Redesigns Keep on Rolling

It's like some bastardized version of the "five things you don't know about me" meme that's making the way around the blogosphere, redesigns are happening all over the internet. The MBTA redesigned their website last week. In a somewhat embarrassing move they had to pull the new design due to poor performance. But it wasn't really that surprising that the T would make such a move given their track record of delayed trains, buses, and, well, the CharlieDebacle.
Update: The MBTA redesign lives again. The site is again live, we'll see how long this one lasts.

Boston.com, the Boston Globe's home on the web for the past decade, today launched their new look. The new graphics are certainly not in the scope and scale of a redesign that the MBTA undertook, but they'll greet you a bit differently than what came up for those that browsed over just yesterday. The site remains a bit messy: lots of links, ads mixed in with content, and an overall lack of purpose for the web portal. Web portal? Do people even use that term anymore? Seems fitting for what Boston.com is providing. It'll link you up to their sister cable site NECN and the dead tree edition of the Boston Globe as well as oodles of content not available offline (including a Middle East Blog, which has nothing to do with the music venue in Cambridge but everything to do with a cluster of countries halfway around the world). Most of the changes come to the front door of Boston.com where the header graphic has changed to a white background with blue type, a reversal of the former graphic, and some web 2.0 style pull outs. The right third is occupied by "Hottest Searches" and "Most E-Mailed Stories" to show users what other users are looking for. The awkward rotating story board still dominates the front page. The changes aren't quite as significant as we might have expected from Boston.com but they do represent a change in the identity of the online site.

Bostonist was ahead of the curve on a redesign by a few days. We ditched the left column all together and went with a two column design. The new view increases usability for readers with a variety of monitor resolutions. The content of the posts will expand or collapse to eliminate the pesky horizontal scrolling, or alternatively wasted space, you may have had to deal with before. Our logo graphic lost the horizontal orientation and sits skyscraper in the upper left corner and we're running with more white than teal these days. Some things haven't changed. We invite you to contribute photos by tagging them in Flickr with "bostonist" and de.icio.us links with "for:bostonist", as well as dropping in to submit an anonymous tip. RSS readers please stop in for a look around the new design, let us know what you think. Think of it as our holiday present to you – and, yes, we realize that it might not be quite as special as what Justin Timberlake is giving you in his box.