Designing at the speed of news

Tom MacKenzie, Sugar Land, TX 77479 — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 18:20:08 GMT

Yesterday my MSNBC page was customized and today I have to click onto a specific subject on the left to get what I want. Why isn't the MSNBC page consistent--Full page "Customized" everyday?
Tom MacKenzie

Designing at the speed of news

Travis, Wrightsville Beach, NC — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 19:12:19 GMT

I think MSNBC is doing a great job of quick updates and multiple changes throughout the day.

Now that this medium has become my number 1 source of news, it's good to see sites like this that stay up to date with what is happening in real time.

Designing at the speed of news

Aaron, Bluffon, IN — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:16:10 GMT

First, let me say that since your new look, I switched to your site from AOL.com which I had been using for a few years. I found/find MSN.com to be boring and AOL.com to look aesthetically better, but having too many ads and not enough content.

For years, MSNBC had plenty of content but the layout was atrocious. Now, it's so nice to look at (being a designer, myself) AND the fact that things change on a constant basis, I know I've got up to the minute news.

My only complaint/suggestion is to figure out a way to save the customized layouts and weather, etc to my sign in username - why bother signing in if it doesn't save it? Obviously it only disappears if I delete my cookies, but still, I would think you could save it to my login.

Designing at the speed of news

Aaron, Bluffon, IN — Thu, 24 Jan 2008 21:20:46 GMT

Correction - I was previously using abcnews.com - NOT aol.com ;) Great job over either, though. :)

Designing at the speed of news

Perferto Nottell — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 12:01:09 GMT

Your page-load times are TOO SLOW. Cut all the clutter and overhead and just give me the news.

Designing at the speed of news

Rob Wilkens, Levittown, NY — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 19:39:11 GMT

While many of us (such as myself) may not appreciate the constant changes as they are happening, you really learn to appreciate it when you visit the site more than 3-4 times a day (sometims more than once within an hour) and actually see "hey, something's changed since I was here last" -- having the different layouts makes it more obvious something 'big' has changed (new top story), and having those recently added 'updated>' and 'new>' news tags is helpful as well when you come back more than once a day.

Designing at the speed of news

Rob Wilkens, Levittown, NY — Mon, 28 Jan 2008 20:10:44 GMT

Let me echo aaron's comments (also) about saving customizations to _username_ in addition to anything saved to a cookie. Reason is, I'm the type to delete my history (IE7 makes it too easy not to do this often). In a given week, I might clear my history (including cookies) 2-3 times. What stinks on MSNBC is i'm the type to select '15 stories' per section and always have to reset that. Same for local news settings, though it always seems to guess NY right.

Designing at the speed of news

UtahLuxury.com — Sat, 09 Feb 2008 21:43:55 GMT

I am amazed at how well you can edit the layout in the header as fast as the news is breaking. Honestly wish I knew how you did this!

Designing at the speed of news

A Friend from Ann Arbor, MI — Wed, 13 Feb 2008 08:12:33 GMT

Dear MSNBC designers,

The purple / orange / red "breaking news" bar, and the constantly evolving "headlines" imagery have made me become a consistent user of your website.

I *NEVER* visited msnbc before this -- it was just yet another news website, meant to be visited only when someone links to it.

Now, I come here more than once every day, just to have the news displayed to me in a clean, appealing format.

To all the bosses at MSNBC: Give the designers all the money you have, guys. They've made your website into a "destination".

Dear designers, if you are ever in Ann Arbor, do send email, drinks are on me :)