Slate: An Online Magazine
Sorry. I’m too tired to think of a pithy title for this post. But anyway here’s my critique:
As I was desperately trying to find a news website that was worth writing 500 words about, I remembered someone mentioning Slate.com at the lunch on Wednesday.
At first glance it doesn’t seem that different from most other news sites. But there are some great nuances about this website that I really enjoy.
First, they actually put some thought into visual layout. The area for the top stories fits almost like a puzzle piece with the main advertisement, which is the most dominant thing of the page.
The top stories section is also divided into three different types of layouts. The most dominant is a slideshow type system where users click on numbered tabs at the bottom. The designers use great, magazine-style artwork and headlines. Directly to the right of that is a numbered list of stories with just a headline and subhead. And below them both is yet another layout where users can look at small groups of pictures with a headline underneath. They simply click on an arrow at the left or right to get a new group of pictures.
The site also has a section with four tabs. One for the today’s political cartoons, another for today’s videos, another for today’s pictures and yet another for today’s “Doonesbury.”
When a user clicks on a story, the text is studded with phrases that are all hyperlinks to stories. Not just similar stories on the same website but all kinds of links to different stories from different websites that happen to be loosely related to the original story.
To be honest I can’t quite put my finger on what makes it so visually pleasing. But, despite its busyness, it has great color schemes and gives you a sense of hierarchy. Also, the pictures they use are astounding. I saw about five that could have easily been the centerpiece art for the New York Times.
Slate also offers a mobile news website for all you cool cats with iPhones. Unfortunately, I don’t have internet access on my phone so I’ll have to remain ignorant about the mobile features of the site.
Slate was founded in 1996 as a general interest online magazine and is owned by the Washington Post Company.
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