The Society for News Design hosted its second #SNDMakes hackathon in Boston this past weekend with participants from legacy media companies — including the Boston Globe, ESPN, The Washington Post, and The New York Times — and new media outfits like Vox Media and Slate. Caroline O’Donovan recaps the six projects, which include ideas on […]

“What the leaders in digital news understand is that success depends on the connection between mobile, social, design, workflow and CMS,” writes Paul Williams. “If any one of those is out of alignment with the rest, you’re limiting your ability to grow your audience.” He adds, “Publishers and editors who understand, on a fundamental level, […]

In late July, newyorker.com unveiled a slew of changes aimed at modernizing the site, including a new responsive design. The New Yorker’s creative director and web editor share how they approached the redesign and what they learned. A key lesson was to design for real users, not imagined ones. Different types of readers have different […]

A yearlong readership study by Gatehouse Media, which included a survey of 5,900 readers in five markets where the company operates newspapers, has spawned a cleaner, less cluttered front page, as well as some new content series. Their next big digital initiative will focus on obtaining better data about how readers are engaging in content […]

“This Minimum Viable Product guide will be useful if you want to build a web product your early adopters will love,” writes David Narsavidze. He offers helpful definitions and splits the guide into two parts, discussing things that are better done before building the MVP like understanding your customers problems. Then, he discusses how to […]

“Today, users expect online experiences that not only respond to what device they’re using, but also their location, time of day, what they’ve already read, and events happening in real time,” writes Dan Gardner and Mike Treff. “To capture a user’s attention for the next generation of the web, you’ll need more than just responsive […]

Jacob Cass outlines five reasons to adopt a responsive email design, tips to make your email design responsive, a list of email clients that support responsive email, and some examples from Toms and British Airways. + “We get hung up on platforms – but understanding our audiences is more important” (WAN-IFRA); Enhanced audience and interest […]

“Whenever I’m looking at a product designer’s work, I find myself continuously asking the same question: which solution is the boring one? Maybe it’s born out of seeing apps choose flash over function, or trying to understand just one too many indecipherable icons-as-buttons,” writes Cap Watkins in this ode to designers who choose obvious over […]

The absurd scenes and photos that look like bad stock art on The Onion articles are all designed from scratch by  The Onion’s three-person art department, writes Dan Nosowitz. “Calling them artistic wizards is a disservice to their talents,” managing editor Berkley says. “Really, it’s a travesty that Adobe hasn’t renamed Photoshop after them.” + […]

A useful guide to help designers and product managers think about what works and what doesn’t in email newsletters, including which email clients and platforms to support, whether responsive design matters for email, and what to prioritize in an email newsletter project. + #ACESchat: Tips for freelancers (Storify); How can online research tools aid the […]