What to consider when selecting an editorial theme (and why ours ticks the boxes)
When launching an editorial site for a magazine or news, choosing the right theme is important. Whether your site is undergoing a re-design or being created from scratch, when it comes to picking a theme, here are the key points to look out for.
We’ve recently launched a magazine theme for Middle East Business Intelligence (MEED). This was a bespoke project but we were so excited by how it meets all the requirements for an editorial theme, that we’ve decided to roll it out as a set theme, similar to Byzantium. This means that you can manage your own content and visuals within an easy to manage system.
Remember to be Responsive
The majority of news is consumed via a mobile device these days via websites or mobile apps. Although some news sites have their own apps, results are mixed on how much they are used versus news websites, Much of this depends on where users are sourcing their news, as often links and updates are shared via email and social media, and then clicked through. Plus many businesses don’t need the additional cost of a specific app.
Therefore your editorial site needs to be responsive to mobile users on phones and tablets. This means an easy to navigate site, sensible use of images to avoid overloading data and wifi when people are on the move, and clearly sign posted content. At Miramedia we build ALL our sites to be mobile responsive as a matter of course. If you want to know more about mobile responsiveness, read our thoughts here.
Look for a clean uncluttered design
For editorial, it helps to look ‘serious’. Clean lines, unfussy font, slightly more conservative colours and tones. A clean, uncluttered design means that the volume of text and information doesn’t appear overwhelming, and can help with users navigating the site. As mentioned above, if navigating on a mobile device, this ease of navigation becomes even more important.
The theme we created for MEED has a balance of engaging content and white space, with colour used to good effect to highlight which industry the user is in. As a different colour is used per sector, it is easy to depict category specific articles within the larger site which aids navigation to relevant content
Showcase main stories with images
Most newspaper sites avoid too many images and only showcase the leading articles with visuals. On magazine sites, you have a bit more leeway to use images to draw more readers into the lead articles and direct their attention. Images can be used to tell a story as much as words and an eye catching visual in the right place can be used to drive traffic to the main articles.
In our editorial theme, we include images for all the main stories on the home page and sub pages, which gives you great flexibility to direct your readers’ attention to the articles you want to promote.
Make it easy to navigate to avoid Info Overload
It can be easy for editorial sites to look very overloaded with too much information, graphics, videos and banner ads all competing for your attention. Where do I go first?! So it’s crucial to make it easy to navigate your site.
Our MEED site has a two tiered top menu bar which allows you to easily find the industry section you’re looking for. In addition, we put related content next to the lead stories so users can move onto additional stories that interest them.
Grid Layouts Work Best
The grid layout is famous in news and magazine site design and for good reason. It follows the rules above for a clean, uncluttered look and is easy to navigate. It also allows editors to manage and organise content easily. In addition, as well as looking good, it ‘looks like a newspaper’ so carries the feeling of reading print onto the screen.
The MEED site is built using a traditional three column grid layout which is popular with many other news sites, from newspapers to magazines. This familiarity makes it easy for the user to consume as well as for editors to manage.
Want to learn more about our editorial theme? Then please get in touch here