yay! the first that I’ve been able to make it along to! I’m very much looking forward to meeting some of the geeks of London and surrounds. I hope they’re nice :)
Anyone else out there going?
Now, as per the , I just need to work out what my contribution will be. I’m welcoming suggestions! Anyone? :)
(p.s. if you’re interested in coming along, I think they’ve hit the quota already but you can put your name on the ).
Two redesigns went live whilst I was mostly offline that particularly caught my attention, for quite different reasons. They are and . From what I’ve read there’s been mixed opinions (of course)… so I’m interested to hear what you think of them.
Obviously it’s going to help if you’ve seen the previous incarnations of these sites. The News example is a fairly logical progression from the previous design, where as Technorati is quite a significant departure from the previous design.
Both of these redesigns where unexpected when I first saw them, and with both of them I had a very definite ‘gut reaction’. I *really* liked the changes that the guys at News have made to their site. I really *don’t* like the changes that Technorati have made.
I’ve found it interesting in evaluating these two designs that this initial and quite emotional reaction is the one that has stayed with me. Yes, I’ve read all the comments from devestated News.com.au readers who don’t like the change, and particularly from those still using 800×600 who now have the joys of horizontal scrolling introduced to their daily online news experience… (that was a pretty silly oversight or decision). Similarly, I’ve heard people praise the cleaner, simpler, easier to navigate site that is Technorati.
None of these arguments are going to move me one inch, because my reaction is so irrational and emotional. The new News site makes me feel warm, the Technorati site leaves me cold (literally).
I think Australian’s can be pretty proud of the way that our main news sites are designed (the other example to check out is the … yes, they look quite similar, that’s a recent development). I find both of these sites do what I want news sites to do – let me scan and see if there’s something that interests me, but also present interesting stuff to me in a way that looks interesting and engaging. Hey, lots of the time I don’t know what’s interesting…!
Last year there was a bunch of hype around the redesign of the . It’s frequently put forward as the benchmark for online news. For me, I’d take SMH or News.com.au anyday. I think the NY Times is a bit of a mess… a visual overload with way too much on the page and way to little by way of hierarchy.
One of the great online disappointments, I think, is . This newspaper has the most gorgeous design in hard copy, but a very uninspiring online presence. So much so that I’ve actually just organised to have the paper delivered to my door every morning, and I rarely look online for news. (Although, I do still jump onto SMH and News.com.au every now and then).
Technorati I never really used a lot and there were usually only two reasons for me to visit – to do a search on a tag to see who else was blogging about something I was just about to blog on, and the occasional rankings checking that every blogger is guilty of. The previous design of Technorati was never something you’d get over excited about. You could find your way around, but it wasn’t particularly fun. Or pretty. Say what you will though, it did have it’s own unique character, Technorati looked like Technorati, you knew where you where.
On my first visit to Technorati after the redesign, I was pretty certain I was in the wrong place. Surely this is the site of a web 2.0 project in private beta who haven’t yet got the funding to find anyone who’s really very interested in design. This isn’t a finished version is it? You see… no matter how ‘clean’ Technorati is, it’s also unpolished and bland. I get no pleasure from looking at that site anymore. Not even to check my ranking.
Nope, I’m not going to evaluate these sites from an information architecture perspective or an interaction design perspective or even a usability perspective today. This is a post about gut feel. I feel really proud of the team who designed news.com.au and really disappointed with Technorati. These feelings influence my user experience and impact my usage behaviour. Rationalise it however you like – the gut reaction counts.
Thoughts, feelings anyone? :)