March 29, 2011 - 8:20pm
The story behind our new top tease
BY ANNA LEIN-ZIELINSKI AND SARAH SQUIRE
This week, the Daily’s design squad is introducing a redesign of the top tease. We started thinking about this a few months ago, and are excited to finally give it a go.
In the past, teases have been rather text-heavy, usually giving two stories approximately equal space and always the same font size. Our initial motivation for changing the tease was its limiting nature. We thought it would be nice to be able to tease a third story when appropriate or only hint at a second story when necessary. Also, we wanted to be able to work in more photos, and make the first thing you see when you pick up the paper a little more attractive, flexible and consistent.
What you’re likely to notice first is that we’ve added tags, so that readers can quickly identify the sections featured. We designed these with readers in mind, hoping to improve the visibility of the sections and stories you care most about.
Another big adjustment is that featured articles will no longer be represented by the same font sizes. This allows us to make a contextually more important article greater with respect to visibility as well. In addition to employing sizing elasticity, we are also introducing more variations in color.
With the implementation of the new teases, you should also find a more consistent design throughout the Daily. For instance, teases will be the same height every day.
In addition to the new top tease, we have created several new graphics that will be attached to stories, highlighting our online presence. You found these throughout last week’s front pages and will continue to from here on out.
Our website is improving every day, so hopefully these graphics will remind you of the additional content we have on there.
— Anna Lein-Zielinski and Sarah Squire are the Daily's managing design editors.
