Everyone's buzzing about designer Andy Rutledge's proposed redesign of NYTimes.com.
And it's very pretty: it simplifies a lot of things and makes it airy, but there are also a lot of things about it that are unrealistic.
For example, the designs are conspicuously ad-free or ad-lite, despite the fact that the Times needs those ad dollars. And some choices are fanciful, like removing "most popular" buttons because "popularity has nothing to do with news" -- maybe so, but people really like to see what the most popular stories are on a site. These sections are there for a reason, namely that they're useful.
It's also full of pronouncements like "News is not social media. If it is, it fails to be news." We don't even know where to start to respond to something like that.
But, it sure is pretty, and has some good ideas, mainly making things more airy.
Click here for the full proposal →
