The Guardian refreshes…slowly

While the rest of us were enjoying the weirdly summer-ish sun this weekend, The Guardian web people were inside, no doubt monitor-tanning while perfecting the latest phase of their (slowly but surely) redesign of guardian.co.uk. Not any huge changes (if you don’t count the marketing decision to drop Guardian Unlimited in favor of the more sanguine and comprehensible guardian.co.uk–a good choice I say), mostly just extending the redesign introduced last year to new sections. Some areas are more successful than others (I am not sure about the new colorful section menu, its much harder to read) but it generally still looks good. I love the simplicity of it - it isn’t plagued with any of the clutter that web designers are often tempted by (see The Times).

Of course, any “clean” look is largely influenced by the number of ads on the page and, in The Guardian’s case that number is 0. This adlessness might simply be a product of the new look going through (though I don’t recall the site having many ads on a normal day) but even so, its a strange piece of strategy. The site is getting something on the order of 17 million users a month, not to monetize them just seems crazy. As a designer, though, its a dream come true. Ads are something you can’t control and, on a webpage, they are inevitably more colorful, dynamic and motionful than the necessarily staid news-design they sit next to.

Its an exciting time for newspaper websites (especially now they have recovered from their festive slump) what with The Indepedent relaunch and now rumors surrounding a new look The Telegraph site, allegedly based on the New York Post (!)…say it ain’t so Shane, say it ain’t so.

Also, a special word for guardian.co.uk editor-in-chief Emily Bell who admirably (and honestly) answered all comers to her blogpost on the changes. Very impressive.

2 comments February 11th, 2008