The New New Yorker Web Site

Cosmetically and typographically, it is noticeably improved from the old design. But that’s not saying much — the previous New Yorker web site was a cheap-looking embarrassment. There is far too much going on in their sidebars, and the Digg, Delicious, and Reddit links attached to each article are awkward. That goes for the link to the “Print” version of each article, too. (Print media CSS stylesheets, Google it.) The paper edition of The New Yorker features a splendid, timeless, uncluttered design; this web design is far too cluttered, and for that reason alone still feels un-New-Yorker-y. The New Yorker aspires to thoughtfulness; visual clutter works against that.

Kottke has a bunch of observations, the most alarming of which is that most of his links to newyorker.com are now 404s. I’m hoping this is just a launch bug — letting links go stale after a redesign is no longer acceptable (if it ever was).

★ Thursday, 8 March 2007