Design of the Times

I had my usual meet up with some friends this morning. We like to get together and shoot the breeze over coffee while our dogs play. The weather this time of year is best for this. This morning was exceptionally perfect for lounging around for a couple of hours under a beautiful oak tree, with good friends, over hot coffee, and heated discussions.

You see I've fallen in with a really bad crowd here in D.C. – lots of Company, Firm, State and other .gov employees; a few Arlington fire and police employees; military and even some Republicans. The most liberal friends I have here are quite conservative by Left Coast standards. Thank goodness I've got a Yankee friend who has declared me refugee status in NYC.

Anyway, I knew that Ed would be there. I usually like to eyeball the front page of WashingtonTimes.com before meeting up with Ed. It's good to be prepared for your enemy. Well, nothing real life altering on the site this morning.

Beside the fact that the site is about the ugliest news site ever (I won't get into the news quality in this post), what are they thinking with that black type over a red bar. Every designer knows that people just do not read what is written in or on red. The red may get a site visitors attention. But the brain does not really see or retain the information that is in red. That is why you will often see the word "sale" in red on a print ad, but the important text to remember is in black.

The site over all is very plain and the narrow contrast in text and colors makes if difficult to read. Based just on that I would give the site design a C-, maybe even a D. But that black logo over that red bar is very hard to read. The red does catch your attention for a second. But once my brain doesn't see any information in that spot, my eyes go straight down to the large serif headline in the lower left column.

What an impression this makes. The first thing my mind registered when I first saw this page was that the Washington Times must be good for wrapping fish.

The saddest part of all this was that this subliminal was totally lost on Ed. He still thinks the Washington Times is the best damn paper – much better than their cross town rival, Washington Post.

Yeah, Ed and I don't vote alike. Despite that, he is a good guy.