website design

Anyone have any favorite websites, as far as design goes? In other words, sites that do an excellent job of balancing form and function...not just something pretty that's poorly organized or takes eons to download. I'd be interested in your opinions...not limited to newspapers, either. Any magazine, web-only or broadcast media sites of note would be of interest as well.

I'm mainly interested in what people are doing right, but if there are any train-wreck websites that are examples of what NOT to do...I suppose those would also be of interest.

 

This has nothing to do with the topic, but I saw the word design and had this picture in my mind of DyePack as one of Pavlov's dogs.

 

Much like Büblir when Jack Sikma was playing.

"Look at that tall, blond man run!"

 

Actually, I was thinking about that while typing the first post...as I saw the word "design" on my screen, I thought, "DyePack." Of course, since this thread is about functional websites rather than gimmicky pages, I didn't really think that DyePackian wrath would ensue. But I figured he would definitely click on the thread, just to see what was up.

 

I looked through the Web sites on my links page.

What I wanted to find were sites where you could get where you wanted without scrolling down. That ruled out a lot of sites because, as one might expect, they're getting heavier and heavier with high-page advertising and mastheads. If I click on a site and the majority of what I'm seeing is an ad ... you've lost me.

I didn't click on the Newhouse sites because a) they're all the same; and, b) I know there's better out there than the Newhouse design. Likewise, the MLD sites because they force too much non-sports material early in the sports main page.

For starters, I like the way the Washington Post does it. At least you get to the meat of the site a third of the way down the first page. And you can see the entire menu on the left, along with a few of the top stories.

USA TODAY is still right up there. Gives you the essential links fast.

If your browser screen has some depth to it, the Tampa Tribune presents just about everything you need before scrolling. Good design concept there.

Other good ones, without too much in the way of early ads or "marketplace" sections (damn, I hate it when they start those down the whole right side):

Seattle Times and Seattle Post-Intelligencer
St. Louis Post-Dispatch
San Francisco Chronicle
Rocky Mountain News ... the marketplace stuff on the left nearly disqualified it, but I LOVE their pull-down menus on the right for NBA rosters, stats, etc.
Pittsburgh Tribune-Review
EDIT: Since I originally wrote this, the Trib-Review changed up their sports main page and made it one of the worst. Shame.

There's just some to start.

 

Oddly, we've developed our own Pavlonian response by mentally preparing for DyePack every time we type "design" on a post.

 

Just watch.

 

Come on, dyepack. Even I can laugh at myself with the Albom obsession.. it WAS worth a laugh....