Not much in the way of design comments from me... but maybe some of our online journalism students would like to catch up on the discussion by readers of the Post in the Editor's Note and post.blog columns.

Scores of readers kept the comments coming for more than a week -- long enough for me to get around to looking through the headlines my RSS aggregator had been collecting all month while I've been busy with other things.

Readers didn't mince words. Here are some samples:

• I'm so sorry to say this but I HATE the new home page -- I LIKED all the links and headlines and busy-ness -- you're a newspaper and there's a big world to cover!
• I use the web page to get content. If I want to see white space, I go to an art gallery.
• You've managed well to subtract news from your site. What's the point?
• This dumbed-down homepage is very insulting to your readers. We want the news, not white space.
• The new design is cumbersome and much less user friendly.
• Great new site. Much easier to navigate and find the articles. I really appreciate you getting rid of the clutter.
• Here's my problem with the new page: it seems to position the WP as a lifestyle website and not a news organization.

And newspaper editors used to think readers only complained when you changed the comics!
Here's a transcript of an online discussion, and follow-up from the Post blog: Update on New Home Page

For serious design-watchers, here's a comment from Edward Tufte, one of the gurus of visual information design:

The redesign replaces news with design. The argument for doing so is bogus, because clutter and confusion can be reduced while at the same time the amount of available news increased.

The proper command to your web designers is:

"Make our webpage straightforward, and if possible elegant--and, no matter what, increase the amount of news available within the immediate eyespan of the viewer on the homepage..." (more)

Scroll down that discussion page for dozens of before, after and alternative designs. Here's a side-by-side comparison from one of Tufte's readers. Also, from the archives, here's an analysis of an earlier Post page design.
Plenty of room for discussion in this semester's final projects... or for self-study all summer!

8:54:02 PM  #