Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
1–10 of 72 posts
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#2Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the redesign he refers to but does not link to is this: http://andyrutledge.com/news-redux.php
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#3Correct me if I'm wrong, but I think the redesign he refers to but does not link to is this: http://andyrutledge.com/news-redux.php
I believe that is the one.
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#4The redesigner did make some breathtaking pronouncements:
"The New York Times presents a rather typical example of terribly-designed news"
"popularity has nothing to do with news"
"today's paper: irrelevant"
"the Times’ search results page is an excellent example of usable news design"
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#5...the argument that the redesign’s author makes is not quite so persuasive, mostly because it makes some rash assumptions, misses some critical realities and, perhaps worse of all, takes a somewhat inflammatory approach in criticizing the many people who work on the original site.
This guy sounds like the redesigner really hurt his feelings.
Why not share the design constraints that the redesigner failed to consider? Wouldn't that be more productive than complaining about link baiting and criticism?
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#6But as they do so, I also hope they remember it helps no one — least of all the author of the redesign — to assume the worst about the original source and the people who work hard to maintain and improve it, even though those efforts may seem imperfect from the outside.
Redesigns, solicited or not, are very helpful to me. I don't care what internal politics the original product designer is grappling with. It's refreshing to see what outside observers come up with, politics and other restrictions be damned.
I'd hate to work for someone who was so critical of critical thought.
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#7But as they do so, I also hope they remember it helps no one — least of all the author of the redesign — to assume the worst about the original source and the people who work hard to maintain and improve it, even though those efforts may seem imperfect from the outside. Redesigns, solicited or not, are very helpful to me. I don't care what internal politics the original product designer is grappling with. It's refres…
I don't care what internal politics the original product designer is grappling with.
Exactly my thoughts. The original article was harsh but not disrespectful - it's a critique of the end result, not anyone's capabilities, and it has lots of reason.
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#8The redesigner did make some breathtaking pronouncements: "The New York Times presents a rather typical example of terribly-designed news" "popularity has nothing to do with news" "today's paper: irrelevant" "the Times’ search results page is an excellent example of usable news design"
I try to keep up with Khoi Vihn and Subtraction because I believe he always provides a balanced insight into respectable/high-design principals and the practicality of applying them to mammoth operations like the NYT and such.
In fact, his tone of decency and respect, despite the the off-the-cuff pronouncements made by Andy Rutledge is exactly the voice I've come to expect from Khoi. Which is awesome.
Also, this reminds me a lot of the Delta Airlines redesign fiasco brought on by another designer (http://www.dustincurtis.com/dear_american_airlines.html). It's really easy to sit back and critique the obvious flaws in design from within the ivory tower of photoshop, where you can arbitrarily remove advertisements and ignore the loads of user studies that entire teams have spent significant portions of their careers.
This is the kind of stuff that gives designers the MO of being 'decorators' who don't 'respect constraints' - operational or technical. As a designer myself, it's sad to see this behavior showing up again and again.
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#9But as they do so, I also hope they remember it helps no one — least of all the author of the redesign — to assume the worst about the original source and the people who work hard to maintain and improve it, even though those efforts may seem imperfect from the outside. Redesigns, solicited or not, are very helpful to me. I don't care what internal politics the original product designer is grappling with. It's refres…
The thoughts he is critical of here are not those related to the design - it's all of the newspaper/media/NYT-bashing that takes up the first half of the essay. The designer makes a lot of claims about why things are the way they are for newspaper websites in 2011 without really backing them up, and seems to be assuming the worst about everyone involved.
The redesign on it's own is fine but the screed before that is the issue.
Re: Unsolicited Redesigns (Khoi Vinh responds to NYTimes redesign)
#10The redesigner did make some breathtaking pronouncements: "The New York Times presents a rather typical example of terribly-designed news" "popularity has nothing to do with news" "today's paper: irrelevant" "the Times’ search results page is an excellent example of usable news design"
The only really egregious criticism was that "the front page of a news paper is not editorialized". Someone DOES choose what the most important stories are at the time of publication and puts those on the front page. That is editorializing. If all the stories were in reverse chronological order or alphabetical order or something, then it wouldn't be editorialized.
All the "terrible/unusable design" criticisms are quite valid today, I think. Maybe they weren't 5 years ago when the site was designed, but there is simply too much information to process now.