Layout
While browsing around for Internet-related articles, I stumbled on this interesting, little post on Poynter about online design.The post decried the Danish version of Computerworld Online, which as gotten rid of many of the design elements that distinguish newspaper formats in favor of a more blog-like look. Check out the link. While I enjoyed reading a blogger talk about the need for newspaper-like design elements, I would like to argue for the other side.
There are plenty of advantages to newspaper layouts, but sometimes the transition to the Internet doesn't work out as well. With the Internet's inherit multimedia approach to almost everything, it's far too easy for a webpage to become bogged down with convoluted linking systems and different file types and such. I remember Tom Kennedy discussing how it is tough to get traffic from the Washington Post's homepage to the multimedia section. It's not always obvious how to get to certain content, and sometimes things lost in the hundreds of links scattered about.
The Danish version of Computerworld Online isn't so much "blog-like" as it is "simple and straightfoward." There's nothing fancy, but all the content is clear and visible without all the confusion of embedded tabs and different file types. I don't mean to say that the Washington Post's website should get rid of its newspaper-like design, but I think that the average user would not mind an easier system of navigation.
posted by tromano @ 9:51 PM
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