Web design dos and don'ts

Folio: The Magazine for Magazine Management, June 1, 1997 by Jennifer Sucov

Just when you thought it was safe to launch a Web site, out comes another old-fashioned, ink-on-paper guide to help you stay afloat in these choppy online waters. Esteemed magazine and Web design guru Roger Black--whose credits are too long to scroll through (Esquire, Premiere, SmartMoney, www.msnbc.com and www.parentsoup.com, just for starters)--merges the worlds of print publishing and the Internet in Web Sites That Work ($45, Adobe Press, 1997). If the first few years of Web publishing were characterized by reckless abandon and the freedom of this new medium, the past year has highlighted the need for some online dos and don'ts. Some of Black's: Don't use big, slow graphics. Don't letterspace lowercase. Don't put a lot of text in all caps. Do put content on every page. Do make everything as big as possible.

Black spoke to Folio: about the synergies between print and the Internet and why he feels the Web will usher in a "golden age of magazines."--Jennifer Sucov

What is the biggest lesson in site design that you've learned so far? Don't offer too much all at once. When you look at [Time Warner's] Pathfinder (www.pathfinder.com), it's a little bewildering. There's not much content until you drill down a few levels. In magazines, we've learned to bring content to the surface and evoke a mood. You wouldn't put 50 coverlines on a magazine, would you?

What is missing on the Web? People and celebrities. We know that celebrities sell newsstand copies, but if you look at the Internet there aren't many pictures of people. Why is that?

Should print art directors also design a magazine's Web site? This speaks to branding. I think you want a relationship between the look of the magazine and the Web site, but it's hard because there's so little control of typography on the Web and the page size is limiting. Plus, magazine art directors probably don't have the time.

But shouldn't your Web site reflect the magazine's aesthetic? Yes, definitely. You see this a lot on big, commercial sites like Levi's or some of the automotive sites. The corporate marketing message is in sync with the online message.

As someone whose roots are in print, how do you defend against claims that the Web will hurt magazines? First of all, let me say that I'm still totally involved with print. I'm doing a redesign of Men's Health and some newspapers right now. It's true that the Internet is having an enormous impact on magazines. Magazine expertise is very useful on the Net, which is why it's no coincidence that so many publishers have been successful online.

If you look at the direction of magazine publishing over the last 20 or 30 years, there's been a migration toward niche publications--the only general-interest magazine left is Reader's Digest.

The Web is really about communities, and certain magazines have understood how to go after that.