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Design Observer design not for us

History repeats itself quickly in the world of web design – it seems like only yesterday we were lambasting Design Observer for its new–not–at–all–new design.

Fast forward to 2014 and we’re making the same criticisms: poor font choice, tiny, indistinct type, bugginess. Add some really slow loading and unresponsiveness and you have 2014′s version (although to be fair the site sort of adjusts to my Nexus phone – I’m guessing it sniffs rather than scales).

Screenshot of the Design Observer website

Design Observer: Let me count the ways

And yet. This website wasn’t really written for me. I’d go as far as to say I don’t even understand it.

Who exactly is it for? Older design veterans who don’t deal in the grubby functionality of fluid sized screens (i.e. designers who aren’t working class)? If that is the case then – actual crapness (the huge fixed header, the strange dropdown at the top of the screen etc.) aside – it may do its job well enough.

If you dig seeing paragraphs set in Archer on screen, and like small blocks of text, and spend your day on a Mac with a large screen, Design Observer has been designed just for you.