Redesigns

The New Yorker has recently gotten a facelift. Though I think it looks a bit too much like New York Magazine's site, it's definitely much better than before. I like the little box on the right with the links separated with semicolons, but it doesn't really look like a box of links.

Other notable recent redesigns: AIGA and White House. Hooray, the web is becoming prettier! Though designer Andy Rutledge had some choice words to say on the former, and pointed out the shortcomings of the latter a long time ago:

The fact is that this site has a host of design problems – real design problems that I’ll examine and suggest remedies for. Also, there’s that business of the website for a seat of world power conveying very little in the way of gravitas..

The entire header area is crowded and ugly. Yes, ugly counts, especially when you’re talking about typography...

The bottom line is that this page’s design fails to communicate anything except inconsistency and blandness. While it should be engaging, it’s boring instead. While it should be intuitive and affordable, it’s confusing instead. Oh, and the code and construction of the page is utter crap (to use developer lingo).

He always reminds me of why design is so important.