944 is one of the foremost providers of entertainment content in the U.S. Whether through their magazine or their website, 944 is all about what is in-style and in the spotlight.
As of May 2011, 944.com (and all of its local sites) were full of content, but needed some organization and cohesiveness style and interactivity.
I've always liked 944 Magazine. They were littered all across ASU's campus when I was getting my degree there, any why shouldn't they be? They are a very young, in-style publication that caters to the 18-28 demographic.
The magazine spreads feature great layout, quality typesetting, and beautiful photography. Really nice stuff. The first time I went to visit 944.com, I expected the same standard of design from the magazine to be translated digitally to the website. What I saw was a lot of what plagues other content-heavy sites.
944.com was nothing like it's printed counterpart. There was very little of the inventive use of color and bold type on the website. But why? I thought I could propose an alternate design that would tie the content together across both forms of media. The first step was to change the focus of the site's content.
As it existed, 944.com was text-heavy; I wanted to make it more about the photography. Just as readers are drawn in by great photography printed on good-quality paper, 944.com needed to be more about the multi-media content first and supporting copy second. Color was also an important consideration. Lastly, the design would need to be flexible, as it would be a shell for the national site and all 8 regional sites.
The solution featured much cleaner design than what was previously available on 944.com, which was the primary goal. The information is organized such that there is not a need to get all content on the front page. Many news sites suffer from this as well thinking that more content = longer visit time when in actuality it either intimidates users or distracts them. I focused on teasing the user instead.
Clickthroughs are important to such a site, and by putting just enough of the content on, those clicks are achieved. The main focus areas of 944.com (Top 9, Happenings, Nightsites, etc.) are still preserved, but just organized better. The interior pages follow the same methodology of clean layout, making the entire site streamlined and navigable.
