Homepage Redesign
The New Yorker is not a typical news publication. Known for its long-form investigative journalism, brilliant fiction, and (of course) cartoons, we knew our current homepage needed an upgrade to feel more like a magazine, less like a cluttered news feed. From 2022—2023, our team worked closely with the magazine's editors and art team to create a digital magazine that readers could fall in to, with a new feature story of the day, every day. The homepage launched in September 2023.
One of the first places our team explored was the top section, called colloquially the "hero" section in print. While its a common trend for most online publications to surface many stories immediately for readers to choose from, that can cause a lot of noise and decision fatigue. Ultimately, with the collaboration of editors and art directors, we aligned on one focused feature story a day, every day.
Throughout the week, the story moves throughout the homepage, and features full screen art direction and copy that mimics the famous cover flap of the magazine. The design of this story is optimized for all breakpoints, meeting our digital audience where they are.
The character of the New Yorker in print was getting lost in our previous homepage design. Special sections like The Critics, Talk of the Town, and Shouts & Murmurs each had their own distinct voice, and we wanted to keep that intact. We worked with the New Yorker's art team to commission custom spot illustrations and found the sweet spot between brand expression and design consistency.
The New Yorker's editorial content is vast—what we would need to design would not only need to support longform investigative journalism, but also photo essays, cartoons, fiction, and more. We also had to work within the constraints of Conde Nast's international design system, Verso. Ultimately, we were able to design a system that supported a diverse and flexible reading experience.
The New Yorker's art direction and illustrations are legendary, and we didn't want them getting lost. Working within the constraints of Conde Nast's design system Verso, we paired closely with developers to design components that allowed for a maximum range of creative expression. Over the years, we paired with the art department to support multiple unique visual identities for editorial experiences. Here are some examples.
Conde Nast uses an international design system called Verso, which we also helped build. What this means is that everything we built lived within a component library that used design tokens, React components, and a scalable system that needed to support not only the New Yorker but also all of Conde Nast's additional publications. We introduced over 20 design components over the years to support the New Yorker's reading experience, and are now used by other publications like WIRED, Vogue, Bon Appetit and more.
Project Credits
It truly takes a village to produce the quality of the work above. Many thanks to the following contributors.
Product Design Director:
Joseph Bergdoll
Senior Director of Product:
Sarah Rabstenek
User Research Lead:
Claire Gutermuth
Content Design Director:
Sophie Tahran
Senior Designer:
Sara De Lira
VP of Design:
Nicola Ryan
Digital Director:
Monica Racic
Managing Editor:
Maraithe Thomas
Product Designer:
Annette Cheung
Content Designer:
Danielle Vargas
Creative Director:
Nicholas Blechman
Product Lead:
Madeline Welsh
Product Designer:
Charlie Carlo
Digital Design Director:
Aviva Michaelov
Engineering Lead:
Jheanell Elliott
Editor-in-Chief:
David Remnick
Senior Engineer:
Suneeth Lenin
VP of Engineering:
Tessa Ann Taylor