How I would have done it…

The Independent launched their long-awaited website redesign last night and, on first glance, I found it underwhelming. I applaud the attempt at catching up after years of digital foot dragging (and I’ll be damned if they dont do a half-decent job of it too…the new pages are jammed packed with every modern web feature you could imagine, most popular, comments, RSS, sharing, even a music store). It’s too bad though, that the pages feel so cluttered and disorganized, like an obsession to prove their web credentials has clouded any thoughts about the end user experience.

Most disappointing for me is that the site doesn’t feel like the newspaper. It has none of the trademark panache or the design and editorial consistency that has made The Independent print product so admirable. But, this is no surprise since, as the always spot-on Martin Stabe notes, they are using basically the same templates as their northern cousin, The Irish Independent. In any case, to my eye, it seems like a unsuccessful stew of the biggest news sites in the market–the menu from the Times, the blue headline color from the NY Times, the beige lines from the Guardian and so on and so on.

But I hate when people talk bad about work and don’t offer any concrete suggestions. There is nothing more annoying than a whining good-for-nothing. Well, I am good for something–see below for my take on independent.co.uk…I think its quite good, what do you think? Click here to see the design full size.

Websites aren’t all about features and bells and whistles, they need the same sort of analytical design and editorial thinking as newspapers. The page needs to be abundantly clear, completely decipherable in one glance. The new Independent site design is a jumble.

I attempted in my little demo design to clear a path for users. I used colors more strategically so they mean something and so the site feels cleaner in general. I made a bigger deal of the editor’s choice feature, its a good idea and in large part the basis of The Independent brand–who else has enough confidence in their editorial prowess to put a single story on the front page. The newspaper tells you every day what the most important story in the world is and their website should too.

The most important change is a sense of consistency. Each feature is demarcated with the same device, additional stories are marked with the same icon, main stories use the same font for their headlines, and there is a single color palette that is stuck to religiously.

I was careful to be realistic about the design too, you will note my page contains the same basic features (minus a few extraneous things like the weather and front page photo) and the same number and size of ads.

Anyway, now at least no one can say I didn’t do my bit towards making the web a better place. Let me know what you think….

4 comments January 24th, 2008

South Carolina’s Martin Luther King Day Campaign Rally: A local perspective

Our man in South Carolina (ok, ok, my dad–see photo below) went to yesterday’s Martin Luther King rally in the streets of Columbia, the state capital and, more importantly, my hometown and reports a genial but rather inspiring scene (he also took that nice picture of the State House):

The preliminary speeches lasted for ~ 1 1/2 hours but it seemed longer because it was colder that hell, below freezing with a little wind. In spite of the cold, the crowd was incredibly polite and in very good spirits. The confederate flag people were also there…pitiful group …..they were ignored by everyone. The introductory speeches lambasted SC for being last in most everything including recognizing the MLK holiday, education, health care, etc. The candidates were given 10 min to speak and were extremely polite and complementary to each other (though Hillary and Obama were at each others’ throats later in the day at the debate. It sounded like an exchange from middle school.) They all gave excellent speeches. I personally thought Hillary’s was the best. She talked about MLK’s legacy and was, thankfully, not in “vote for me” stump speech mode, she was somewhat moving. I do think she had no choice given that she was slightly in trouble because of the (basically manufactured) MLK controrversy and so forth. Edwards gave more of a stump speech……and Obama was slick and tried to give people a vision. All the candidates were favorably, even lovingly received. I also met a cool Labrador retriever there.

It was apparently quite an event, the normally quiet Main St. was jammed full of media and on lookers. It made for some strange but moving scenes, gospel choirs, a huge and welcome NAACP presence, palm trees in freezing weather (see picture if you don’t believe me), and more media than the whole state has seen all year. The most interesting thing about my dad’s report is that Hillary was so inspiring. For me, this campaign, has always come down to a battle of two candidates defined by their relative strengths: Obama is a visionary and inspiring speaker, he specializes in spine tingles; Clinton is more an analytical debater, full of practical knowledge that she accesses with incredible speed. To hear that she is improving her skills in the dark art of inspirational speaking is bad news for Obama…

3 comments January 24th, 2008