USA Today's new layout

The worst part of the new print edition design? The font sizes. Holy magnifying glasses Batman.

 

I do like their new site "Sports On Earth" developed in a joint venture with MLB.

 

I do not like the new print out and maybe that has something to do that I have been so used to the former layout. But, it does have way to much white and if they want huge photos etc why not just make it a tabloid size paper and then, you fall into actually being a commuter paper for everyone on airplanes and hotels that get it. Have you tried reading it on a plane???? Not a good fit for the nations newspaper.

Now, the beta site looks like a mobile version of most websites. I guess, being that 90% of my news reading is now done on a tablet I must say I will quickly get used to the new layout.

 

I was walking through a hotel lobby this afternoon and stumbled across a stack of the new USA Todays. Didn't even recognize it at first. Horrendously bad.

 

I worked there for a while (1984-91) and have great affection for the product but I do not like the redesign.

Maybe I'm working from a small sample size, but ...

The four sections do not appear to be working from the same visual stylebook. A couple of the inside pages with color were kinda interesting, but they were the exception.

Too many of the pages seemed designed without a central focal point. A lot of similarly sized, competing elements.

The "cool balls" idea notion might get you a B- in a design class. The rest of it, frankly, seems to suffer from not having enough balls.

I have heard complaints from others about the body type size.

Frankly, a lot of it reminds me of when I went through my "busy phase" as a page designer in 2003 or so.

I would have said this was the prototype you worked through to get to the final product. Needed another polish.

 

I saw today's issue in a rack and looked.

The "cool ball" hanging in the top left corner of A-1 is just idiotic. It's like something is missing with all the white space around there and across the top of the page.

Then add today's above-the-fold graphic of TWO MORE floating balls and you have the makings of a WTF? moment for someone taking a glance.

The issues I've seen look incomplete, disjointed and ugly. The layout simply is unattractive and does not compel me to buy or enjoy reading it.

 

Given a choice between USAT's "cool balls" and Orlando's "cool wave" across the top, I go with Orlando all the way. Much better idea of something different and dynamic in a design change.

 

You'd think they would at least want to dress up the blue ball out front by making it a globe, showing the USA. As it is, it looks like a half-finished ornament.

 

I love it. Strikes me as retro, like old-style Major League Baseball caps.

 

I noticed USAT this morning at the coffee shop on a table.

Their half-finished ornament obviously is now the 'brand' or logo or whatever they want to get across to potential readers as the hook. Their name is smaller and crammed with the date in the same size/font, by the ornament ball, along with the other teasers and ad at the top, it just disappears.

Who the hell wants the name of their product to be minimized and virtually disappear? That's just crazy.