Huffpost Unveils New Design

Default avatar.
April 28, 2017
Huffpost Unveils New Design.

The Huffington Post, now officially referred to as Huffpost” has a completely new site design to go with its name and logo change. It has added a fair splash of black to go along with the white and green. Gone are the classic heading styles as Proxima Nova takes their place in the headlines, and in the body text. They’re really only using one typeface for the whole thing. If you’ll recall, Huffpost used to have a distinctively newspaper-style feel to it. This is because it launched back in the days when larger, more mainstream media outlets still held sway. You know, before they started freaking out about Youtubers. Back then, making your website look like a newspaper was almost the only way to get taken seriously. Heck, the Drudge Report did it. And for some reason, the rather small hero image and red headlines of Huffpost’s old hero elements always reminded me of their competitor across the political aisle. huffpo-oldThe Old Huffington Post All of that is gone now, replaced by a design that, when I first saw it, made me think of tabloids first and foremost. Upon further reflection, it feels like a cross between the tech blog and tabloid aesthetic, but with a super serious color scheme. It’s an odd duck. Let’s be clear: I don’t think it’s a bad design. I even kinda like it. But is it the right design, and is this the right time for it? huffpost_newThe New Huffpost Reportedly it’s their attempt to appeal to a more working-class demographic, while they bank on their name brand to keep existing readers on board. Huffpost’s own post on the subject doesn’t do much to confirm or deny this theory. I can’t help but recognize the influence of sites like Buzzfeed and Upworthy. I’d say that it’s more likely that Huffpost wants a piece of the viral content” crowd. That crowd does include working-class people, but it includes pretty much every other class too. Most importantly, it includes a younger class of readers. [pullquote]it’s more likely that Huffpost wants a piece of the viral content” crowd[/pullquote] However, they don’t want to go full tabloid to do it, as evidenced by the more serious, almost Silicon Valley tone of their UI. Now, is this going to work out for them? That’s the big question, isn’t it. The demographic they are targeting is just old enough to have read real newspapers, but young enough to wholeheartedly embrace new media. Moreover, they’re likely to have read the Huffington Post on and off for a while, and so have a vested interest in the brand. The general impression? That the new design feels cheap” like the budget wasn’t there this time. Knowing what we know about web design, they probably spent a lot more money on this redesign than people think. But this new design may make long-time readers worry about the future of the site. Meanwhile, readers who maybe never have touched a real newspaper themselves might feel right at home. It’s one of those instances where only time will tell.

Ezequiel Bruni

Ezequiel Bruni is a web/​UX designer, blogger, and aspiring photographer living in Mexico. When he\‘s not up to his finely-chiselled ears in wire-frames and front-end code, or ranting about the same, he indulges in beer, pizza, fantasy novels, and stand-up comedy.

Read Next

15 Best New Fonts, May 2023

The choices you make when selecting a typeface have more impact on your design than almost any other decision, so it’s …

10+ Best Tools & Resources for Web Designers and Agencies (2023 updated)

Having the ability to envision a tastefully designed website (i.e., the role creativity plays) is important. But being …

20 Best New Websites, May 2023

This month, there are tons of great new agency websites to get excited about. 3D animated prisms are a popular theme, a…

How to Find the Right White Label Website Builder for Your Agency

Web design agencies face a lot of obstacles in closing the deal with new clients. One of the most common ones is the ar…

Exciting New Tools For Designers, May 2023

There are hundreds of new tools for designers and developers released each month. We sift through them all to bring you…

3 Essential Design Trends, May 2023

All three of the website design trends here mimic something bigger going on in the tech space, from a desire to have mo…

10 Best AI Tools for Web Designers (2023)

It’s time to stop worrying if AI is going to take your job and instead start using AI to expand the services you can of…

10 Best Marketing Agency Websites (Examples, Inspo, and Templates!)

Marketers are skilled in developing strategies, producing visual assets, writing text with high impact, and optimizing …

15 Best New Fonts, April 2023

Fonts are a designer’s best friend. They add personality to our designs and enable fine typography to elevate the quali…

20 Best New Websites, April 2023

In April’s edition, there’s a whole heap of large-scale, and even full-screen, video. Drone footage is back with a veng…

Exciting New Tools For Designers, April 2023

The AI revolution is having a huge impact on the types of products that are hitting the market, with almost every app b…

3 Essential Design Trends, March 2023

One thing that we often think about design trends is that they are probably good to make a list. That’s not always true…