The Huffington Post (www.huffingtonpost.com) has been a key provider in news and entertainment blogs over the past few years. They have put forth an abundant amount of effort to encourage readers to return to their site, including adding specific cities, college sections, etc. The Huffington Post has a very well organized layout as far as harmony and unity are concerned. The sections are all color coordinated in blue and white, with black captions unifying with pictures.
www.huffingtonpost.com
The blue colors and black writing all coordinate to inform the reader that blue indicates a certain section, whereas black indicates a title. The titles on this page perfectly unite the picture and the caption, pulling together an excellently designed page which leaves little confusion to the viewer.
www.huffingtonpost.com
The homepage for the Huffington Post differs from their smaller pages because it makes an effort to tell the viewer exactly what their most important stories are. All headlines are posted in large red writing and have a picture to accompany it. In this case of the supreme court justice, the headline catches the viewers eye immediately before anything else, and then the viewer quickly turns to the picture which is a clear representation of what the story will be about. This imagine also incorporates ideas of contrast into the homepage by making one picture larger and more noticeable than the other. they also contrast the red large font with the small black font towards the bottom of the page, indicating blogs and opinions rather than hard news stories.
www.huffingtonpost.com
They contrast the black and blue in the blog section in accordance with the rest of the website. There is little color change except when it comes to main headlines with they use the red to make it evident what is seen as important. The shapes change throughout the webpage as shown above. the picture sizes differ and the boxes throughout the page (including the “most popular” box) are all different, but somehow incorporate with each other to work.
www.huffingtonpost.com
When searching a topic or story on the Huffington Post, the layout is impeccable, every result comes in the same size and color in addition to a relevant picture. The pictures sizes are perfect to make out what each image is trying to show, yet the shapes and sizes still all coordinate with each other to make it easy to find the specific title the viewer is searching. Since the viewers eyes automatically go to the left first, they notice a picture before the title, and as each picture is relevant to the title, a viewer can easily find the results they needed within a matter of seconds.
The overall website is very simplistic and easy to navigate. The Huffington Post incorporates ideas of hierarchy as seen on the homepage, contrast, and proximity. They are doing an excellent job of aiding the viewers into finding the most important and popular topics. While some sites make it difficult for viewers to navigate their way through the news organizations, the Huffington Post is constantly ensuring simplicity and an understanding for the importance of design.
I agree that the site is beautifully harmonious and the most important and popular topics are certainly highlighted by their popular topics block and the first huge headline, but from there I wouldn’t call it simplistic. I think the ability of the viewer to scroll for as long as they can on each page really makes skimming more complicated and the amount of information to skim through daunting.
By: Marie Lindbrg on April 12, 2010
at 7:16 pm