The Blue Hammer

[There's usually a blob of stuff up here, promoting books associated with McSweeney's, or events, or whatever, with links this color, all enclosed in these tasteful little brackets. This stuff often takes up enough space that you have to scroll down to see the beginning of the featured content.]

[Sometimes there is a second blob of stuff, enclosed in a second set of brackets, with more links this color.]

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T H I S I S W H E R E
T H E T I T L E G O E S .
W I T H A P E R I O D
A F T E R I T .

AND THE AUTHOR'S NAME AS A LINK THIS COLOR

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The tasteful minimalism of this design--a single column of text with nothing around it but white space--makes the site an island of calm in the noisy chaos of the Internet. Its tidiness serves as a reproach to the flashing, winking, up-popping thingies that choke the view on most Web sites. It's all about quality content, without the sweaty-palmed competition for eyeballs that characterizes most of the Web.

But the weakness of the single-column idea is that it results in the very clutter it seeks to eliminate. If all that junk at the top were placed to one side (and it's not like there isn't plenty of room), the daily story could take its rightful place at the top of the page.

As it is, only the headline sets off the story from the peripheral, promotional stuff. And since the space reserved for the daily story is instead often used to promote something (such as a festival or a fund raiser), the reader must do extra work to decode the nature of the each piece of content, work properly performed for the reader by the layout.

When you open the door to your bank, there shouldn't have to be a sign that says "push" or "pull"--the shape of the handle itself should allow you to receive this information intuitively. A short, vertical handle says pull, a long horizontal one says push. Likewise, the heading and location of each piece of content in a publication should let the reader know where she is and what type of thing she is reading.

As long as it sticks with the single-column, single-font design, McSweeney's will always be stuck with some degree of confusion and clutter. An obvious solution would be to add a second, narrow column for peripheral content and site navigation. Something like this.

THEY PUT LINKS TO RECENT STORIES HERE:
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There are usually links here to the five most recent stories. All the links are this color. What's wrong with this? Nothing. Except it's arbitrary and confusing to have some links here and others at the top of the page. Again, the reader has to do extra work to figure out what's going on.

THEN THEN THERE'S A LINK HERE LABELED MAIN PAGE | AND ANOTHER CALLED ARCHIVES
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[The "Main Page" link, inexplicably takes you to where you already are. "Archive" links to a long list of past stories.]

Then there's a bunch more links under some text this size.

FROM HERE TO THE BOTTOM OF THE PAGE IT'S ALL LINKS.
TINY LINKS.
THE HARD-TO-READ TEENINESS OF THE LETTERS IS COMPOUNDED BY THEIR COLOR.
NOT TO MENTION THE FACT THAT SOME OF THE LINKS OCCUPY MORE THAN ONE LINE SO IT'S HARD TO TELL WHERE ONE LINK ENDS AND THE NEXT BEGINS.
SOME OF THE LINKS PROMOTE THE PRINT VERSION OF McSWEENEY'S, BUT OTHERS ARE LINKS TO STORIES ALSO FOUND IN THE ARCHIVE.
AGAIN, THE SECTION LACKS CONCEPTUAL FOCUS.

I SUPPOSE THE COLOR AND SIZE OF THESE LINKS WERE CHOSEN IN ADHERENCE TO THE PRINCIPLE THAT GOOD DESIGN CONTAINS NO SUPERFLUOUS ELEMENTS.
THE SAME IDEA IS BEHIND THOSE BUTTONS ON YOUR VCR THAT YOU CAN READ ONLY FROM TWO INCHES AWAY.
AS IF IT WOULD BE IN POOR TASTE TO MAKE THINGS BIG ENOUGH TO READ.
MY PARENTS HAVE A TAPE DECK WHOSE BUTTONS ARE SO INSCRUTABLE THEY HAD TO PUT LITTLE EXPLANATORY NOTES ON EACH ONE.
THEY'RE RETIRED.
YOU THINK THEY NEED THAT SHIT?
FUCK NO.

BUT McSWEENEY'S IS SUPPOSED TO BE ALL ABOUT CLEAN PRESENTATION, SO THE COLOR OF THE LINKS, RATHER THAN A DISTRACTING BLUE, IS AN INCONSPICUOUS BROWN, AND THE SIZE NO LARGER THAN NECESSARY.
THE RESTRAINT SHOWN IN THESE DESIGN CHOICES IS ALSO EXPRESSIVE OF THE MAGAZINE'S LITERARY STYLE, WITH ITS IMPECCABLE SYNTAX AND DRY WIT.
BUT THAT TAKES ME BACK TO MY ORIGINAL POINT: AN INFLEXIBLE DEVOTION TO MINIMALISM RESULTS IN THE VERY UNTIDINESS IT SEEKS TO AVOID.
THAT IS ALL.

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The Blue Hammer