Simian Design

April 3, 2006

New York Times Redesigns

The New York Times website has been redesigned, and my first impression is not a great one. I’m not loving it. Sure, I know it’s the first draft, but it just doesn’t quite work.

1. The big square ad is bigger than the prime, central photo. And not much bigger, so you have two primary, central elements that compete for my initial focus.
2. Lots of little, disjointed links/nav along the top and side. Seems a bit confusing, and no rhyme or reasons to what’s where.
3. The differentation between the second level stories and the third level stories isn’t enough I feel.

1. Are there two, or three ‘below the folds’ seperators here?
2. I don’t like the side-scrolling “Inside MYTimes.com” feature.
3. I do like the photos for each of the sections of the paper though. That’s nice.
4. Ads in the banner, ads on the right in the top section, ads on the left in the bottom section. Arrgh. Make the ads consistent in one place, so I know they’re ads, and can control if I click on them or not.
5. Still requires registration to read. Yuck.

Granted, these are all impressions formed within the first 5 minutes. But first impressions are very important.

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Posted at 06:34 AM