CNN Homepage Redesign Critique
Title: CNN.com - Breaking News, U.S., World, Weather, Entertainm... http://www.cnn.com/
While ZURB wasn't part of any of the business decisions, our feedback should be used to stimulate the discussion around specific design and interaction issues. ZURB is a close-knit team of interaction designers and strategists that help companies design better (www.zurb.com).
Created by Bryan Zmijewski
Captured November 13, 2009 at 02:38PM
With the Notable FireFox Plugin
-
1
This red header competes with the content. It's a branding effort that fights with the use of the site. Over time people will be influenced more by the quality of the content.
-
2
This is a unique branding decision to center align the logo. It certainly creates awareness of the logo, but over time it will get in the way of what users want: content. 84 pixels is a lot of vertical space to highlight a logo.
-
3
This is a nice feature. It's great to know how current the content is. As a large news organization is something that users will appreciate. It's also a competitive advantage over smaller news outlets.
-
4
It's an interesting technique, but the headline gets lost as white text on black. I'm also conflicted-should I start reading on the left or center image.
-
5
Based on our experience, placement of the ad here probably reduces the click-through- especially considering that people are trying to figure out if they need to read the center feature block or left feature block.
-
6
This blocky navigation competes with the content. It seems a bit out of place.
-
7
This video call to action is nifty, but it creates noise by centering it over the image.
-
8
Does the general population understand what beta means? If it's not ready for everyone, invite people to a private release of the feature.
-
9
Clicking on this sign-up link pops up a sign-up form, but it's unclear why I would want to sign-up. The benefits are not highlighted.
-
10
Don't Miss? If CNN wants clicks it should be a directive- Click on these feature stories. This will increase the % of click-through.
-
11
This is surprisingly small text for a feature story. Most older people will have difficulty reading this summary text.
-
12
Creating gutters like this only adds more noise. Convergence of lines like this direct the eye in the wrong direction.
-
13
Scrolls like this are less neat. Users don't like these features.
-
14
This must have been an organizational fight to put this at the bottom of the page.
-
15
Oh, just what I needed at the bottom of my national news page, weather?
-
16
Wholly content blocks batman! This seems like an odd choice to put this content in the middle of the page.
-
17
Hmmm, why put this in the middle of the page- shouldn't this just be balanced near the top of the page with stories that people want to read? So the 'confused seal on the side of the road' is not a hot topic?
Comments on this Post
Bryan Zmijewski says,
Who else is talking about the CNN.com redesign? I found a few more blog posts that cover the topic in much more depth.
Chris Boese has an in-depth overview of the redesign. As a former employee he has some insights into the decision making on the content.
Bill Lea dissects the CNN design. Bill highlights the fact that the code does not validate and that the Javascript load is fairly large.
Jonathan Smiley says,
Mark Otto says,
What this redesign says to me is, "Hey, our readers can only handle two major news stories at a time." I just don't think that's the case. I think with news, people want information overload, not structure overload.
The red header is actually nice in that the structure is absolute—you know exactly where navigation ends and content begins. That said, it might be too much. They're sacrificing a lot over vertical space for that logo.
The font sizes just kill me as well. I've never had to zoom in a page that I come to regularly to read it comfortably. Zooming in just once makes it so much better.
And finally, those blocks of content in the middle of the page... what the heck? They're so hard to read that I just see lines of text, not meaningful stories. The grid here just gets in the way—show me a sexy list of headlines with quick lead paragraphs and I'll do the rest, CNN.
Overall, probably 1 step forward and 2 steps back for this redesign. Good intentions, and some nice design moments, but overall confusing.
Leave website feedback on this page with a code, copy or screenshot note.
Sign up now