Slightly OT: The new annarbor.com

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July 24th, 2009 at 10:09 AM
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MGoAero
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Joined: 03/16/2009
MGoPoints: 619
Slightly OT: The new annarbor.com

So the replacement for the now-departed Ann Arbor News is now up and running: annarbor.com

My initial reactions with regards to sports coverage were positive, considering it's still in its infancy. The Ann Arbor News' site had been getting very stale and sparse throughout 2009, and annarbor.com already has much more content.

Particularly encouraging is this:
http://www.annarbor.com/sports/meandering-through-the-maize-and-blue-a-r...
You'll note that it even respectfully links to blogs! HOWEVER, the second "MGoBlog" link about Beano Cook takes the reader not to this trusted site, but to Umgoblog.com. Oops!

Overall, I'm glad to have a new source of Michigan athletics content, and even more glad that they seem to have shed some of the shackles of the MSM. Best of luck, annarbor.com.

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July 24th, 2009 at 10:14 AM | My biggest problem with the (Score:1)
IM4UMich
Joined: 11/20/2008
MGoPoints: 53

My biggest problem with the site right now (I haven't read it much because of this) is the layout. I find it to be a little vacuous and faint. I don't want NYTimes.com, but something with a little more girth to grab your attention would be nice.

http://www.burgeoningwolverinestar.com/

July 24th, 2009 at 10:40 AM | It pretty much looks like a (Score:1)
Blue42
Joined: 04/13/2009
MGoPoints: 12

It pretty much looks like a glorified Twitter page. Which is not necessarily a bad way to view the news, if you check it a few times per day.

July 24th, 2009 at 10:45 AM | agreed (Score:1)
BlueDrew
BlueDrew's picture
Joined: 07/16/2008
MGoPoints: 43

not a great layout and some of the articles he linked seemed a little old. I hope they work out the kinks because I always love a place to get my UM fix.

BlueDrew

July 24th, 2009 at 11:42 AM | Yeah, the layout and design (Score:1)
JeremyB
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Joined: 06/30/2008
MGoPoints: 426

Yeah, the layout and design are disappointing. Excess whitespace unnecessarily heavy padding all over the place, and a lack of visual heirarchy (e.g. why is the 'login' info higher on the content section and the same font size as the article headings?).

They have a lot of information to present in a small space, but visual density can be achieved without cluttering the design. See any of these:

http://www.smashingmagazine.com/2008/11/11/newspaper-website-design-tren...

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