OUGD406 Studio Brief 02 News Website Analysis

Because we discussed web design in our last meeting we agreed that we would each look at web layout and see if this research could inform some decisions. I thought it would be useful to look at news websites and the aesthetic created by the need to be constantly up to date, with a flexible layout, so when the content is changes the design remains strong.

I love this layout. Although it conforms to the practicality of a scrolling set up, the reader is not bombarded by images or overwhelmed by text, in short it is thought through. The content interlocks to create a controlled set up and aesthetic and the adverts, although present, are deferred to the right hand side of the page. This creates a sense of importance imbued in the content its self, because it is the first thing the eye are drawn to after the page title. The neutral colours of the identity and logo mean that using colour coding for the navigation of the pages works really well. the density of the navigation buttons and the shear number create the impression that content is the most important thing on this website, and indeed it is. The way that the home page has a picture and a headline with a link could be a starting point for our own web design, the strange snippets creating a curiosity that would draw people in. 

The Guardian tries a different approach, modular like mobile web pages rather than the column design of the paper its self. this creates a sense of the variety and quantity of topics they cover because of the way they draw the eye haphazardly all over the page. There is much less of a sense of harmony in the colouring of this design with contrasts of temperature and saturation everywhere. this suggests that a struck limitation of colours and only organised use when needed can create a unified web design, this should be helped by the limitation to two colours that is part of this brief.

I feel like there is a definite status quo established by newspaper websites; using lines and text and square images in a safe and predictable way. We could expand on this with our design, just as we will with the articles. We could try taking everything a step further looking at orientation and more inventive and quirky design decisions with layout.