Page Critiques and Comment

First off, The Smithfield (VA) Times is a weekly paper that I redesigned a few years back. (So, naturally I like it!). The important part of any redesign, however, is how well the staff takes the plan to heart and keeps it going. Editor/Publisher John Edwards and his small staff have done a superb job.

The layout is traditional and clean. The teasers beneath the flag include a Quote of the Day, which I believe has been popular. The headline size and weight are just right. Too many weeklies tend to use heads that are too small. The main art is a colorful stand-alone photo and it works well. The eye movement is into the rest of the page, which is always preferred. The page is anchored with a strongly played story in a box with a fever-line chart. It effectively uses an odd measure, breaking the six-column grid. The head-size is perfect, and the story is amply framed with white space inside the box.

Compare that to the Fourth of July story above, which is much too tight. If your gutters are 1 pica, I would recommend going with a frame inset of 1p6, though you should cheat a little smaller for a 1-col. box. Give your content room to breathe!

The color bars at the top and bottom of the page keep it grounded nicely. The use of the same typeface family for all the heads gives the page a consistent, professional look. Overall, a fine page.

Here is a quick (and dirty) sample of how we will do our critiques of your paper. Because the critique videos are large, we will create the video and commentary and then send it to you on a CD. This sample is very brief compared to a complete critique.

Sample critique. It will work better if you give the video a few seconds to load before you start playing it.

Everywhere we turn we see stories about the coming death of newspapers. Just in the past few weeks we’ve read about job cuts at the Palm Beach Post, the Los Angeles Times and elsewhere.

At the same time, we see that the Orlando Sentinel has gone through a major redesign. This is even after research has shown that redesigns don’t do much to stanch the losses in circulation.

Nonetheless, design remains an important, maybe even critical, component of a successful newspaper. This is not because it is important to “look good,” but because of what computer interface designers refer to as the “user experience.” I also like to toss in “branding” as well.

Several years back, Peter Morville listed seven aspects that comprise the user’s experience with your web site www.semanticstudios.com/publications/semantics/000029.php). You would be well served to pay attention to each as you create the design and content of your print product and your web site.

Valuable: This should be obvious, but often isn’t. Are you providing content that is valuable to your customers, or are you providing content YOU think they ought/need to know? Your customers will pay for value.

Useful: This is tied to value, which is more of an “idea” issue. Being useful means that you are providing content and design that your customers can actually use to improve their lives quickly and easily.

Usable: Do the navigation bars make sense and do the buttons on your web site appear in the proper order or do you make your web visitors think? (Don’t ever make your readers think about navigation!) This is where good, user-centered design comes in.

Desirable: This where the look and feel of your products elicit positive emotional reactions in your customers. Again, this involves creating good designs. Apple understands this very well.

Findable: Can your readers find their way easily through your content, whether in print or pixels? Do you anchor recurring features in the print product?

Accessible: Are your news products accessible to all?

Credible: Do your presentation of news and information inspire credibility? This can even be affected by design, which is not just a cosmetic add-on. The design and organization of your news products can say a lot about your “brand” of credibility, if done professionally and thoughtfully. This is why I think redesigns done largely with cosmetic goals in mind are the ones most likely not to succeed.

If you are paying attention to these components of how your readers experience your news products, then you are probably doing well.

All this ties into the “branding” and marketing of your paper and its web site. Wouldn’t it be nice if, when people in your area are asked to think of words that describe your paper, their list reads like Morville’s?