Elle.com (2010)
A new look for Elle magazine's print edition led to a dramatic web overhaul, bringing together modern typefaces, striking imagery and user-friendly social-media features to drive readers online.
The main goals of the revamp? Creating clear hierarchies, opening up the website's layout and mirroring the magazine's print design, while allowing for a unique reader experience online. The new look of Elle.com introduced crisp overlain text and dramatic photography, and capitalized on every spare pixel of negative space. Carefully arranged article and gallery pages allowed for a refreshing reading and viewing experience, true to the spirit of the magazine — and its new mobile app.
The aesthetic of articles was reimagined, with both elegance and user-friendliness in mind. Titles became more apparent. Secondary information became more subdued. Layouts were given adequate space to breathe, allowing better legibility and easier dissection of content.
Elle's fledgling video library received a distinctive presence, establishing the content category as truly unique. Rather than forcing thumbnails to be vertical — as would be done with standard photography — videos became horizontal to display the rich content as users expected it to be seen.
To clearly establish Elle as a runway authority, fashion-show galleries were reworked to allow users to easily explore show looks, collection details, backstage candids and beauty accents.
In the process, full-screen show galleries were simplified, with larger imagery and a cleaner background. This streamlined experience gave runway shots a striking presence, while creating a premium ad placement to sell.
With horoscopes being the single most-visited site feature, the new site brought the touts for the app counterparts into the design, ensuring they wouldn't be mistaken for an unrelated ad and dismissed. The overall result? A cleaner Elle.com experience, start to finish.