DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.

The New York Times Skimmer: Good Design?


           When you're reading, good design of the page is the end all or be all of you continuing to read on that page. When the words and images are clear, when everything is consistent and the eye is gracefully guided, then you have just encountered good page design and will, most likely, keep on reading what you need to read on that page. It really doesn't matter if what you're reading is in the print or digital medium; as long as the design and format of the page is well done,either the printed page or the web page, then there is no reason to contest between which of the two sides is the best. Good design is good design. Alice Rawsthorn, an English journalist and design commentator, said it simplest, that “good design” while meaning different things to different people is marked by efficiency when fulfilling its purpose. In that case, some designs do reign over others. The New York Times Skimmer website, with its thirteen different layouts, unfortunately is inconsistent when offering its readers well executed design that encourages continued reading. This paper will focus on the best and the worst of the layouts offered on the Skimmer website.

 

          The New York Times Skimmer is a website that attempts to take the most attractive aspects of physical reading, such as serendipity, and puts it on a web page  to present  major articles of the day. This has been a new way of reading things since its debut in 2009. To make the Skimmer even more user conscious, The New York Times design team has come up with thirteen layouts, of which a reader is free to choose their favorite. Unfortunately, the Skimmer is hit and miss when it comes to good design in these layouts with the its hits being the Serendipity and Gallery  layouts, and its misses being Lines and Flow (which ironically does not flow at all). Such inconsistency can be a hindrance in environments where efficiently learning is essential. 

 

         But first, what makes a “hit” and what makes a “miss” in the design world? Collis, a designer experienced in creating successful blogs and ushering in the next line of knowledgeable web designers through his didactic websites, has created a master list of nine elements that must be thought out for a good web page design; precedence, spacing, navigation, design to build, typography, usability, alignment, clarity and consistency. We'll be focusing on what the Skimmer has done well (spacing, typography, and consistency) and what it has done horribly ( precedence and navigation).

   

          Collis describes the element of spacing in web design as involving the areas between lines of text and the separation between text and image. For example, if the space between some line of text is too large then "your eye can get lost". That's bad design. The New York Times Skimmer, however, seems to have been a perfectionist on the element of spacing. Everything is clearly and pleasantly segregated. Typography is simply the element that encompasses everything involving text; font, its size, color etc. The type of text used in the Skimmers is the same type of text used on other aspects of New York Times sites. This point blends in with the Skimmer's value in consistency. Nothing occurs on the Skimmer that is unexpected. 


What the Skimmer does wrong are precedence and navigation. Precedence, or "guiding the eye" as Collis puts it, is when the user is "led around the screen by the designer." Designers have come to discover, through an eye tracking study, that most readers on the web read their information in an F-shaped pattern (Nielsen). "User's first read in a horizontal movement," at the top of the web page then move done the page a bit and read in a horizontal movementagain.These form the bars of the F. "Finally, users scan the content's left side in a vertical movement," to gather up the rest of the information that the web page has to offer. This vertical movement forms the stem of the F. The picture to the right shows heatmap images of three web pages taken from the eye tracking study. The red spots are the areas that attracted the most attention from readers. There is a basic F shape in each web page. 


The thing is is that some of the New York Times Skimmer layouts, particularly Flow and Lines, have either a very weak F shape or none at all. Also navigation, which involves knowing "where to go or where you are", is poorly present inboth Lines and Flow (Images to the right; Lines on top, Flow on bottom) which can be very frustrating. It is unfortunate that the Skimmer has neglected the elements of precedence and navigation in their design because this has greatly hindered any attempts by the reader to learn from the web page. How can a reader effectively learn when their eye is going everywhere, can't absorb any information and doesn't even know how to navigate the layout? 


Even with these failures, there is evident, two layouts that achieve good design. Although these two layouts, Serendipity and Gallery (Images to the right; Serendipity on top, Gallery on bottom), are still a bit lacking in precedence and navigation, they excell in usability.


Overall, these layouts, like the arguement on reading digitally or in print, is all a matter of opinion. Based on research, I have said that some Skimmer layouts are better than others concerning design efficiency but surely a writer's bias has leaked through. The thirteen Skimmer layouts are there because designers have discerned that there are thirteen different types of readers reading the New York Times online and they each like something different. As long as the information on the page is effectively conveyed to an individual reader than that layout has done its job. But for the sake of everyone, please New York Times, will you  pull the plug on the Lines and Flow layouts? 


 

Rawsthorn, Alice. "DealBook." DealBook Defining Good or Bad Design Comments. The New York Times, 31 Jan. 2009. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

 

Collis. "9 Essential Principles for Good Web Design." Psdtuts RSS. Psdtuts+, 17 Dec. 2007. Web. 21 Apr. 2013.

 

Nielsen, Jakob. "Nielsen Norman Group." F-Shaped Pattern For Reading Web Content. NN/g, 17 Apr. 2006. Web. 27 Apr. 2013.


Thank you New York Times Skimmer!

DRAFT: This module has unpublished changes.