way to go, salon.com
Salon.com – way to go on the lovely redesign beta release. Your brand integration is top notch, layout and colors look lovely. A coupla tips from the IA lady, based on first glance –
- you have a whitespace problem on the upper right of the content area of the home page. Either fill the column completely, or eliminate it.
- if you’re going to add elements that look like modules, make them function as such. Don’t tempt me with header bars that aren’t draggable, especially when you have varying types of content. Adding this modular functionality gives me a sense of control over what information I’m going to see. If google can do it, you can too!
- give me some kind of preview of what’s under the tabs. I have no idea what’s under your entertainment tab, and you have too many types of content to make me guess. a tooltip would work wonders here.
- your homepage organization doesn’t work well on your inner category pages. Make it apparent to me how you’re organizing your information. Having some kind of context was handy in the previous version of salon…it will be missed in the new version. Right now, the category pages feel chaotic. Article pages make me feel lost as well.
- Navigating from the homepage to a feature is well done, but once I’m at the feature, I have no idea where I’m going. Give me some guidance as to where I am and why.
- Make your featured item on the home page bolder. Right now, it doesn’t serve the same purpose as the previous version of Salon, setting the tone for the day’s publication. Consider using a three column approach – it may even fix the whitespace problem noted in the first bullet.
And that’s my first glance. A more in depth analysis to come…if I can get out from under the elementary school class mailing list.