The architecture of online journalism
A school is not a museum, and a movie theater is not a restaurant.
If a newspaper were a building, what kind of building would it be?
Web design is the creation of digital environments that facilitate and encourage human activity; reflect or adapt to individual voices and content; and change gracefully over time while always retaining their identity. [Source: Jeffrey Zeldman, Nov. 20]
Digital environments: A Web site is not a thing. It is a place. In a place, we move around — if we can find the doors and hallways and stairs and elevators. If they are open to us. If they work properly.
Facilitate and encourage human activity: What are the activities of people who seek out journalism? They want to be informed, surprised, entertained, engaged. They want to respond and share their opinions on what they have found. They want to add or correct information. They want to ask questions and get answers. They want to measure truth and accuracy.
Reflect or adapt to individual voices and content: Does your living room look like your kitchen? Is the furniture nailed to the floor? Do you conduct more than one activity in the bedroom?
Change gracefully over time: Don’t you feel embarrassed when you walk into one of those out-of-date spaces where the colors are 30 years out of date, the carpets are worn and shabby, the chairs don’t match? If you went to see a new doctor and the waiting room looked like that, would you stay?
Retaining their identity: Can people still tell what kind of building it is? (Has it turned into a shopping mall? How confusing!) Is it still your building? Is it clear to visitors who you are?
I’d estimate that about 98 percent of the people working in journalism today don’t know what Zeldman is talking about. Read the post. Educate yourself.
Update (Nov. 22): More design goodness, with lots of relevance to journalism (via a link from Patrick Beeson).
[...] pergunta e arrisca a resposta é Mindy McAdams. (com base em Jeffrey [...]
November 22, 2007 at 5:24 amOne of the best non-jou classes I ever took, Writing Thru Media, made this very point. I’m going to go re-read my notes.
November 24, 2007 at 4:02 pmMindy, have you ever seen this site or read about the author’s thesis regarding the design of a newspaper? It’s very interesting.
http://serialconsign.com/node/152
November 28, 2007 at 2:22 pm