Who won the presidential election, in Web design?

We talk a lot in this industry about above-the-fold design in print. Well, I've taken screenshots from 3:45 a.m. of many of the major news media sites' home pages, above the scroll. Here are your samples (list is alphabetical; click to enlarge):



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So, what do you like?

 

Slate took zagging while others zig to another level:

 

HuffPo fails ... they didn't account for spacing with the punctuation en Español, and the subhead is unintelligible.

 

The Chicago Tribune website looked good all night, updating the Obama speech as it happened with fresh photos.

Their electoral map was kept up-to-date and easy to use, too.

 

I was monitoring the election maps on the websites of the WaPo, NY Times and WSJ. Only The New York Times' map worked consistently through the evening.

 

I hated the Huffington Post, too. The deck is awful, and it doesn't even look like what it is, which is a series of links to different content. And the headline is stupid. Why is it in Spanish? I see no justification for that decision.

The Chicago Tribune has the cleanest look, but it also has only one point of entry above the scroll. This isn't print. You need to give readers options and quick information.

I loved CBS News' display. It's a bold, stylish centerpiece below the flag, but a lot of easy-to-use, visual information is displayed above it. That was my favorite by far.

I liked that USA Today went with an analytical approach to the headline. I'm not sure it was time yet to do the spin ahead. Maybe by 9 a.m., but not by 3:30 a.m. I was looking for how-he-won information, and USA Today provided that with its display type.

CNN and NBC News really fell flat to me.

 

Similar to how newseum does the front-page designs of different news outlets each day, I wish there was a daily look at the home page of news Websites each day. Maybe someone already does that, but nonetheless, good thread.

 

I would assume, if I read HuffPo, that the main story dealt with how Obama took the win, in part, by dominating the Hispanic vote.

 

I can think of one way to use the Internet to see what various news websites look like...

 

ha. ha. ha. Damnit.

I was thinking more of a "one-stop shop." But yes.

 

Drudge.

 

President-elect Romney's transition site