“The new look also is designed to reflect reading habits of the 21st century, partly shaped by web-surfing and competition from an increasing number of media, by emphasizing more clear labeling and navigation, direct headline writing, concise summaries, and a bold use of color for navigation. Unlike our firm’s “refreshing” of the look of The Wall Street Journal last month, this project has truly been a “reinvention” of the newspaper. ”
I am not exactly sure as to how this is a reinvention of the newspaper, it’s still has words and photos printed on paper. It’s both interesting and sad to see the effect that web design has had on print. Having experienced the opposite effect and still working with people that consider the web print for the screen. It’s a little sad in that these principles of design that have been and are being developed are a way to deal with the medium itself. While solid principles apply to all media there is no need think that people find it difficult to read anything more than “bits n bites” of text. Or are they just mentioning the web as a means to appear sexy and current, when all they did was imrove the information design.