MTV.com resdesign forgoes bells and whistles, cleans up

Steve Safran April 25th, 2007

It’s the Year Of The Cleanup here at LR. We’re making it a mission to get news sites to do away with the clutter and get back to the basics: local information and more local information. MTV.com relaunched this week, and the body of the site is clean, uncluttered and unafraid of white space. Just nine months ago, MTV debuted a new site done in Flash. It was, in their own words, “something of a headache for a lot of users.” Note: the skin around the page changes, too. We’re not opposed to cool design. We’re opposed to clutter. Here’s the top:

This may not be all that stunning to you. But look at that nav: a few simple choices with a big ol’ search box. That’s how we navigate: via search. Below the fold is where things get really interesting. By which I mean uninteresting. Which is really, really interesting:

Will you look at that? Easy. It keeps the user in mind. MTV is embracing simplicity of design online. It works. And they know a little something about marketing. So there you have it: if your site is busier than MTV, you know you have a problem. (via Rex)