Kind of a big week for website redesigns… at least among sites I frequent. Pitchfork’s was long-overdue— it hadn’t changed a bit since I started reading it as a freshman in college. The new website is clean, lovely and much richer (though admittedly the bar set by the old one was pretty low; it didn’t even have a working search function). However, the aesthetic cleanliness brings with it a much more corporate feeling (I’ll leave the implications for others to debate). I also think the grid structure feels overly complex; it’s hard to tell which information is most important at first glance, even though it’s all presented quite clearly.
Also, Facebook— I feel as though for all the attention it gets, nobody talks about why Facebook is such a fantastic platform, which is that they are totally obsessed with design. Like Apple, the Facebook designers aren’t afraid to make sweeping changes for the better, even if it means getting some bad press and vocal complaints (remember when they launched the news feeds?). The new page layout is an incremental change, but the grid feels more natural and organized now. The font size for wall posts went up a notch, making communications a bit easier to read and creating a nice hierarchy of information. And I like the new rounded corners on profile pictures (round rects are everywhere).
OK, back to part-making (new piece for the Yale Symphony. Working title: Bathtub Shrine.)