When The Seattle Times decided to replace its existing desktop-centric Web site, its primary goals for its redesign were better readability for users on mobile devices, a more prominent role for photojournalism, and less visual clutter...all leading to a clearer, optimized subscription funnel.
The linchpins of the company's goals were the site's typefaces and responsive grid, so those were my areas of greatest focus: from hours spent comparing how different fonts rendered on our supported browsers to analysis demonstrating to internal stakeholders why wider margins are required for mobile viewports to an audit of every single image size on the Web site. The refreshed, responsive Web site is now more readable on phones, tablets, and desktop computers; it contains larger images; and it has a far cleaner layout. Better yet, in usability testing sessions that I moderated shortly before the launch, multiple readers commented on the site's improved readability.
