I don’t visit the MSN homepage often, but when I recently went I noticed a dramatic redesign from their old site. Apparently a beta version of the new site launched late last year and it's gone live now.
Even though it’s a couple months old, I think it’s still valuable to see how a major web site redesigned their homepage. I also found what I thought was a really interesting blog critiquing redesign.
Basically the redesign is a much simpler, sleeker look with more white space, larger photos and bigger headlines. (On the blog you can see the redesign as well at the original MSN homepage at the bottom.)
I thought the blogger made some interesting observations, including:
-They’re not afraid of having white space. It makes the portions of the site that are there stand out more.
-The search bar on the top is much more prominent. This is obviously a “springboard site” and the designers have embraced that.
-I like the social media tabbed links on the homepage.
-The dropdown menus “get in the way.” I have never really noticed this, but now that he mentions it, I see his point.
Here's another blog that has images of the old and new home page as well.
Overall, I really like this redesign and I think it’s interesting to see some of the reaction to it.
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FYI - The new site is not coming up for me when I go to MSN.com. Not sure why. But if you go to the blog Brandon linked to you can see the new site and compare it to the old.
ReplyDeleteIt's definitely a big departure. I like the white space, but I'm not a fan of the color palette. It reminds me of the Game of Life, which is not a happy childhood memory for me... That's a story for another time.