As one would expect, an interesting discussion with NYTimes.com design director Khoi Vinh
We pay a lot of attention to how people use our content online. That is, not just how they read it, but how they make use of it: how they might scan the page haphazardly rather than diligently reading from top to bottom; what parts of the page they look to first and last; what they expect to change from visit to visit; which visual cues are meaningful for them and which design flourishes they find useless.
This is what differentiates the NYTimes from your local crap newspaper website.
Vinh was also involved in the design of TheOnion.com, which has the aim to be a fake news website that is designed straighter than any straight news website. Here’s a good story on his technique.