Look, ma, no scrolling!
March 8, 2009 in Conferences, industry news
 Warning/Update: Parts of the site are NSFW (not safe for work) for (some) North American classroom because some of the images and videos follow Eastern european sensibilities regarding nudity and sex. (via Robb Montgomery) #
From the session today at Newstrain, 24sata, a Syrian Croatian news site that features a single-screen design. It’s an interesting concept, which requires short bits of text and lots of photos. Quite the change from typical U.S. news sites. #
The downside? It’s built with HTML tables. Of course, there’s no way you’d be able to do this type of site on College Publisher because of the ad spots. #
Thoughts? #
It's a nice design and somewhat mesmerizing. I like its compactness. Would be good for a small operation dedicated to regular turn-around of news. You are right about the photo-intensity of the design, but it is one of the things I like about it. Far too many online publications have far too few visuals.You are right, too about the advertising requirements of College Publisher preventing it, but with a bit more flexibility in the model the same ads could be delivered, albeit in different sizes and locations. The top banner ad could still be delivered at the top, the secondary banner relegated to the smaller spot just right of it. One could live with giving up the top portion of the right column for a scaled down button ad. You might want to jettison CP's tower ad, which so far hasn't sold well nationally. A half-button add could take that box slot in the lower right. Advertisers might complain about smaller ads, but they would still cover a good percentage of the real estate –assuming that one held to the one-screen limit– and would actually get as good or better display.
Say,You might want to add the disclaimer I gave when I showed you this site today. it is NSFW for the North American classroom because some of the images and videos follow Eastern european sensibilities regarding nudity and sex.Robb Montgomery
Thanks, Robb. Added.
Not to be carping, but the site is Croatian, not Syrian.
Thanks, David. That's what I get for trying to read the about page in Croatian.
If your advertising department is flexible and you work closely with them, you could still fit standard-size ads on the page, just perhaps not in all the same places as CP.
And of course you could do a layout such as this using CSS.
And if you feel hindered by your CP templates, maybe it's time to move on.
This is the same basic idea we had at <a href="http://www.lionsroar.info” target=”_blank”>www.lionsroar.info when we launched the site several years ago. Doesn't it make sense to design with a horizontal space in mind than a never-ending vertical space? We thought so.
This is sucky. It's all cramped. The power of scrolling must be available! Lameness.
This is sucky. It's all cramped. The power of scrolling must be available! Lameness.
This is sucky. It's all cramped. The power of scrolling must be available! Lameness.