The Producer

We have a number of new blogs at NPR that show promise:

The Two-Way (news)
All Tech Considered (personal technology)
A Blog Supreme (jazz)

Take a look and let us know what you think!

I forgot to say what I specifically like about the New York Times article skimmer. There are really two things that stand out to me:

1. It provides roughly equal weight to all of the content choices available under each subject heading. That allows me to focus on searching the content instead of trying to decipher the site’s visual and editorial hierarchy.

2. It loads everything into a single frame or viewer. When I select a new subject it just reloads the same frame with a fresh batch of results. I don’t have to scroll. I don’t have to try and understand a new environment. I’m in the same environment, it’s just the information available to me that has changed.

One of the missing pieces to the puzzle is that when I do click on a story in the skimmer it takes me to a standard story page. I hope that they’ll further develop the skimmer product so that it loads the story into the skimmer window in a layout that is specific to that environment.

It’s been my contention for some time now that most (all?) news sites have been blind to the fact that their determination to recreate “pages” on the Web is a mistake. I can navigate any major news site OK. But it never seems like it’s quite right. In fact, it is often a frustrating experience. So I was relieved and excited to see the NYT’s “article skimmer” the other day. It is a small, but significant, step in the right direction. It is the future of news. Here’s what it looks like:

You’re not overwhelmed, are you? OK, I oversold it. In fact, they don’t make a big deal about it. This simple prototype is not the future of news. But it points us in the right direction.

The Web is but a conduit for information. It is interactive. It is visual. It is not a printed page. It is a view upon the knowledge of all mankind, or it hopes to be. And that is how we need to think of it, as a view, a porthole, a frame through which to look at all that our fellow travelers on this earth want to share with us. The Web is not a moment in time. It is an ever evolving imprint of who we all are at once.

OK. Enough BS. My point is that people come to the Web looking for information. They’re only looking for depth and embellishment when they find the topic/information they’re looking for.

So the entry point for a specific producer’s “Web site” should demonstrate that the producer understands the consumer’s need for information. A site, or entry point, should understand that the seeker is looking for information. The information architecture and interface design should be focused on making it easy for the user to find what they are seeking.

The article skimmer prototype on the NYT seems to understand that. If only everyone did. Oh well. It’s a start. This is just another thought in a series of thoughts I’ve had on this subject.

My take on UI design for news and information Web sites is that they have tried too hard to mimic the printed newspaper page. I extended that thought to include all printed pages. I believe that the model should be something akin to a viewing experience that has more in common with TVs and pure computer programs than it does to a digital version of print media.

Maybe I was wrong. I’ve been enjoying an appealing, if unrefined, experience recently at Driver’s Republic. It’s kind of like a glorified PDF. That may be too kind of an assessment. But it has lots of appeal because it is focused on the content. And then I came across MEKAS, a site devoted to documenting the Japanese fashion industry. (Found via @doshdosh on Twitter.)

The top of a page featuring an interview with fashion critic Takeji Hirakawa.

This is an elegant implementation of a magazine-style layout in a Web environment. It is appealing and, largely, user friendly. It’s nicely balanced between text and images. It does without the plethora of competing elements common to most Web sites. They have focus:

Based in the heart of Tokyo, we are able to break through the language and culture barriers that have stymied observers in the past and send the most accurate information on Japan to the rest of the world in real time.

While they claim to have surmounted cultural barriers in telling the ongoing story of Japanese fashion, I’ll argue that they have also overcome some design bugaboos.

Despite solid editorial content, the site is not the work of a mainstream media outlet. It’s apparently a venture backed by an advertising agency:

MEKAS is housed within Diamond Agency — a full-service advertising agency based in Tokyo — and is working closely with Hong Kong-based Taosquare Media Group to expand its international footprint.

The one really glaring shortcoming, to my eye at least, is the call out used to link to photo galleries. Can you spot the link?

This is, admittedly, smaller than it actually appears on the live site.

Once you find them, galleries on the site are really nice. They take place in an overlay mask covering the originating story page.

While a large part of the site’s appeal is visual, I also really appreciated the site’s glossary. It offers a glimpse into the psychology of Japanese fashion.

onna mote – Meaning “attractive to girls,” a recent word that describes styling for women meant to impress female friends rather than possible boyfriends.

The MEKAS site isn’t a panacea. It’s not the key that unlocks a new design language for a needy Internet. I doubt it would work on a giant flat screen in a living room. But it is a nice site that offers some lessons for people trying make their content stand out from the visual junk heap that is today’s norm.

There’s no content here; care to comment?