For years, news web sites have happily co-opted their print counterparts content, but have failed to co-opt their soul. From a design standpoint, they clearly need less of the former and more of the latter.

I agree with Rabaino: navigation is too complex, homepages are too tall and content, too often, has to fight with ads and too many related links for your attention. It’s clear that design is being dictated by volume: the volume of content, the volume of traffic and pageviews and most importantly, the volume of ads.

Yet there’s clearly a movement afoot. Call it the iPad-ification of design, the “great magazining” of websites, the Instapapering of content, people want to turn down the volume. They’re looking for clarity. Thankfully designers and information architects are listening. Are publishers?

[Thanks for the link, markarms.]