TAKEAWAY: Users have identified the new features and like what they see as they navigate through The Hindu’s newsly redesigned website. PLUS: Pure Design download, all about those classified pages.
Easier to navigate, easier on the eyes
A beta version of The Hindu’s website was launched Saturday, August 15. Mario Garcia Jr. worked closely with The Hindu’s team to arrive at this newly rethought website for one of India’s most respected newspapers. The Hindu is 130 years old, but its management is constantly seeking ways to update and to improve. We at Garcia Media have been involved with The Hindu for several years, completing the redesign of the print version as well.
Some features of the new design, which will run as a beta version parallel to the existing website:
A new look and feel, offering better use of images.
Optimized navigation, making easier for users to access the latest news as well as most read stories.
Optimised for the latest versions of Internet Explorer, Firefox, and Chrome.
It has topic-based exploratory and research capability. In a few months, the full content of the old website, including the archive, will migrate to the redesigned website. The Hindu team will be introducing multi-media content, social media tools, and other advanced features progressively.
We contacted N. Ram, editor-in-chief of The Hindu, about his experiences introducing this beta version of the newly redesigned website:
‘Classical, yet contemporary’ is our defining slogan. After The Hindu and our three other group publications were redesigned, beautifully and to the highest standards of pure design, by Dr Mario Garcia and his German colleagues, we went in for a complete redesign and contemporisation of The Hindu’s website. It wasn’t easy and it took some time, mainly because, unlike for the print redesigns, we were not always clear what we wanted for our new website.
Ram mentions that The Hindu was one of the first Indian daily newspapers to have a functional website. From the start, The Hindu”s website has had a wide following –with roughly 50 per cent of the ‘hits’ from outside India, 50 per cent in India. “But,” says Ram, ” for at least a couple of years there was a feeling that our trusted online workhorse needed a wholly new look, feel, features, and capabilities. That it was not enough to reproduce print content, that we needed to contemporise our digital media operations.”
“I am delighted with the advanced website design Mario Garcia, Jr. has created. He worked closely with our editorial and technical teams, was sensitive to our ideas and specific editorial and technical requirements. He has given us a classical – pure, elegant, and uncluttered – yet contemporary, design. Too many newspaper websites look too busy, all over the place. Working closely with our technical coordinator, Nagaraj Nagabushanam, Mario, Jr. quietly pushed us into going for more ambitious features than we originally had in mind. For example, topic-based exploratory and research capability, which to my knowledge no other Indian newspaper website has at this stage.
Response from online readers of The Hindu
Ram explains the reactions:
“The response from online readers has been tremendous – I would say 98 per cent not just positive but enthusiastic. I have little doubt that this beautiful piece of Garcia Media work is turning out to be a game-changer for us.”
Small type, big readership
Simply because those pages are set usually in type less than 7 points does not mean classifieds have to be ugly, or unappetizing. But functionality comes before aesthetics here, too. Readers who come to classified pages want to be able to find categories and subjects easily. Navigational tools are the key to making these pages functional and attractive.
Workshops in Berlin, Toronto, London
Robb Montgomery reminds us that it is, indeed, back to school season. In that spirit, his non-profit organization, Visual Editors Foundation, announces three fall seminars coming up in Berlin, Toronto and London.
The workshops deal with everything from video editing to new media.
The scheduled seminars are:
September 7-11
KircherBurkhardt is sponsoring a series of video editing, social media and multimedia seminars in Berlin.
October 5-7
The Toronto Star is sponsoring a series of one-day new media seminars.
October 26-29
Beamups is sponsoring a Camp Video Journalism workshop week in Central London.
Who is Jacky?
Jacky belongs to Frank Deville. The Luxembourg-based pooch is an “avid reader” of the German newspaper, Bild Am Sonntag. Every Sunday Jacky picks stories and interesting graphics in Bild Am Sonntag , the German newspaper.
Pure Design: Download entire section: Type
Download entire first section of Pure Design: Words
Now that I have fully presented the first of six sections of Pure Design on TheMarioBlog, I am offering the entire initial section, “Words,” available for download—all 33 pages of it. This may be useful for those of you saving or printing out Pure Design and will be done following each of the remaining sections. At the end of our journey through words, type, layout, color, pictures, and process, I will publish the entirety of Pure Design in one file.
WAN’s World Trends 2009 Report
The 2009 edition of World Press Trends from WAN/IFRA is now available. I always like to review this report for its complete information on global circulation, advertising and online trends in our industry. All countries in the world where daily newspapers are published are covered in the publication.
This year the WAN/IFRA folks have decided to publish a print version but only make the book available on pdf.
Those interested go:
http://www.wan-press.org/forms/wpt2009.html
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Follow the Marios
Two Marios. Two Views.
Follow Mario Jr. and his blog about media analysis, web design and assorted topics related to the current state of our industry.
http://garciainteractive.com/
Visit Mario Sr. daily here, or through TweetsByDesign (www.twitter.com/tweetsbydesign)
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To read TheRodrigoFino blog, in Spanish, go:
https://garciamedia.com/latinamerica/blog/
TheMarioBlog posting #336
TheMarioBlog posting #336