Cover art illustration by Vivek Thakker; Source photograph from Getty
The New Yorker is not a typical news publication. Known for its long-form investigative journalism, brilliant fiction, and (of course) cartoons, we knew our current homepage needed an upgrade to feel more like a magazine, less like a cluttered news feed. From 2022—2023, our team worked closely with the magazine's editors and art team to create a digital magazine that readers could fall in to, with a new feature story of the day, every day. The homepage launched in September 2023.
One of the first places our team explored was the top section, called colloquially the "hero" section in print. While it's a common trend for most online publications to surface many stories immediately for readers to choose from, that can cause a lot of decision fatigue. Ultimately, with the collaboration of editors and art directors, we aligned on one focused feature story a day, every day.
Throughout the week, the story moves throughout the homepage, and features full screen art direction and copy that mimics the famous cover flap of the magazine. The design of this story is optimized for all digital devices, meeting our digital audience where they are.
To keep the tone of The New Yorker intact, we made sure tiny, thoughtful details from the print magazine, like "The Talk of the Town" and the character of our spot illustrations were present on the homepage.
The New Yorker's editorial content is vast—what we would need to design would not only need to support longform investigative journalism, but also photo essays, cartoons, fiction, and more. We also had to work within the constraints of Condé Nast's international design system, Verso. Ultimately, we were able to design a system that supported a diverse and flexible reading experience.
The New Yorker's art direction and illustrations are legendary, and we didn't want them getting lost. Working within the constraints of Condé Nast's design system Verso, we paired closely with developers to design components that allowed for a maximum range of creative expression. Over the years, we paired with the art department to support multiple unique visual identities for editorial experiences. Here are some examples.
Condé Nast uses an international design system called Verso, which we also helped build. What this means is that everything we built lived within a component library that used design tokens, React components, and a scalable system that needed to support not only the New Yorker but also all of Condé Nast's additional publications. We introduced over 20 design components over the years to support the New Yorker's reading experience, and are now used by other publications like WIRED, Vogue, Bon Appetit and more.
It truly takes a village to produce the quality of the work above. Many thanks to the following contributors.
Product Design Director:
Joseph Bergdoll
Product Design Lead:
Meredith Hattam (Self)
Senior Director of Product:
Sarah Rabstenek
User Research Lead:
Claire Gutermuth
Content Design Director:
Sophie Tahran
Senior Designer:
Sara De Lira
VP of Design:
Nicola Ryan
Digital Director:
Monica Racic
Managing Editor:
Maraithe Thomas
Product Designer:
Annette Cheung
Content Designer:
Danielle Vargas
Creative Director:
Nicholas Blechman
Product Lead:
Madeline Welsh
Product Designer:
Charlie Carlo
Digital Design Director:
Aviva Michaelov
Engineering Lead:
Jheanell Elliott
Editor-in-Chief:
David Remnick
Senior Engineer:
Suneeth Lenin
VP of Engineering:
Tessa Ann Taylor
Many thanks to the illustrators who contributed to the art seen in the examples above.
"Peking Duck" by Ling Ma
Illustrator: Vanilla Chi
"The Artist Exposing the Data We Leave Online" by Kyle Chayka
Illustration by Ariel Davis
"'Black Doves' Offers a Sentimental Spin on the Spy Genre" by Inkoo Kang
Illustration by Carlo Giambarresi
"The Door Between Us" by Mieko Kawakami
Illustration by Manshen Lo
"The Rediscovery of Halldór Laxness" by Salvatore Scibona
Illustrator: Siggi Odds
"The Secret History of Risotto" by Anthony Lane
Illustration by María Jesús Contreras
"Conner O’Malley Is the Bard of the Manosphere" by Naomi Fry
Illustration by Luis Mazon
"The Top Twenty-five New Yorker Stories of 2024" by Michael Luo
Illustration by Timo Lenzen
"Is 'Love Is Blind' a Toxic Workplace?" by Emily Nussbaum
Illustration by Matteo Giuseppe Pani
"How Much Does Our Language Shape Our Thinking?" by Manvir Singh
Illustration by Henri Campeã
"The Trouble with Friends" by Weike Wang
Illustration by Camille Deschiens
"Paris Friend" by Shuang Xuetao
Illustration by Joey Yu
"A British Nurse Was Found Guilty of Killing Seven Babies. Did She Do It?" by Rachel Aviv
Illustration by Yadi Liu
"The Year in Brain Rot" by Jessica Winter
Illustration by Nadiia Zhelieznova
"The Leper" by Lee Chang-Dong
Illustration by Ina Jang
"How I Fell Back In Love with iPhone Photography" by Kyle Chayka
Illustration by Ariel Davis
"How I Fell Back In Love with iPhone Photography" by Kyle Chayka
Illustration by Ariel Davis
"Kamala Harris for President" by The Editors
Illustration by Malika Favre
"'Babygirl' Never Really Makes a Mess" by Naomi Fry
Illustration by Xiao Hua Yang
"Lost and Found: A Newly Discovered Poem by Robert Frost" by Jay Parini
Illustration by James Thacher
"The Year of the Female Creep" by Katy Waldman
Illustration by Cristina Daura
"For Isabella Rossellini, Acting Goes Beyond Words" by Michael Schulman
Photograph by Paola Kudacki / Trunk Archive
Talk of the Town
Illustrations by João Fazenda