I always try to stay on top of things, regardless of what it is. Whether it be related to design, development, Internet, technology, economy, gadgets or automotive, I just wanna know it all! It’s in this way that I first read the rumor that Apple was probably about to launch a new mouse, and this while I had just bought a wireless Mighty Mouse. Not wanting to be stuck with old tech, I rushed back to the Media Markt electronics store and returned it within the 2 week period in which this was allowed and got a full refund. Two months later, sure enough, Apple launched the Magic Mouse and though I have yet to pick one up, I’m glad I’m not stuck with the soooo 2009 Mighty Mouse.
Among the many news/social sites and blogs that I visit daily, even hourly, CNN.com is definitely one of them, and recently the International news network launched a new site, which I have to admit took some getting used to, but having spent some time on the new site, I found the user experience to be much leaner and cleaner than the previous design. Like all new sites and designs I come across, I looked at it analytically, wondering if there was anything I would have done differently or if there was anything I could maybe learn from their new, (I’m assuming) well thought through design. Then I came across an interesting article on Web Designer Depot . It described the new layout, design and usability of the site and brought up some interesting points. Some of which I agree with, others I don’t so much. None the less, I thought it was worth sharing!
In terms of the amount of information that the new site displays, it’s definitely been cut down from the previous layout, though the article still describes the site as displaying too much, I think that under the circumstances (in that there is soooo much news happening all the time all over the world) that the amount of information really is very little relative to the type of site CNN.com actually is; a global news site.
Also, I think that where the article outlines how important sections are buried too deep in the layout and uses the “Hot Topics” section of CNN.com as an example, that this is merely a case of CNN using the wrong title for this section. “Hot Topics” seems to be CNN.com’s section for categories, something that isn’t usually given a lot of attention anyway. “Hot Topics” was probably more of a marketing choice than one to do with design.
Finally, the accordion content, which the site describes as not always being clear as to whether it’s clickable or not, kinda, really is. CNN styles its links blue and non-underlined, and this is true for both links in the accordion as well as the actual page content, though my only gripe about this is that I would have liked to have some kind of hover or mouse over feedback from the links, something the site does on the actual page but for some reason not in the accordion. I think this is a case of cross browser/platform compatibility; the screenshots which the article displays look very different than how the site looks in Firefox 3.5 on my Mac. I see the font being much bolder, clearer and less pixelated making the links more distinct from the normal text. And though I haven’t checked, I think the links probably behave the same way in the accordion as on the page itself in other browsers, just not on Firefox for the Mac.
Otherwise, I agree with the conclusion coming from The Web Designer Depot. The new design is a great improvement, the user experience has definitely been enhanced and the layout has been cleverly clarified. I especially like the centralized logo, I wouldn’t have put it anywhere else, its very old school/new paper like. I think there are definitely things to be learned from various elements of the site.
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