“In a groundbreaking partnership, The Ringer, Bill Simmons’ new publishing venture announced last week, is going to be the first premium content website to live on Medium at theringer.com.”
This was the announcement Medium made in late February and I couldn’t have been more excited. It was a big deal to me particularly as a user experience designer and self-diagnosed sports addict living and working in the Bay Area. So I was even more thrilled waking up this morning to learn that the Ringer website finally launched. And while it’s less than 24 hours old, I thought I’d break down some initial reactions to experiencing the new site and platform for the first time. You could even call it a UX-focused unboxing only the breakdown is on the digital vs physical realm. But before I do that, a few quick notes:
This is admittedly a hot take, not a hate piece. There is a special moment when you see something the very first time. While brief in duration, this fresh perspective is extremely valuable to those who build these experiences regularly so I thought I would get my thoughts down. Having a reaction to new things like this site launch is pretty natural for me (more on that in point 2). It’s just the first time I’ve actually documented my thoughts rather than slack message them to my design team / bitch to my friends / tweet random thoughts.
I know that the majority of people don’t give a shit about most of these observations. But I am not one of them. I’m a user experience designer and being one is both a gift and a curse. The gift is that I look at things critically and the curse is that I look at things critically. I constantly feel like Larry David walking around analyzing stuff that’s probably best left alone.
I’m a sports obsessed. My dog’s name is Baron after Baron Davis and his historic “we believe” run in 2007 (humor me and watch this). I’m also a huge Simmons fan. I’ve listened to almost every podcast and read every article of his since ESPN Page 2 days. Safe to say I’m pumped about The Ringer site launch.
This is all based on the snap judgement of experiencing the ringer for the first time on my iPhone 6. I realize that this may differ from those who have Android devices or earlier model iPhones. It will also differ from iPad or desktop viewing. That said I imagine this was built mobile first so that’s how I’ll be reviewing it.
The team over at Medium is top notch, so this is not a burn to them in any way, shape or form. I love what they do.
Onto the unprompted design critique/rant.
Observation 1: The featured article headline falls below the fold
The first thing I noticed on theringer.com was that the featured article (or often referred to as the Hero) on the page was buried below the fold. Now I realize that the fold is becoming a creature of the past, as Instagram and other apps have made people comfortable with scrolling on their mobile devices. That said, the goal for any site is to capture attention at first glance. More specifically, articles are typically modeled around their headline which along with the photo is the hook to getting a reader to click. With the headline being pushed below the fold, it requires a user to take action before seeing the content. This is a pretty fundamental problem that frankly I’m shocked exists in the wild.
What is even more bizarre is that this is only a problem on the homepage. If you click on any of the tags like “sports” for example, you are taken to a page which looks slightly different. Each article widget becomes smaller and height of the tiles is shorter, thus bringing the headline above the fold. Seems like this is how the entire site should function, including the homepage.
Update: As of 12:30 PST, the homepage has been updated and no longer has this problem. Maybe I wasn’t the only one who had the problem with the headline getting buried.
Observation 2: It’s unclear what exactly they want me to do.
I would guess that the number one action theringer.com wants a person to take is clicking on an article to read. A quick secondary action they want you ton take is to share the article. Medium has built a super easy to use bar at the bottom that lets you do just this but one thing that becomes super problematic is just how many call-to-actions there are An initial count is 9! (see left ). To me this is super confusing. Am I following medium or the ringer? Am I searching within ringer or medium? It should be obvious to a user what they can do / how to do it and this is giving the user too many options. It also minimizes the amount of real-estate for the actual purpose of the page, to read the article!
Observation 3: This is clearly a partnership between Medium and The Ringer.
One of the things I was most curious to observe is how exactly Medium and The Ringer would co-exist. It’s easy to see why it would be a win-win for both companies to work together but when all is said and done, how the site is built/looks is really telling at just how equal the partnership is. I found it a bit shocking at just how much attention Medium gets around theringer.com as I just assumed that the platform would blend into the background allowing the website to stand in front. For instance, check out what happens when you click into an article. Look at the very top of the page:
You notice that there is a double nav bar (a big no-no in the UX world) which not only calls to attention the medium brand (in the top left corner no less) but also the “open in app” / “install” calls to action. It not only is at the very top of the page but pushes all the other content down. Don’t get me wrong, I get why Medium would do/want this. It seems extremely heavy handed to be at the very top of every single page, even if it does go away after you download the Medium app.
Observation 4: Damn, the footnotes are missing :(
One thing I was hoping to find but did not see was the footnotes used at Grantland. For those who have no idea what I’m talking about, Bill Simmons first used footnotes in his book Now I Can Die in Piece, which wasn’t that unique. However, what was super cool was that he was able to incorporate these little footnotes into the articles on Grantland when it launched. It was not only beautifully executed but added a deep layer of detail for the readers. This enhanced reading experience was sadly left behind at ESPN. Wonder why they decided to not bring it back? (See below for an example. For the super geeky, there is a great tear down by Zac Schellhardt which you can read here )
This is so damn clean. Come on Medium, bring it back!
Observation 5: There are padding issues all over the place
Ok so this one is definitely a nitpick but I can’t help from calling it out. It’s an easy fix and I can’t be the only one that notices this stuff, right? Anyone? Please?
Kind of how I feel right now.
In the end, these things may or may not be fixed and that is fine by me. I will continue to be a big fan of Medium and The Ringer. Yet with Medium becoming the influential platform for long form articles and now websites, I hold them to an extremely high design standard. At the end of the day, this is a historic partnership and I’m excited to see it blossom over the years. Congrats to everyone involved. Major props.
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