A quieter layout for longer reads

The publication had thoughtful articles, but reading them took effort. Sidebars competed with the text, headings changed style between sections and some paragraphs stretched across most of a desktop screen.

Begin with an ordinary article

Instead of designing a dramatic launch story, I chose a typical piece: a title, an introduction, several sections, two quotations and one image. If the system worked for that structure, it would support most of the archive.

We narrowed the reading column and tested it at several viewport sizes. The aim was a comfortable rhythm rather than a fixed number that looked good in a design file. We read actual paragraphs on actual phones.

Give each style a job

The revised system used one treatment for body text, two heading levels and a distinct quotation style. Dates and image captions became quieter, while links remained easy to recognise within a paragraph.

Consistency made the page feel calmer because the reader no longer had to interpret a new visual rule in every section.

Spacing followed the content. A heading stayed close to the paragraph it introduced. A quotation had enough separation to register as another voice without breaking the thread of the article.

Test beyond the ideal page

We checked long titles, enlarged text, missing cover images and articles with no subheadings. The layout also needed to make sense when images failed to load or someone used their browser to increase the text size.

The final result was less visually busy and easier for the editors to maintain. The most satisfying change was that readers in our review talked about the articles before they talked about the redesign.