[fblike layout_style='standard' show_faces='false' verb='like' font='segoe ui' color_scheme='light']From time to time I like to review websites and blogs. Because building and more often redesigning websites is one of the key functions of my consulting business, website design and functionality is always on my mind. One of my absolute favorite sites over the past few months has been HyperAllergic.com. (Full Disclosure: I know and am basically in love with the dynamic duo behind the site, Hrag Vartanian, HyperAllergic’s editor and Veken Gueyikian, the magazine’s publisher)
Simple But Sophisticated Site Design
HyperAllergic’s efficiency is in how simply it features its wonderful content. (Image Clip Below)Lots of websites have yet to figure out how to get out of the way of their content. From a design standpoint, there is very little to distract the eye from the proper focus of the site. The front page of the site is basically a text book example of how a content-heavy site should look and behave.
The header is basic and aligned to the left giving a viewer’s eye a focal point. Directly below this is a well-styled but minimalist navigation menu. And then the content. The manner in which HyperAllergic features their content is really intuitive. By aligning an image to the left of the content box they’ve left themselves the room to provide an excerpt to the text. In this way, one can get a complete sweep of the last few posts without having to scroll.
On top of that, one can quickly assess the popularity of each post because they have gone to the trouble of seamlessly installing sharing functionality, in the form of a Retweet button, a Facebook share icon and the number of comments each post has received. All this on top of the name of the author and publish date of each post. It may be one of the ugly truths of the democratic web that people tend to like more popular stories so when someone gleans that something has been shared on Facebook 50+ times, as many of HyperAllergic’s stories are, they are more likely to a) read it and b) share it as well. Encouraging this viral behavior is one of the best things a website can do. But doing it with class is more difficult than it would seem. I am sure we have all seen blogs and websites with dozes of sharing buttons, all in the wrong places, overwhelming the text and design. Thankfully, that is not the case with HyperAllergic.
To the right of the page, Hyper Allergic employs a span of ways to follow them, subscribe to their newsletter and blog posts, and follow them on Facebook. Everything is simple, clean and looks great. Also, the fact that they’ve made the decision to showcase the number of subscribers to their RSS feeds is a bold one. Their growth has been accelerating lately and personally I won’t be shocked if they cross 5,000 subscribers by the end of the summer. I hope they do as I see HyperAllergic emerging as a critical and necessary website in the art community online and off.
HyperAllergic’s Functionality is Second to None
They say imitation is the highest form of flattery. Well, I was so impressed with elements of HyperAllergic’s design that I have borrowed (alright stolen!) certain elements here and there (my byline also contains my sharing buttons). Not only were Hrag and Veken welcoming, they encouraged it which I think speaks to an understanding on their part that if you build something really great, if you make the investment, you are going to get it back in spades.
The last thing that I have to say about the site and its administration is that Veken and Hrag have been incredibly nimble and flexible with the site. For instance, it was less than a week after Facebook released its new social plugins that HyperAllergic implemented and embedded their new plugins on the site which shows readers which of their friends have been on the site, and what they’ve shared or liked. Reacting quickly like this to events on the ground is a hallmark of great websites. The social web is not a static thing, its constantly in flux. There are new tools and techniques, functions and plugins evolving all the time. Staying current and experimenting with the latest tools is one way to remain relevant.
Recently, HyperAllergic has started to host events and parties at their headquarters in Williamsburg, Brooklyn. In fact, their latest event took place on Friday and they had the perspicacity to use the mobile app “Hot Potato” to livestream the event onto the internet. This did several things: it allowed over 100 people to tune in who couldn’t be there in person, and it also enabled live threaded commenting and sharing (of photos, videos, links) into the experience. I love this kind of experimentation and I expect to see them continue to employ this kind of thing. It’s a great way to encourage the community to come together around offline events.
So head on over to HyperAllergic, even if you aren’t an art-world ingénue, take a look and subscribe to their site.
