Can print design translate to the Web?

Posted by John Burke on April 6, 2006 at 9:53 AM

Brass Tacks Design critiques the New York Times' website redesign saying that it's "better but its not enough." Why? Because it still strays too far from the golden rules of print newspaper design. Brass Tacks shows screen captures of several exemplary sites which maximize content and advertiser impact. The underlying theme: simplicity.

Using the St. Petersburg Times' website as an example, Brass Tacks lists the features which it deems distinguish it from most newspaper websites:

A hierarchy of news content
A single logo for effective branding
All content fits on a single screen
Prominent, anchored links to classifieds (because that's "still where the money is")
A new way to display advertising ("ads should be displayed prominently on interior pages")

I'm not one to argue that these tactics work in print (apart from the "anchored links"). In fact, the online examples that Brass Tacks design are hard distinguish from a print page and look very good, even sexy. And it's very easy to read the content. But from a financial point of view, is it realistic to think that print design can translate to the Web?

No ads on the homepage and huge display ads on content pages sounds ideal, but it is too idealistic for the online world. Newspapers need to make money on the Web, especially now that online advertising revenues are skyrocketing. Limiting an article page to one ad is suicidal.

Making an ad prominent is understandable because it needs to be noticed by the reader. But it doesn't have to be as prominent as in the print edition because:

not only can an Internet ad explain more about the product through Flash images but once its clicked on, the reader arrives at a site exclusively dedicated to the product that explains everything
advertisers can now more efficiently measure effectiveness through click counts, and
advertising online is becoming more targeted, thus readers interests are likely to be reflected in the ads they see, no matter how prominent, and they will be more likely to follow up on their interest.

Granted, I'm sure I won't find anybody that appreciates animated advertising next to or smack in the middle of an article they're trying to read. But unless readers want to start paying the yearly print subscription fee for the online version in order to keep their paper alive, they may just have to put up with it.

Source: Brass Tracks Design

ps. Of course at the same time, the television industry is looking into to shortening the length of its advertising segments to one minute in order to see if they are more effective: Wall Street Journal.

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