Vignesh Vellore, co-founder and CEO of The News Minute, spoke to students of IIJNM Bangalore on January 29, 2020 on Designing News Websites.

Mr Vellore focused on segregation, comprehensiveness, and easy access of a news website right from the get go. He emphasized the importance of decluttering and further talked about the significance of ‘time stamps’ and how it helps navigate articles on news websites.

Bringing in the editorial perspective, Mr Vellore shared how in The News Minute the editorial team has complete control over what comes where on the website. He focused on the importance of the first fold in a news website.

He then talked about the shift from desktop to mobile he witnessed in 2014-15. “Your approach should always be mobile first.” From a content perspective, the articles are far more easily readable on a mobile phone.

Emphasizing the importance of images, Mr Vellore added that in a country with low access to fast internet, web pages should be as light as possible. From a design perspective, images are crucially important in article pages.

Mr Vellore detailed the other important features of news websites – color, font, spacing, subscription, etc and said that the most important aspect within the aforementioned is clarity. “The less you keep it, the more you achieve.”

With a better perspective on news apps and on designing news websites, one of the most important lessons echoed throughout the end – always stay the course of the basic core components of a news website.

by Sanya Chhabra