I’m getting a horizontal scrollbar in the new designs in Opera (9.64). I’ve noticed this a bit lately on a few sites and am wondering if it’s been caused by a recent update because I’m sure it hasn’t always been there on some of these sites (including some of my own). I also haven’t found out what’s been causing it.

What a great idea. I love the idea of making the design process ‘live’. I’m a ‘lone’ designer too. Working by myself a lot of the time has it’s benefits, but the main drawback is a lack of feedback from peers. I saw that J. Zeldmen is redesigning zeldmen.com live aswell. This open forum is definitely something I encourage & will employ.

In terms of feedback, constructive critisism, & the like: As this is mainly dealing with the information architecture at this early stage, I think you have nailed the magazine/blog dichotomy. There is an equal amount of importance on both streams of content & the transition between the two seems seamless. I would just add a ‘back to top’ in both sections, so the user could return to the leader/teaser easily without having to scroll back to the top. It also would give access to the top navigation again.

Will you be including other usability functions such as text sizing or is this now considered ‘old fashioned’?

I can agree with the previous comment on the subscription link might get lost. It does however make sense the way you have seperated both navigations, but as subscription would be an important service of the website, perhaps show a few more links to subscribe through the content, as a primary link in the magazine section & it could also appear in the shop. A lot of people buy magazine subscriptions as gifts.

In terms of design features. I like the color coding going on between the different sections within the site. A slight, very subtle color distinction between the blog content & magazine content might add another dimension to the frontpage.

That’s all I got. Thanks again for sharing this & making it a public forum.

Very much liking the typography, the colour changes across each section of the site, the simplification of the main navigation relative to the current live site, and most of the deeper pages too.

Thought it would be useful to describe some of the “stumbling blocks” during my first experience with the prototype so I didn’t read any of your descriptions about functionality or where content was until later.

Thanks for sharing this and the process you’re going through.

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It wasn’t clear to me that there was “magazine content” further down the page and it took me a bit of back-and-forthing between the blogs / magazine areas of the homepage to grasp their distinctiveness because both sections look very similar.

I didn’t click on the leader/teaser area because I assumed it would take me away from the homepage. So I was surprised when much later I clicked on the magazine item (just because I wanted to see where every major link in the prototype took me…I may never have clicked on it on a live site) and was scrolled down the homepage. I didn’t want to click on the “blog” item in the leader/teaser because I could see that it was identical to the large article highlighted in the “New in blogs” section directly below.

One thing I did notice in moving away from the homepage was that I had to “re-compute” the nav when I returned to it. The number and position of the nav items was not the same as what my vague visual memory had carried forward from the homepage. I don’t know if you would consider keeping “HOME” in the nav at all times to avoid this and perhaps have a state on the nav item that corresponds to the section you are currently browsing within?

Flattered by your compliment, Andy, thanks. And no, I didn’t think there was any way you’d have seen the Public Culture site… if anything, I thought maybe I’d been following your work too closely ;)

“it also helps to orientate the reader far better than any breadcrumb trail could”

— Have you explicitly decided not to include a breadcrumb type element, and if so, is there any particular reason? Just curious.

I’m loving the recommended layout. I like the clean look and attention grabbing content areas. I also like how the “books” section is layed out. However, I think the Magazine section is pushed too far below the page. I was expecting that the “featured content” bar on top would be blog posts, and the section below would be magazine articles.

I agree with this. At first, I thought the horizontal bar was for magazine articles and that the blog part beneath was just for blog entries. It took a while before I realized that the Magazine section is quite far down the page. I believe it could be easily missed.

When the ‘above-the-fold’ portion of the site is viewed, there are no visual cues to inform the reader that magazine articles are farther down.

Also, as an alternative to visual cues, there isn’t anything built into the page currently to cause the user to have an expectation of a Magazine section below the fold.

I really like the design, Andy. I think your work with colour and typography is spot on. It’s both beautiful and does a fantastic job as a navigation and orientation aid.

My only concern is the differentiation between the blog and magazine entries in the leader panel. The only way you can tell that one’s a magazine entry and the other a blog entry is by looking at the “more in…” links, which I believe I wouldn’t have noticed if I didn’t know to look for them after reading your explanation.
I think that a less subtle distinction between the two entries in the leader panel could also help in creating a clearer separation in users’ minds between the two sections below the fold.

Thanks for sharing your design process.

I like iteration three. It’s clean and clean. Consider the Guardian (my homepage): Main stories up top, peripheral/general interest items down the side and then categories/sections clearly defined below headline items. They even go so far as to add a band of colour for each section (sports, culture, etc) to visually differentiate it as a section. I also think clear, bold heads for content types is really key (i.e., new in blogs). I don’t see this nearly enough because IMHO many mag sites are driven by designers oriented to aesthetics (not user interface design). A great website (of any kind) puts the reader’s needs first. That means getting rid of tiny, trendy, designer-centric fonts and other elements that don’t contribute to a hassle free experience for the reader. But you clearly get this.

Finally, I think it’s fantastic that you’re crowdsourcing this. A great best practice for all magazines. Onwards and upwards!

Fight the power :)

Andy - cool idea, great ideas, golden design… love the direction of this.

Small but important: I’d change your titles to be consistent with flow of site and focus.

New Internationalist

This month

Is building an email subscriber list or twitter following important? If so, perhaps using the Shop column in the horizontal teaser would be more useful?

Like the latest v4 of horizontal teaser best to date. I’d personally try rework to half it’s vertical height. 300x300 ad space will be worth a lot more. Don’t need that much text.

Keep rock’n!

Lots of great feedback and discussion going on already so I’ll just cut to the point: If you want to make a BIG improvement to the new UI, lose the 728x90 leaderboard. You’ll be sacrificing ad revenues, and you may piss off the NI’s internal product marketing team, but you’ll vastly improve the user experience and brand perception, as well as the site’s overall design aesthetic. Besides, it’s time for that outdated banner ad unit to die.

Ok, that’s my piece. You may now return to your discussion about where the teaser blocks should go. ;)

Hi Andy,
Thanks for your work and responsiveness to suggestions.  In answer to your question, Simon, Paul, Sandy and I design and maintain www.newint.com.au/shop for the Australian New Internationalist Co-op (a separate company from the Oxford NI Co-op).  In earlier years Simon, Sandy and I were heavily involved in design, management and maintenance of newint.org as well, but that role has reduced greatly over the past few years.

Best of luck with implementation of the re-design.  Cheers, Brian

Hi Andy
Well done with what you are doing, and thanks for including people in your design thinking for the website. I am not a graphic designer… I am a founder member of the New Internationalist, based in Oxford, and have worked both on the magazine (editorial and marketing) and now on the books side (as books editor). Books and publications constitute half the NI’s business, and generate a lot of our income via the shops. It is really this aspect that I feel is lacking from the home page - ‘books’ is just a little uinviting tag at the top of the page, and then there is a a bit more when you scroll down. But nothing very grabby. In that regard, the old home page was beginning to be more reflective of the fact that we have new books coming out frequently, and show these prominently on the home page in a revolving or other eye-catching device to attract buyers.
Other points: I like the clean coolness of your design, but I do feel at the same time that we have lost something of the activist/action element to it. We look like a rather quiet journal. That is no doubt good for our cred, but may be there is scope to enliven the home page (perhaps this is already in hand).
I realise that the site is under development and that you have many demands to address, and also that I am not techie at all, so I hope you can tolerate my comments!
PS The black boxes for reply and details are hard to discern.
Troth