You might have heard: An interactive website can make its content more persuasive, and web design has the potential to increase the amount of reader engagement But did you know: According to a new report by the Engaging News Project, “contemporary” homepage designs lead to more pageviews and increased retention of details from articles. The […]

You might have heard: Bloomberg’s top digital editor Josh Topolsky was fired due to Michael Bloomberg’s frustration with the website (Politico) But did you know: Six months after the Bloomberg Business website was relaunched, Michael Bloomberg is already planning to make changes to the design and branding of the website. The design changes will reflect […]

Taking a cue from The New York Times, Quartz added a “Read Full Story” button on mobile in its design changes rolled out Sunday. If you tap the button, you’ll see the full story, but if you keep scrolling, you’ll see an ad and then a list of more story headlines. Quartz executive editor Zach […]

When designers start working on new products, they often assume that they know better what needs to be created than the client they’re working with. But making better products also starts with trusting the people you’re creating the product for. Listen to their needs and involve them in the process, making their priorities yours as […]

NPR’s picture editor Kainaz Amaria and NBC multi-platform producer Imaeyen Ibanga say that visuals should be a driving force early on in editorial decisions because “the audience is going to demand it.” Audiences expect high-quality visuals from news organizations, Ibanga and Amaria said, and visual journalists have to be the ambassadors for journalists without a […]

For a companion story on how children raised in different places have different chances of getting out of poverty, The Upshot put together an interactive article answering the question, “What would that look like where I live?” The Best and Worst Places to Grow Up alters the text based on the reader’s selected location, using […]

With the unveiling of The Onion’s redesign on Friday, Chris Heller says we can see how The Onion might grow into a media empire. The Onion plans to spin off several new websites, launch a studio to develop films and TV shows, and raise money from new investors, all within the next year. Onion Inc.’s […]

The redesign of The Atlantic’s website launched quietly on Tuesday night, with the goal of offering a cleaner reading experience. The reading experience more closely mimics a print magazine, something Joshua Benton says makes the content feel less newsy. The new homepage also shows less content than the old one, possibly a reflection of The […]

A study from Penn State shows that a message conveyed on a website may be more persuasive if the website is interactive. Participants in the study who were shown an interactive anti-smoking website were more likely to say smoking was an unattractive behavior and agree with the site’s stance against smoking than participants who were […]

To accompany The Washington Post’s recent front page story “Tech Titans’ Latest Project: Defy Death” on how Silicon Valley billionaires fund biomedical research for stem cell transplants and custom-built bones, the paper built the game “7 Ways to Defy Death.” The game took several months to build. Designers wanted to balance the playfulness of the […]