5 ms·

This is a pretty poor attempt at copying the NY Times design for their Snow Fall project (http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek ht

This is a pretty poor attempt at copying the NY Times design for their Snow Fall project (http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunnel-creek http://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/#/?part=tunne...). It's lacking the top nav and the typography is terrible. Generally just lacks some polish and execution.

astrodust 14y ago
The page looks like a wreck. It's like it's trying to look cool and tripping over itself.
- monkeynotes 14y ago
  This is how nearly all of Microsoft's products are, at least they are consistent in their user experience.
tansey 14y ago
That was the same thought I had. The worst part is that they split it up into "chapters" which are really just one page of text and a pic each. The whole point of these designs is to be able to scroll down through the whole story like you were casually flipping a magazine. Instead, the MS article makes you click a "next chapter" link at the bottom right.
alyx 14y ago
I know bashing Microsoft is oh-so-tempting, but can you at least try discussing the actual article here?
- cmelbye 14y ago
  But some people can't even read the "actual article" because the navigation is so broken.
  - enraged_camel 14y ago
    This, pretty much. It's so distracting that the article is unreadable.
  - Maarten88 14y ago
    I was reading it on a Surface tablet using Metro-IE10 and thought the design and navigation were very slick. It works very well on it, every page starts with a fullscreen image, scrolling down the text appears while the image fades, at the bottom of the page the pagination links appear. I looked at the NY Times project article and that did not work as well on Surface. They were undoubtedly inspired by it, maybe they optimized the design of this article as a showcase for their own tablet.
- danso 14y ago
  I was going to agree with you but the execution of this article is quite awful. The worst part of it is how there was no reason for this to be subdivided into pages. An average page in the Microsoft story has fewer than 700 words. In the NYT's Snowfall, the average chapter is 3,000+ words. The NYT has an incentive to increase pageviews with pagination. Microsoft is paginating their press releases.
  - dspeyer 14y ago
    Thanks. I didn't realize there were more pages. I just thought it was a very short and fluffy article.
    - subpixel 14y ago
      What? There's more than just one page? I know MS is a favorite target, but this honestly looks like it was designed by an intern. More importantly, it reads like a jewelry advertorial in an in-flight magazine.
      - infinitone 14y ago
        Is anyone able to watch the videos to the end? They seem to stop mid way for me- all of them. And I have a pretty fast connection.
        navs 14y ago
        They also die when I attempt to go fullscreen. Gave up.
    - mimiflynn 14y ago
      Same here, now I have to got back to the story. Funny I don't remember seeing a way to get to another page...
- deleted 14y ago
  [deleted]
- pc86 14y ago
  Is it not relevant that they've copied a design straight from the NY Times?
chubot 14y ago
Wow, "next page" is broken/nonexistent in firefox. I could only read the first page with it... Had to switch to Chrome to get past the first page.
- bonzoesc 14y ago
  And even then the "next page" button wanted to play peek-a-boo with me.
- leviathant 14y ago
  FWIW, I'm seeing next page fine in Firefox.
- mturmon 14y ago
  I'm on Chrome beta (27) on Mac and I also could not get nav to the next page to work. (It does work at the bottom of the final page.) I had to edit the freaking URL by hand, on a guess that the article was truncated.
- tseabrooks 14y ago
  I was in the middle of typing up how disappointing the article was because it appeared to be some sort of fluff PR piece. I noticed your comment before hitting submit and realized I had only read page 1.
- shmerl 14y ago
  Further pages can be found by clicking the next button that floats up when you approach the end of the screen - it worked for me in FF, though I don't consider such design comfortable.
sliverstorm 14y ago
At least they are trying. I really, really liked the Snow Fall project, and I really want to see more stuff like it. The first step of taking that ball and running with it is naturally going to be imitation.
duncans 14y ago
The typography is screwed because of the seemingly faulty font stack in: .ncDcParagraph { font-size: 14px; font-family: Segoe,Verdana,sans serif; } I think it should be "Segoe UI" which is a very nice font (on Windows) and it's falling through to Verdana which makes it look dated. Details, details...
- Pwnguinz 14y ago
  I just double checked using Opera Firefly and it seems to be fixed. I see Seqoe UI now :).
navs 14y ago
I'm on Chrome (OSX) and the bottom nav nauseatingly slides up and down, up and down, up and... you get the idea. Looks like they rushed to push this out. Expect more from Microsoft.
epa 14y ago
I was about to comment on how it is such a beautifully designed site, yet you get to the 'next page' button which is a low res scaled arrow graphic.. this totally ruins the experience.
jkuria 14y ago
The page takes forever to load and imposes a mental tax trying to navigate it. A real waste of bandwidth and my precious man hours. I don't care how much energy you save if you waste my time!

astrodust 14y ago

The page looks like a wreck. It's like it's trying to look cool and tripping over itself.

monkeynotes 14y ago
This is how nearly all of Microsoft's products are, at least they are consistent in their user experience.

tansey 14y ago

That was the same thought I had. The worst part is that they split it up into "chapters" which are really just one page of text and a pic each. The whole point of these designs is to be able to scroll down through the whole story like you were casually flipping a magazine. Instead, the MS article makes you click a "next chapter" link at the bottom right.

alyx 14y ago

I know bashing Microsoft is oh-so-tempting, but can you at least try discussing the actual article here?

cmelbye 14y ago
But some people can't even read the "actual article" because the navigation is so broken.
- enraged_camel 14y ago
  This, pretty much. It's so distracting that the article is unreadable.
- Maarten88 14y ago
  I was reading it on a Surface tablet using Metro-IE10 and thought the design and navigation were very slick. It works very well on it, every page starts with a fullscreen image, scrolling down the text appears while the image fades, at the bottom of the page the pagination links appear. I looked at the NY Times project article and that did not work as well on Surface. They were undoubtedly inspired by it, maybe they optimized the design of this article as a showcase for their own tablet.
danso 14y ago
I was going to agree with you but the execution of this article is quite awful. The worst part of it is how there was no reason for this to be subdivided into pages. An average page in the Microsoft story has fewer than 700 words. In the NYT's Snowfall, the average chapter is 3,000+ words. The NYT has an incentive to increase pageviews with pagination. Microsoft is paginating their press releases.
- dspeyer 14y ago
  Thanks. I didn't realize there were more pages. I just thought it was a very short and fluffy article.
  - subpixel 14y ago
    What? There's more than just one page? I know MS is a favorite target, but this honestly looks like it was designed by an intern. More importantly, it reads like a jewelry advertorial in an in-flight magazine.
    - infinitone 14y ago
      Is anyone able to watch the videos to the end? They seem to stop mid way for me- all of them. And I have a pretty fast connection.
      - navs 14y ago
        They also die when I attempt to go fullscreen. Gave up.
  - mimiflynn 14y ago
    Same here, now I have to got back to the story. Funny I don't remember seeing a way to get to another page...
deleted 14y ago
[deleted]
pc86 14y ago
Is it not relevant that they've copied a design straight from the NY Times?

chubot 14y ago

Wow, "next page" is broken/nonexistent in firefox. I could only read the first page with it... Had to switch to Chrome to get past the first page.

bonzoesc 14y ago
And even then the "next page" button wanted to play peek-a-boo with me.
leviathant 14y ago
FWIW, I'm seeing next page fine in Firefox.
mturmon 14y ago
I'm on Chrome beta (27) on Mac and I also could not get nav to the next page to work. (It does work at the bottom of the final page.) I had to edit the freaking URL by hand, on a guess that the article was truncated.
tseabrooks 14y ago
I was in the middle of typing up how disappointing the article was because it appeared to be some sort of fluff PR piece. I noticed your comment before hitting submit and realized I had only read page 1.
shmerl 14y ago
Further pages can be found by clicking the next button that floats up when you approach the end of the screen - it worked for me in FF, though I don't consider such design comfortable.

sliverstorm 14y ago

At least they are trying. I really, really liked the Snow Fall project, and I really want to see more stuff like it. The first step of taking that ball and running with it is naturally going to be imitation.

duncans 14y ago

The typography is screwed because of the seemingly faulty font stack in: .ncDcParagraph { font-size: 14px; font-family: Segoe,Verdana,sans serif; } I think it should be "Segoe UI" which is a very nice font (on Windows) and it's falling through to Verdana which makes it look dated. Details, details...

Pwnguinz 14y ago
I just double checked using Opera Firefly and it seems to be fixed. I see Seqoe UI now :).

navs 14y ago

I'm on Chrome (OSX) and the bottom nav nauseatingly slides up and down, up and down, up and... you get the idea. Looks like they rushed to push this out. Expect more from Microsoft.

epa 14y ago

I was about to comment on how it is such a beautifully designed site, yet you get to the 'next page' button which is a low res scaled arrow graphic.. this totally ruins the experience.

jkuria 14y ago

The page takes forever to load and imposes a mental tax trying to navigate it. A real waste of bandwidth and my precious man hours. I don't care how much energy you save if you waste my time!