Why your news site design sucks and how to fix it
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This document provides tips to improve website design and performance. It notes that many sites have too many links on their homepages. Images and typography are also discussed, recommending using fewer typefaces, more leading, and big images. Other tips include reducing Flash, improving search functionality, and optimizing page load speed and file sizes. The conclusion emphasizes that good design leads to good business outcomes.
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Why your news site design sucks and how to fix it
- 1. WHY YOUR SITE SUCKS and some ideas to fix it
- 2. MORE IS NOT BETTER
- 3. 558 links 17 “links”
- 4. Number of links on homepage 600 558 450 427 425 300 323 225 220 199 186 150 151 0 Star Tribune NYT WaPo CNN Slate Google News MPR MnIndy Bring.mn Sites accessed 10 PM, December 7, 2009
- 5. Every story needs at least one image Make it big! Hey look, a rooster! flickr photo by lucanrt
- 6. Get rid of flash (Except for video) A big flash flickr photo by Gentry's Daguerreian Studio
- 7. TYPOGRAPHY: Variation in scale? 18 pt 13 pt
- 8. TYPOGRAPHY: Variation in scale! 34 pt 10 pt
- 9. Web Type Tips • No more than 2.5 typefaces • Web-safe fonts are ugly • More leading • Have a type repertoire
- 10. 1. Courier (or similar) 3. Agency (or similar) 5. Verdana 7. Helvetica 2. Arial 4. Times New Roman 6. Times
- 11. Big links for big sections
- 12. whitespace is nice space
- 17. Make search suck less • Recent content first • Use faceting • Highlight search terms • Auto-complete
- 18. Performance: File Requests per page 300 240 180 120 60 0 Star Tribune NYT MinnPost Bring.mn MnIndy MPR News Q Google News
- 19. Performance: Page Size (kb) HTML Stylesheets Javascript Images Flash / Other 2,500 2,000 1,500 1,000 500 0 NYT Star Tribune MinnPost Bring.mn MnIndy MPR News Q Google News
- 20. CLIENT PERFORMANCE: • Does it scroll ok on an old computer? • Does it have lots of scripts?
- 21. Good Design = Good Business
Editor's Notes
- Name, what I do, etc.
- There is a tendency to cram too much crap on a page. No set of priorities. Editing needed. Makes it hard to tell at a glance what is actually news.
- Crazy! No hierarchy, either.
- Not sure if there’s a “right” number, but surely there is an upper limit.
- Duh. Don’t care if it’s a file photo. Help me remember who / what you’re writing about. Infographics are neat, too. Big picture sets the standard.
- Sucks for performance. Not accessible for disabled users. Isn’t open like the web is.
- Pretty small variation. Jan Jancourt 600pt.
- Much better! lets me read shit at a glance.
- We have ways to use better typefaces (sIFR, cufon, @font-face).
- Don’t use too many typefaces! This doesn’t count Ads or the weight/italic variants
- Not tiny little links. Big ones. Make sure your sections are logical and make sense. Stuff that makes sense as a newspaper section doesn’t necessarily on the web.
- Space around “stuff”. Enhances readability. Is a symptom of being willing to edit. Has good ratios & margins.
- White space! Heiarchy! Good Typefaces. Not too many of them. Not too many ads. Good use of color.
- Nice use of type. Good scale. Good at a glance to see what’s new. Good use of color. Big navigation.
- Big section links. Whitespace! Not cramming too much shit on the page. Type size variations are adequate.
- 4 files at a time. Slow.
- 2MB! Fuckin’ a. Even on a fast connection this sucks. Sucks to download, and that’s a lot of shit for the browser to have to sort out.
- Grandma test. Does it slow the computer to a crawl. It’s a webpage. Not a video editor. Not a web app.
- Good design tends to come from organiztations that have good priorities and are well organized. But there is opportunity to differientiate a site, at least locally.
- Hatemail and job offers.