TouchWeb's PaperNOW™

The share interfaces on newspaper or magazine websites are probably the most frequently used interfaces on these sites. Sharing something with your friends has become so common that we do it every day… every minute… every second. So maybe it would be interesting to have a look at how these small but very important interfaces are constructed and what makes the good ones good and the bad ones bad.

The first example (top picture, first column left) is from the website of the Washington Post. The Washington Post is a great and also very important newspaper as it is in a position to feel the pulse of one of the world’s most influential capitals everyday. However, when it comes to the sharing options on their page they are design-wise not really at the highest possible evolutionary stage. The inconsistency and randomness in the design of the buttons not only is a problem for itself but contributes to the overall clutteredness of the page.

Second in our evolutionary ladder is the sharing interface of www.nytimes.com. It is more structured and is kept in monochrome colors which gives it a clean look and makes it a less-cluttering element that integrates well into the page.

Considering all this we asked ourselves what we could do to climb one more step in the evolutionary process of creating a more simple sharing interface that makes a very clear but non-disturbing impression to the user. And we actually believe to have found the holy grail: ONE large button subtly colored, with a plus sign on it. On mouse-over a menu with all options a user would ever desire slides down elegantly. Then, if the user moves his mouse off the button again, the page immediately looks like it was never touched before.

We would love to hear your feedback on this.