The first digital existence of the New Yorker appeared at the end of 1998 featuring little more than a search bar where users could click on the article they would like to read and press “Go.” Even this search bar isn’t very user-friendly as it doesn’t allow for readers to type in key words and restricts them to just select articles. As for ads, there is a changing banner running along the top that says things like “I Eat Out __ Times per Month”, “Tell Us Your Age”, and “Do Men Find Successful Women Sexy?” Thankfully, everything about the original website has changed since!
Fast-forward to present day and the website’s design is as sleek and classy as the magazine’s reputation. The website is predominately white with black and red text, but the colorful images connected with articles bring some life to it. The eye is initially drawn to a large photo featuring that day’s headline story with the headline, author, and deck to the right. Underneath the large New Yorker logo there is a link bar covering a variety of categories such as News, Culture, Books, Science and Technology, and Cartoons. Even Audio and Videos get their own link! By separating them from the rest of the content, users are allowed to choose if they want this kind of experience without forcing it.
A banner advertisement runs along the top of the page, one in the middle, and one the bottom with at least three blocks of ads on the right hand side. Half of these ads are for the New Yorker and the rest for outside companies. With such a low number of ads on the main page and the videos stored separately, the load time is very low. Users are lead to social links if they wish to share or comment on the articles, but what’s missing is the ability for users to comment directly on the site.
On mobile, the links fold into a hamburger bar next to a smaller logo. The image connected to the headline story sits just below the logo, still making it the first thing the user sees. There isn’t much variety to the layout of articles in the mobile version. On the left hand side there is a small image and on the right side there is the headline, author, and the deck.
The New Yorker website has come a long way since 1998 and has definitely changed for the better! It wasn’t until spring of 2007 that the website started to resemble what it is today and even since then it has improved greatly! Not only is today’s website clean and readable, but it is user-friendly and easy to navigate. For a brief time in 2000, the New Yorker experimented with color for the first (and last) time. If I could recommend one feature of the old New Yorker to return, it would be that little bit of color.
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