The New York Times Redesigns, Influenced by Blogs
Today, the New York Times launched its site redesign, announced by a prominent editor’s note on the homepage. There’s a few lessons for bloggers to learn from the redesign, as well as some evidence that the Times itself has been learning from bloggers.
The most prominent change is the new wide page layout, which makes great use of the expanded screen real estate that serious web geeks have available on their displays. A lot has been written about these wider pages recently, but many of the first sites to make smart use of this kind of design have been Movable Type-powered blogs like Gawker Media’s Sploid, Paul Scrivens’ Whitespace, Kevin Cornell’s Bearskinrug, Jason Santa Maria’s blog and Khoi Vin’s Subtraction. The additional space on the page lets the Times use large and valuable ad units online without compromising the amount of editorial information displayed.
And speaking of Khoi, one might think that, having been recently named Design Director of the Times, he’d been guiding the effort behind this redesign. But, as the editor’s note makes clear, the project has been underway for a year, and Khoi offers up some details on what the process and team look like.
But the blog influence on the Times isn’t just limited to issues like screen real estate or the team behind the scenes, it’s visible in the aesthetic and the content of the new site as well. Like the recent redesign of New York Magazine (spearheaded by longtime bloggers), which has frequently been described as looking blog-like. There’s a clear, open aesthetic, with lots of white space and a link-rich footer to help guide you around the site. The pervasive influence of blog design is a bit part of the reason we’re so excited about efforts like The Style Contest, because great blog designers don’t just influence blogs, they influence the web as a whole.
The content of the new site shows how important blogs are to the Times web team, as well. Tabs at the top make blog-friendly content like most popular stories and videos easily accessible. And there’s a new section listing the most blogged stories on the site. Deeper in the site, the venerable Newsroom Navigator has been updated. The page (as its address reveals) used to be called the Cybertimes Navigator, and has long offered a set of links to web resources that the Times’ own reporters would find useful. As it sheds the dated “Cyber-” prefix, it’s also been moved into the 21st century with a Blogs 101 list.
There will doubtless be more new features discovered as the design is explored by readers, and some inevitable back-and-forth about individual design decisions. But, despite the controversies and criticisms that many lob at the Times, it’s uniquely influential in the print media space. Here’s hoping that connecting a little closer to its fans and foes in the blogosphere can help it retain and even expand that influence online.
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Since the mainstream media isn't God anymore, they'll have to adapt. The New York Times unveils a blog-influenced redesign. Hey, Bobby, when's Inq7 gonna publish RSS feeds? You can put ads in those things nowadays. ;) Read More
OPEN WIDE Anil Dash of Six Apart, the blogging software and services company that hosts Typepad, where this blog is based, has a detailed analysis of the re-design of the New York Times web-site. As someone who spends loads of time daily on the NY Time... Read More
I agree with Dave that the NYT redesign sucks. The collective wetting of the blogosphere’s pants, however is just plain embarassing. There is absolutely no flow, even less scannability and no cognition of the fact that the screen is still a much ... Read More
Today, the New York Times launched its site redesign, announced by a prominent editor%u2019s note on the homepage. There%u2019s a few lessons for bloggers to learn from the redesign, as well as some Read More
TITLE: The New York Times Adapts URL: http://www.pollackmediagroup.net/wordpress/?p=65 IP: 209.170.79.233 BLOG NAME: New Media Crossroads DATE: 04/06/2006 11:25:08 AM Read More
NY Times The NY Times took a big leap of faith when they adopted RSS across their online publication in 2002. Earlier this week the NY Times announced a new look. There has been of conversation about some of the new benefits of the look and how it see... Read More
Take a look at the Washington Post. You'll see some layout similarities with the new Times, though I do like the Times use of the widescreen.
What an exciting surprise! I've barely been able to contain myself about the NYTimes redesign, and wandering around the blogosphere for gossip this morning it's been refreshing to see how supportive most people seem to be. Nice that MT is quick to congratulate. Guess you guys know a "good blog" when you see one.
I agree that the new site shows blog influence, and would argue that this started a few months ago when they inserted illustrative graphics (as opposed to news photos) in an online A1 story.
But what about the redesign aesthetics, and what does the redesign imply about reader interests?
My thoughts here: http://www.blogvivant.com/2006/04/03/the-new-york-times-online-redesigned-for-america/
As always, and even if I don't agree entirely, your post is thoughtful and valuable.
Also, since I was furiously searching for Khoi Vin's name/blog, I really appreciated that you linked to him. :)
Here's my take:
The good:
~ The site is faster.
~ The page is wider and displays content in a more organized way.
~ Multimedia is front-and-center and works well.
~ Blogs are promoted on the front page.
~ Seems to be search and RSS index-friendly.
The bad:
~ The font, while readable, is common.
~ The layout is boring and lacks brand impact.
~ There is too much information on the front page to digest.
~ Times Select, their paid service, takes up way too much real estate.
The ugly:
~ A few sites, including The Guardian, mentions the MyTimes service ... which isn't available yet. I can understand promoting a beta, but since when is it smart to promote a service which doesn't even exist? This is an uncommon move fr the Times, and I'm very surprised. Given all the other things that could generate buzz and excitement, why promote something people cannot even test drive? The Times is not a delayed Microsoft OS or a long-overdue video game.
~ For whatevever reason, I could not get the "most emailed, blogged and searched tabs to work." Not like I'm using some crazy set-up or something: I'm using Firefox on a PC. There is no excuse for this, if indeed this is not a problem on my side.
~ Maybe it is just me, but I think the Times has lost some of its personality with this redesign. It just looks more like other sites. Is it just me? At their last major redesign (5 years ago, I think), I remember thinking that they added to the user experience (much better navigation and better use of photography and breaking news, for example) but they did not take away the feeling that I was on the New York Times site. Other than the masthead, I'm not sure if I still feel that way. This could be the Wash Post or Herald Tribune. They're great publications and sites, don't get me wrong. But the Times is the Times and this new design does not reinforce that.
Agree? Disagree? Feel free to drop by. Full post is here:
http://tinyurl.com/qxq2m
I think the new sign is much more functional. I just can't figure out how they know what movies their readers like...
I wrote on this today...http://motherpie.typepad.com/motherpie/2006/04/new_york_times_.html
Personally, I dislike the extra-wide page design. As my screen resolutions have increased, I've gone to running more and more applications in reduced size windows, with only one or two applications (Dreamweaver, Photoshop) "maxed" out. Making the use of a wider screen, from my perspective, means seeing more of the desktop and other applications. Hence the NYT design is too wide to fit in a standard, browser-sized (about 800hx1000v) window.
One pernicious thing it has taken from blogs (and MT's default templates are a big offender) is using small grey on white type for body text.
Originally, this made some sense when type was always pixellated, increasing effective weight at small sizes, but now both XP and OS X do sub-pixel antialiasing at small sizes too, this ends up giving soft grey type that is a big strain to read.
This is pretty cool. I am doing a project for class and will use this post as evidence to support the usefulness of blogs in general. I will of course give you all the credit for bringing this to my attention!
I have notice several website changes recently to that "BLOGGED" look. It is definitely a cleaner look.
Am I the only one who thinks the redesign is absolutely awful? Yes, it takes a page (no pun intended) from blogger sites, but that totally robs the site of its gravitas and basically implies that it is "just one of the guys" and not the most authoritative news source (true or not, that is their image).
Also, I think the font colors, weights and sizes are all too undifferentiated making it hard to tell what are headlines, what are section titles and where do sections begin and end. Overall, I give it a C-.
What is it they want me to read on the site? Way too much information, too little spacing between all elements not to mention the headlines and articles bleed together. That being said I liked the concept, but the delivery is brutal.
It is quite similar to corriere.it, the homepage of the most important italian newspaper.
This is a great catch, hopefully the rest of the world will catch up.
In response to Will's comment (above), it looks nothing like corriere.it. Maybe if you squint your eyes and stand back 10 ft from the screen... I think Razorfish did a remarkable job in the layout but it took a lot of work for us to rebuild the backend.
I like this kind of feed back. Learning from blogs is a god thing to keep pace with the users changing views.
What an exciting surprise! I've barely been able to contain myself about the NYTimes redesign, and wandering around the blogosphere for gossip this morning it's been refreshing to see how supportive most people seem to be. Nice that MT is quick to congratulate. Guess you guys know a "good blog" when you see one.
One pernicious thing it has taken from blogs (and MT's default templates are a big offender) is using small grey on white type for body text.
Originally, this made some sense when type was always pixellated, increasing effective weight at small sizes, but now both XP and OS X do sub-pixel antialiasing at small sizes too, this ends up giving soft grey type that is a big strain to read.