Most NRIs (Non-Resident Indians) like myself make it a point to read Indian newspapers everyday to keep in touch with goings-on back home. Unfortunately, the most popular ones (The Times of India, Rediff, The Hindu, etc.) have numerous problems. They’re either too sensational (ToI, Economic Times) or are too drab (The Hindu) or have no idea what news is really worthy of reporting (Rediff). A common problem that all of them have is that they have terribly designed web editions. Having no idea whatsoever about usability on the web (I doubt if their designers have even heard the term), they make reading news a painful exercise, what with subjecting readers to numerous pop-ups and flashing images that are complete eyesores, in addition to requiring 10 page loads to read 1 article.
But today, quite by accident, I was pleasantly surprised by how usable Daily News and Analysis‘s web edition is. Clearly, the designers of this website know what they’re doing. The layout is clean, simple, and most importantly, elegant. I like the colour scheme, the fact that they have RSS feeds, and stick to one of the fundamental principles of web design – present as much as you can in one page without requiring the user to scroll.
Although it’s Mumbai-based, the sheer pleasure of reading such a website makes me want to give it a shot. Now let’s hope their reporting and analysis is as good!
