The design is confusing. Not because there's too much information (there's not) but because there's no hierarchy. You haven't told me where to look. There's

The design is confusing. Not because there's too much information (there's not) but because there's no hierarchy. You haven't told me where to look. There's not an element on the page that has any more visual importance than any other. Comparing the site to HN makes me think these are going to be ranked/ordered, but we haven't ranked anything. Below, jlees suggested splitting out the design and the news sections. I think that'd help. The grid layout you currently have for the whole site would work fine for the design section, and then I'd do news the same way HN does (why re-invent the wheel?). If you look at the HN homepage, it doesn't take more than 1/2 the width of the browser (or in the cases it does, links could be truncated/wrapped). You could have the news/design sections side by side on the homepage. The split alone would help me decide where I should spend my time.