BonFX

Typography & Graphic Design Blog

  • Facebook
  • RSS
  • Twitter
  • Blog
  • Books
    • The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations
    • The Big Book of Font Combinations (Classic Fonts Edition)
  • About
  • Gallery
    • Monster Alphabet
    • Pen and Ink Cartoons
    • The Algorithm FX
  • Contact
You are here: Home / Web Design / Re-redesign of nbcnews.com gets it right, sort of

Re-redesign of nbcnews.com gets it right, sort of

August 4, 2014 by Douglas Bonneville

The widely-panned nbcnews.com website redesign from February 2014 is getting a facelift—after a really bad facelift!

You read it here first. In my previous article highlighting the flop redesign of nbcnews.com, I excoriated the horrible design misfire and left it at that. In private conversation, I told friends how such a bad user experience was going to impact their reader stats negatively. Well, the numbers are in:

nbcnews.com redesign

The nbcnews.com website was already declining when the silly redesign was launched in February. They had a functional site, but the hyper-partisan cheerleading, I mean news reporting, was the real issue behind their decline in the first place. The overly-picturesque giant-comic-book redesign effort, which was an attempt at a branding turnaround, simply hastened the continued decline in visitors because it was simply unreadable as a source of news. Apparently, some Very Smart People™ at nbcnews.com thought mixing partisan news, coloring books, and Flickr, would equal a turnaround in the decline of their viewership. It did not work.

So how does the new design look, which is available for the moment in a preview opt-in section of the site? In a word, improved:

nbcnews-redesign

There are now 17+ story links above the fold, and a full suite of site navigation tools to quickly get you some place else. And if you flip to a mobile device, you get a very-workable no-nonsense sans-comic-book layout and typographic treatment (hidden pun in there, for sharp-readers only).

The mobile view looks good too:

nbcnew-redesign-mobile

Overall, we can see it’s very much a work in progress, but progress in the right direction.

What about Search? Let’s quote my previous post on this:

“BTW: Don’t even click “Search” unless YOU ARE READY FOR SOME SERIOUS SEARCHING! WOOHOO!

You clicked “Search”, didn’t you. You were warned.”

Hopefully they’ll fix that search box before the real site goes live :).

In the meantime, if you want a ton of news in a legible format, try Real Clear Politics (for desktop) or the Real Clear Politics app (for mobile). You’ll get a cross-section of headlines from all major news outlet in a cohesive, news-focused UI that knows what it is trying to do.

 

Filed Under: Web Design

About Douglas Bonneville

Douglas has been a graphic designer since 1992, in addition to software developer and author. He is a member of Smashing Magazine's "Panel of Experts" and has contributed to over 100 articles. He is the author of "The Big Book of Font Combinations", loves cats, and plays guitar.

HOW TO MAKE INSPIRED FONT COMBINATIONS (without spending all day clicking things).


Font Combinations Book  

On Sale Now at
Amazon / Barnes & Noble

Or get the PDF eBook version, INSTANT ACCESS, 40% off Retail, now at the BonFX Store

Fantasticaly faster than fiddling with finicky font file formats


Font Combinations Book  

Get the PDF eBook INSTANT ACCESS, now at the BonFX Store

Recent Inspirations

  • The, ahem, “League of AI Artists”, 2022 edition October 12, 2022
  • How To Use DreamStudio / StableDiffusion To Create A Traditional Illustration August 31, 2022
  • DALL-E, pixel art, and a silly story August 9, 2022
  • A Bunnies Tale August 8, 2022
  • The Great Watermelon Conflagration of Watermelonville August 8, 2022
  • Edward Gorey’s…Cat? July 13, 2021
  • Grid Use In Graphic Design March 27, 2021
  • The Preposterously Huge Book of Font Combinations January 13, 2021
  • Three secrets to ignite inspiration December 22, 2020
  • How to “Draw Out” Your Creativity November 27, 2020
  • Finding Your Voice as an Artist: The Paradox of Originality October 18, 2020
  • Artist Frederick Franck on Seeing September 15, 2020
  • How to Move Beyond Creative Blocks August 10, 2020
  • Claude Bernard: The Only Way to Learn July 25, 2020
  • Ornate Leaf Sculpture and Crochet Art by Susanna Bauer June 18, 2020

Copyright © 2023 · BonFX

  • Blog
  • Books
    • The Preposterously Huge Book of Google Font Combinations
    • The Big Book of Font Combinations (Classic Fonts Edition)
  • About
  • Gallery
    • Monster Alphabet
    • Pen and Ink Cartoons
    • The Algorithm FX
  • Contact