Dave: The ’sample platter’ designs didn’t play well with user groups. Groups aren’t the end all, but they do help with direction at a high level if done well. And on that point, it really doesn’t matter which designs I personally prefer. It’s not my website. I like whatever I think will be most effective for our users and advances our journalism. I’m confident the final msnbc.com homepage design does that. It’s a clean vision with little to no compromises, which is exceedingly rare in redesigns. But if usage proves us wrong, we’re standing by to make changes. With any luck, this is our last major redesign. I prefer quickly and constantly evolving in small ways that add up to big differences over time.

However, I wonder if the person posting these really likes ‘design x’ better than the current one.

I like some of the “sample platter” designs better myself. They seem cleaner and less cluttered.