You Are What You Write: Designing for Bloggers and Publishers

When's the last time you picked up a newspaper? How about a magazine? With print publications struggling to gain new readership and better sales, the Web (and now the mobile apps running off a conglomerate of feeds) is the primary source of information. It's more convenient, more accessible and more current.

Like print design, many news sites follow a grid system that organizes the content to create a user path. Goal: Get them to the information they’re searching for quickly and keep them on the site as long as possible. We call this “usability”. This standard layout usually consists of a wide column for the primary story with “User Recommended” or “Top Stories” in side columns or along the bottom; with a dash of advertising sprinkled throughout. Click on any story and the layout does not change but the content does. Homepage stories are presented with an image sometimes and a “teaser” headline or a 250 word lead in. Pretty basic and straight forward; click here, a click there.

Ah... the grid system. A great tool used by designers to create beautifully organized information; adding order to the chaos of letters on the page. It creates a comfortable flow of content so that it is familiar and predictable. But must this rule always be applied; must every page look the same? Is there a way to mimic the layout of a publication and have it successfully displayed online, allowing it to be interpreted the same way on paper? Essentially, can an article be an individual? We’ll get back to that.

Breaking the mold is not for everyone and it certainly cannot be applied to everything. Working within a grid is strong, smart and web friendly. For news sources it is mandatory due to high traffic volume and the amount of information that is constantly being streamed through the site. Let’s be honest, I don’t go to CNN.com for a pretty picture… and actually, I rarely go there at all since I’m tapped into their RSS feed anyhow.

That said, there is a current movement breaking away from traditional design conventions for publishers; to bring the words to life though design… much like a magazine does. Traditionally, in print media, artists are often hired to illustrate or design around an article, making the layout and story its own while housed among other articles. Some bloggers are exploring this idea on their own, though we have yet to see it applied to any major news or magazine sources.

When we design blogs (or publishing platforms) for clients, we first have to consider the approach and strategy for writing the blog: How often will it be updated? What is the content format? What design resources do they have? These questions have to be addressed before we can even begin to approach the design process. You wouldn’t publish a magazine without a concept and editorial process, right?

When designing the O3 blog, we used the grid and were very adamant about working within it. To maintain this look and continue the consistency, there was a set of rules applied. We did not want image sizes changing every other post, breaking the grid. It is work to keep information looking consistent but if you put that much care into writing the information, the same should be done with how it is displayed.

I believe that as CSS, HTML and standard web practices develop, and as more designers become “web capable”, we will discover new strategies to display content online. I look forward to the bonding of beautifully produced layouts and web development to create a more interesting user experience. It took years to perfect the standard layout for newspapers; we should always try to perfect the layouts of how we present information online. It is okay to break the mold; I encourage it, as long as it is appropriate and applies.