16 comments

  • Jamie Diamond, over 5 years ago

    Alright, so UX thing: I really bristle at multimedia being treated as inline and mouse control being handed over to their navigation, without choice.

    I'm glad we live in an age where we can do that now, and we can treat new types of multimedia as inline, but to current audiences, that's a control issue. You're taking away my sense of control over how the article flows and where I can go at a moment's notice. It's a small deal, but small details make all the difference.

    As a millennial, I'm glad HuffPo got to do an art project, and while the typography is standout- certainly fitting with the article, a lot of the risks fall flat: if the opening graphic didn't give you a seizure (or non-nostalgia for early-90s OS 7 screensavers), it's just out there. It doesn't do the content a service in my opinion. This is for a portfolio piece or an art museum, not a written piece yet.

    The window-dressing steals attention from the main ideas of the piece. I wouldn't expect anything less of HuffPo.

    9 points
    • Cale Dooper, over 5 years ago

      This is why I save articles I want to read on Pocket. I don't have time or the tolerance for this stuff..

      0 points
      • Mike Wilson, over 5 years ago

        Although I don’t think soylent-drinking, life/workflow optimizing tech bros like us are the average reader of a huffington post article like this.

        I’ve heard from a buddy of mine at Bloomberg that editorial-style articles like these typically out-perform in both time spent on the page and social shares. Our tastes aren’t neccesarily the tastes of the readership.

        3 points
        • Martin Stubbs, over 5 years ago

          I'd be interested to see the percentage of users who clicked the "click here for a text only version" icon at the top.

          0 points
    • Mattan IngramMattan Ingram, over 5 years ago

      Often I agree, but in this case I think some of the graphics and explanations were well done without overly jacking the scroll.

      Unfortunately we live in an age where many people don't have the attention span to read a full article like this, so graphics and flashiness can help mitigate that.

      2 points
    • Dean HaydenDean Hayden, over 5 years ago

      A lot of this is subjective and for me, the scroll based areas of content broke up the article nicely. I was viewing on mobile (as ever) and I didn’t get thumb fatigue or lose interest.

      Interestingly the aesthetic tone definitely resonated with me (Generation X, born 78) and anyone from my generation would identify with the pixel based animations and illustration.

      Be interesting to see the brief for the design and who their main demographic was, because honestly, after finishing the article I felt an overwhelming sense of guilt.

      0 points
  • Aaron Wears Many HatsAaron Wears Many Hats, over 5 years ago

    Great graphics, and I do love longform articles. However, there was just something about this that made me lose engagement. Maybe there was too much "pretty" going on, and it distracted from the content... I'm not sure. I thought it was cool to scroll through though.

    5 points
    • Derek Nguyen, over 5 years ago

      I recently have the same problems on these type of interactive scroll site -- I just keep looking forward to the next interaction & didn't read a word

      5 points
  • Taylor PalmerTaylor Palmer, over 5 years ago

    Very nice design. Mostly made my eyes bleed, though.

    4 points
  • Mitch WarrenMitch Warren, over 5 years ago

    I thought the UX was fine, great article and well presented for such a long read. It kept my interest.

    2 points
  • Jason DCUBED, over 5 years ago

    Stuff like this is neat but I just want to read the article :(

    1 point
  • Max Quinn, over 5 years ago

    I liked this to be honest. Agree with all of Jamie's comments, but it's still fun and engaging.

    Not to mention my new favourite sentence:

    "the Great Fuckening from which we are still waiting to recover"

    Sounds like something from a Bukowski poem.

    1 point
  • James Mikrut, over 5 years ago

    I'd love to see the source code from this bugger. Say what you will about the scrolljacking, but I made it to the end successfully, which says a lot for me.

    I wish I could say I read more articles to the end but I have a short attention span I guess.

    0 points
  • Sacha GreifSacha Greif, over 5 years ago

    Pretty sure whoever designed and implemented this don't have to worry about job insecurity!

    0 points
  • David ThornDavid Thorn, over 5 years ago

    Bet the design was done by millennials.

    0 points
  • Paul HermannPaul Hermann, over 5 years ago

    Quite liked this!

    0 points