One great thing that I love about The Huffington Post is the fact that the site utilizes typography very well. Everything is blown up and big, meant to draw the readers' attention right when they press enter from their computers. The layout of the site is fairly understandable, a couple of clicks and you're on your way to reading about David Letterman's Late Night Confession (a must read, in my opinion) or you can easily skim over how Michelle Obama and Oprah are trying to draw some hurrah for Chicago in the coveted location for the 2016 Olympics. I do admit, the typography and fonts can be "in-your-face" at times, but what's news without a little bit of pushiness? It's meant to snap us out of our stupor and pay attention to what's going on in the real world.
One can argue that The Huffington Post is not "serious" enough for the average reader. The site is famous for its plethora of famous online columnists (Jamie Lee Curtis anyone?), but in the site's defense, if one is really looking for an extremely standard online news...nytimes.com, cnn.com and latimes.com are only clicks away.
On a personal note, my impatience for technology has often put me at a halt with online websites. Takes too long to load, the texts aren't readable...I find many excuses to turn my eyes away from the news and to my favorite gossip websites. Nevertheless, The Huffington Post swiftly combines the accessbility of an online newspaper while reaching out to younger readers (from 18-35, as opposed to 40-65). It's obvious that the editors have spent a lot of time with the "techies" to ensure that the website is easily used for the general public, while attaining a certain individuality in its online newspaper site.
Lastly, the recent addition of the iPhone app "Huff Post" has pushed this online newspaper from my news thermometer of "frequently read" to "reading everyday." Even the iPhone app is easy to use and contains the same themes that the website carries throughout, page by page. This certainly keeps the old users up-to-date on their iPhones while simultaneously through the original website itself.
I give The Huffington Post 4 (1/2) stars.
I agree! I get impatient with online news sites too just because the text is harder to read, and the content is often squeezed into little columns at the left which can sometimes be annoying to navigate! It seems that The Huffington Post is definitely doing a good job keeping their young readers!
ReplyDeleteWhat I like most about the Huffington Post is how simple they keep the layout: big images and the right amount of text. As you said, the material quickly captures your attention and it is easy to stay focused on what you are looking for.
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