More on the Online assignment.

Part of the assignment brief is that as a group exercise,we design a news site using examples from current sites with which to carry our stories.

"You should research good design and compare and contrast good and bad sites"

is part of the remit.

A number of our nationals have revamped their online sites in the past 12 months,most recently the Guardian only last week and the Times,the Telegraph undergoing a major makeover last year.

What good design tips could you take from these.

Guardian Online

I have to admit that some of the elements of this site are particually good.
The layout of the news in blocks is excellent and we have used this on our design rational.The main story with photograph on the left,those taking up the first two columns,the third column being picture based with main features and stories.
The fourth column being links to other site areas.

Times Online

In terms of story layout fairly similar to the above except that the main story traverses the two columns with sub stories underneath.Unlike Guardian online which puts all its news catagories on the front page,the Times stays with a few catagories.Its third column is then a menagorie of adverts links to other pages which doesnt for me work well.

Telegraph.co.uk

The first to use the navigation bar down the left.Then as with the Times,its main story crosses columns 2 and 3 with catagory headlines underneath and also as with the Times you need to use the navigation bars are to get further catagory details.
Column 4 is links to other areas on the site.

Independent.co.uk

A site that comes in for much critisism,more so for content and lack of use of media resources.It is simply the newspaper online.
In terms of design the first two columns are catagories and stories with the front page of the paper prominent.As you log onto the site you will see the papers main lead and sub lead as prominent stories.The third column is the editor's choice which takes you to the most popular articles and column 4 is for adverts

BBC.CO.UK/NEWS

The daddy of non commercial news sites but how good is it really?

Its design is very close to that of the Telegraph,the left hand column for navigation,columns 2-3 for stories with the main story crossing both and column 4 for links to other parts of the site except that column 4 also highlights other main headline links.

Then we have the headliner bars and navigation.

The sites are pretty similar,they all use a horizontal naviagtion aid linking to catagories some more detailed than others.All bar the Independent have a form of ticker tape headlines,some more up to date than others,some make use of adverts and logos and generally there will be a search facility and/or an option for the user to make this their home page.

I think that all of these elements are important to a design layout,along with time and date as well as some internal navigation such as at Timesonline letting you know where you are.


Colour

My wife believes that I am the only person that can manage to wear seven different colours at any one time and I tend to gravitate towrads the most lurid colour combinations some times.Perhaps therefore I am not the best person to comment.

I do like the much maligned lime green of the Times which works well with the blue and black.The Guardian uses the same blue for its headlines,though keeping to greys and blacks generally although colour coding its catagories with a border which I quite like.
The Telegraph sticks to blacks and greys but uses blues for story links.
The Independent has blues for headlines combined with blacks and a dark brown for its catagory headlines.As does the BBC with its blood red? logos.

Well that has given some good ideas:

1.For Colour,blue headlines,black type and a good colour for the logo(Lime Green?)

2.Torn at the moment on the column layout whether to use left column for navigation or first two columns for story blocks.I think the latter and use the third column for features.

3.Then column 4 for other links and adverts.

4.For the top -site logo to the left,search engine,m"make this my homepage"site navigation,last updated and ticker tape news.