5 ms·

Redesigning Techcrunch

72 points by charlieirish 13y ago

lcnmrn 13y ago
2010 called, it wants its article back. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662630/is-undesigned-the-next-great-web-trend-fat-chance http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662630/is-undesigned-the-next-g...
cliveowen 13y ago
They overthought the whole thing. It's the usual design by committee mess you get when you take something that is undeniably simple (like a blog) and you elevate it to something that is not. First of all, it looks like something straight out of the 90s that didn't age well. Secondly the choice of a sans-serif font for a text is questionable and the choice of Open Sans in particular is inexcusable. The other day I was reading an article on my Nexus 5 and I couldn't help but notice that the text is just too small/thin and the whole thing is just spaced wrong. If you ask me it' s a 4 out of 10 design wise.
- jxf 13y ago
  As a non-designer, can I ask what about Open Sans makes it "inexcusable" as a type choice?
  - cliveowen 13y ago
    It's just too thin. There's a reason thin fonts on mobile OSes are used only for big text like date and time. Thin fonts are difficult to read, Open Sans particularly so.
    - ryanSrich 13y ago
      Hmmm.. That's strange considering Steve Matteson (the type designer)[1] optimized the typeface for both mobile and web use. Perhaps the mobile browser you're using is rending it quite differently. 1: http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans
    - ed209 13y ago
      Open Sans has plenty of weights to choose from, I don't think you should write off the whole font! http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans
    - stevewillows 13y ago
      I'd love to know what browser / os you're using. I'm running a galaxy s3 in 'tablet mode' (lcd density set to 160 from 320) and the text renders nicely.
  - pcurve 13y ago
    The legibility could be better. I personally find it easier to read this Bloomberg article http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/asia-stocks-halt-three-day-rally-fall-from-two-week-high.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/asia-stocks-halt-th... than this TC article. http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/18/mostly-believe-the-bitcoin-hype/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/18/mostly-believe-the-bitcoin-... Spacing between words seem a tad insufficient, font color a shade too light, and line-height a step too tight. With that said, it does look better on retina iPad than on my 23" ips display. (matte finish).
peto123 13y ago
Doesn't matter. After Mike departure, TC became boring, and the number of comments under articles dropped of significantly.
- deleted 13y ago
  [deleted]
jws 13y ago
Discussion is veering: This is neither a Techcrunch article nor a discussion of this particular design which pleased the customer. It is an article about a website design workflow from a pattern lab† viewpoint. pattern lab is collection of PHP tools for making web sites from organized, abstracted components. ␄ † http://pattern-lab.info/ http://pattern-lab.info/ (MIT license, lives on github)
rpicard 13y ago
Enjoyed the read! Pattern Lab looks pretty interesting too.
iaskwhy 13y ago
I dig the new design, it's better than the previous one and it seems much faster too (not sure if this is because of the new design but that's how it feels to me). Good work and a nice write-up.
dlsx 13y ago
Good design, same shit writing.
lavametender 13y ago
Still 75 share widgets and 6 analytic scripts per page and WordPress?
jaequery 13y ago
good effort, but the new design does make my head spin and thus i rarely go to TC anymore. it's just too much content in your face. i find it interesting how they discuss and plan about fonts/colors down to the wire for UI sake, and yet miss the "bigger" picture of readability.
junto 13y ago
rm -rf /techcrunch
jimwalsh 13y ago
Thanks for sharing. I always like Brad's posts, he does a good job explaining his process. Some here may disagree with parts of it, but it's nice that he takes time out to show us all of this. Thanks Brad!
ryangripp 13y ago
A lot of hard work by the team here, However, I agree with the comments---I rarely go to tech crunch anymore since the new design. Too much going on.

72 points by charlieirish 13y ago

2010 called, it wants its article back. http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662630/is-undesigned-the-next-great-web-trend-fat-chance http://www.fastcodesign.com/1662630/is-undesigned-the-next-g...

cliveowen 13y ago

They overthought the whole thing. It's the usual design by committee mess you get when you take something that is undeniably simple (like a blog) and you elevate it to something that is not. First of all, it looks like something straight out of the 90s that didn't age well. Secondly the choice of a sans-serif font for a text is questionable and the choice of Open Sans in particular is inexcusable. The other day I was reading an article on my Nexus 5 and I couldn't help but notice that the text is just too small/thin and the whole thing is just spaced wrong. If you ask me it' s a 4 out of 10 design wise.

jxf 13y ago
As a non-designer, can I ask what about Open Sans makes it "inexcusable" as a type choice?
- cliveowen 13y ago
  It's just too thin. There's a reason thin fonts on mobile OSes are used only for big text like date and time. Thin fonts are difficult to read, Open Sans particularly so.
  - ryanSrich 13y ago
    Hmmm.. That's strange considering Steve Matteson (the type designer)[1] optimized the typeface for both mobile and web use. Perhaps the mobile browser you're using is rending it quite differently. 1: http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans
  - ed209 13y ago
    Open Sans has plenty of weights to choose from, I don't think you should write off the whole font! http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans http://www.google.com/fonts/specimen/Open+Sans
  - stevewillows 13y ago
    I'd love to know what browser / os you're using. I'm running a galaxy s3 in 'tablet mode' (lcd density set to 160 from 320) and the text renders nicely.
- pcurve 13y ago
  The legibility could be better. I personally find it easier to read this Bloomberg article http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/asia-stocks-halt-three-day-rally-fall-from-two-week-high.html http://www.bloomberg.com/news/2013-11-19/asia-stocks-halt-th... than this TC article. http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/18/mostly-believe-the-bitcoin-hype/ http://techcrunch.com/2013/11/18/mostly-believe-the-bitcoin-... Spacing between words seem a tad insufficient, font color a shade too light, and line-height a step too tight. With that said, it does look better on retina iPad than on my 23" ips display. (matte finish).

peto123 13y ago

Doesn't matter. After Mike departure, TC became boring, and the number of comments under articles dropped of significantly.

deleted 13y ago
[deleted]

jws 13y ago

Discussion is veering: This is neither a Techcrunch article nor a discussion of this particular design which pleased the customer. It is an article about a website design workflow from a pattern lab† viewpoint. pattern lab is collection of PHP tools for making web sites from organized, abstracted components. ␄ † http://pattern-lab.info/ http://pattern-lab.info/ (MIT license, lives on github)

rpicard 13y ago

Enjoyed the read! Pattern Lab looks pretty interesting too.

iaskwhy 13y ago

I dig the new design, it's better than the previous one and it seems much faster too (not sure if this is because of the new design but that's how it feels to me). Good work and a nice write-up.

dlsx 13y ago

Good design, same shit writing.

lavametender 13y ago

Still 75 share widgets and 6 analytic scripts per page and WordPress?

jaequery 13y ago

good effort, but the new design does make my head spin and thus i rarely go to TC anymore. it's just too much content in your face. i find it interesting how they discuss and plan about fonts/colors down to the wire for UI sake, and yet miss the "bigger" picture of readability.

junto 13y ago

rm -rf /techcrunch

jimwalsh 13y ago

Thanks for sharing. I always like Brad's posts, he does a good job explaining his process. Some here may disagree with parts of it, but it's nice that he takes time out to show us all of this. Thanks Brad!

ryangripp 13y ago

A lot of hard work by the team here, However, I agree with the comments---I rarely go to tech crunch anymore since the new design. Too much going on.