CNN Redesign
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- SigDesign0
I hate how CNN sensationalizes their headlines... always misleading and annoying
- atomholc0
Design isn't so bad ... it's the presentation of information that is lacking.
- Is there a difference?homeostatic
- yes there is ...atomholc
- utopian0
CNN design by: hugeinc.com
- raf0
I remember first seeing the previous layout, it was just done so right – all these rounded corner modules allowed to present lots of info in a very clear way. Something www.bbc.co.uk homepage tried and failed at.
Weather page layout is still the old one:
http://weather.edition.cnn.com/w…These will stay like this I hope, signs of their times:
http://images.cnn.com/ELECTION/2…
http://images.cnn.com/ELECTION/2…These pages are actually mixtures of both styles:
http://politicalticker.blogs.cnn…
http://edition.cnn.com/HEALTH/
- homeostatic0
This redesign represents a big step backwards from the usability-tested site of 2006 by Razorfish!
For readers who actually read the TEXT ARTICLES on CNN.com the 2009 redesign is an abysmal failure. A miniscule left rail with small text links is just not enough for this to be a good "at a glance" news site.
Additionally, the handling of the text article pages themselves is atrocious. Are they serious about those awkward text wraps, media viewers that take entire "above the fold" (no scroll) area, and 100 word articles that require 3000+ pixels of vertical scrolling???
In short, could we make the text articles any harder to find or read?
It's understandable that with online video viewership up an astounding 40% from last year, than CNN would want to make their web content more video-centric. Still, this is NOT the way to do it. If anything, I could see a better video viewer with less page loads and annoying pre-roll ads but this clearly not what we've been given...
I think HUGE inc. should know better than to commit the huge number of basic usability design mistakes they have here. But the primary ones have to do with what we designers call "legibility".
Legibility in design usually pertains to differentiation of elements—i.e. variation of size and consistent color coding which establishes a hierarchy of information. It's the same considerations that go into designing a glass cockpit or any GUI.
The idea is not to look sexy but to gear things towards human cognition. Anybody can just pack in a bunch of information or thumbnails. That's what a classifieds section in an old newspaper did. It takes a truly good design to weight certain content more than others, letting the eye flow easily from one element of information to the next.
Looking at this CNN redesign, I get many similar-sized boxes and a mass of thumbs in an amazingly static configuration. After so much time and effort to study usability by the Razorfish design people a few years back, this is a real let down.
I like other work by HUGE but this is a mess. Sorry guys!
- well writtenutopian
- Well stated. +1graphiknature
- Hey would you repost that on my blog adbrandetc.com I think thats a brilliant post.Iggyboo
- agreed ... I couldn't have said it betteratomholc
- waterhouse0
Nearly a month later, I quite think the new design outshines the competition. Critics have made much of CNN's tremendous investment in technology, but I think the website is now more appropriately polished for an international news company that ever more serious in their pursuit of primacy in an increasingly crowded market.
- ukit0
Although I am not a huge fan of the redesign I don't really care because I don't visit any of the "mainstream media" news sites anymore.
I've shifted my links over to sites like Huffington Post, Politico, Talking Points Memo. For me, the old media sites don't offer as good of a user experience, tending to try to cram far too much info into a single page, while a site like HuffPo or Drudge I think gets it right by focusing on one main story at a time.
Also as far as the content goes, the old media sites tend to be extremely boring and watered down with bullshit human interest stories. In the one area they could have an edge - video - they offer you 3 minute clips of their precious content, with a one minute ad at the beginning. Fuck that, I'll go to YouTube instead for video. These old companies don't really get it, they have an advantage for the time being but it's only because of brand recognition.
- Drudge is shit. The Kenneth Anger of newsbloggers. News gossip is not journalism.waterhouse
- I agree, the other sites I mentioned are good thoughukit
- MondoMorphic0
Except for the centered logo, I really like it.