When designing a high content information site the main problem that I’ve run into is flexibility. A newspaper or magazine web site will be running content from that print publication and also images associated with that content. Now designing a flexible layout the allows for both horizontal and vertical images, headlines, subheads, bylines, credit lines and time stamps is no easy task. There are numerous examples of different solutions, just look at different newspaper and magazine web sites. but is there a standard solution that has solved this problem in an elegant way? I’m not sure.
A magazine with stunning photography will want really large images on their site. Some sort of carousel with rotating images and headlines is one way to handle this or a single large image that does not rotate is another presentation. Both of these will work but require photo editing and that means time and energy.
Recently while designing Carolina Bride Magazine’s (http://www.carolinabride.com) new site I was confronted with this challenge. The Editor wanted a very large image on the hompage but you have to limit the depth of the photo or else you would have a huge image with no other content visible upon page load. So there has to be some cropping which brought some grumblings. There has to be adjustments and the only way those happen is with human involvement. In order to make sure an image turn out the way you want it is to crop it yourself rather than letting php or the CMS handle it. This requires time and effort and for small operations like Carolina Bride there is not much time to spare. I think I came up with a decent solution to the hompage presentation but I think there is a better one to be found. I am working on wireframes now for the next magazine site I design and I hope to finally find a flexible, visually appealing solution. I’ll share if I do.
design within constraints
When designing a high content information site the main problem that I’ve run into is flexibility. A newspaper or magazine web site will be running content from that print publication and also images associated with that content. Now designing a flexible layout the allows for both horizontal and vertical images, headlines, subheads, bylines, credit lines and time stamps is no easy task. There are numerous examples of different solutions, just look at different newspaper and magazine web sites. but is there a standard solution that has solved this problem in an elegant way? I’m not sure.
A magazine with stunning photography will want really large images on their site. Some sort of carousel with rotating images and headlines is one way to handle this or a single large image that does not rotate is another presentation. Both of these will work but require photo editing and that means time and energy.
Recently while designing Carolina Bride Magazine’s (http://www.carolinabride.com) new site I was confronted with this challenge. The Editor wanted a very large image on the hompage but you have to limit the depth of the photo or else you would have a huge image with no other content visible upon page load. So there has to be some cropping which brought some grumblings. There has to be adjustments and the only way those happen is with human involvement. In order to make sure an image turn out the way you want it is to crop it yourself rather than letting php or the CMS handle it. This requires time and effort and for small operations like Carolina Bride there is not much time to spare. I think I came up with a decent solution to the hompage presentation but I think there is a better one to be found. I am working on wireframes now for the next magazine site I design and I hope to finally find a flexible, visually appealing solution. I’ll share if I do.
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