Is this part of Facebook's experiment to make us feel bad?

Looks like it was designed by a print designer.

I wonder how Erik Spiekermann, one of their contributors, will feel about Archer everywhere.

I completely agree with all the above points. The thing I find most offensive though is the GIANT Mailchimp logo. I mean...I get it, that they sponsor them, but come on!

Um did anyone else get a dialog window saying "This website abuses rawgit.com. You should complain to its owner." ?

http://www.fastcodesign.com/3032555/behind-the-scenes-of-the-design-observers-new-look

Article on the new design.

It's July—not April.

To be honest, it’s not surprising when you look at the contributors.

I went to TYPO Berlin this year. Pretty cool, right? One of the best design conferences on the planet. WRONG.

TYPO Berlin is the most pretentious, underwhelming conferences I’ve been to. I sat in the auditorium listening to people post-rationalise bad design—like the DO site—for hours on end. These people are jaded, out-of-touch, and the majority of them don’t understand digital.

They should stick to type design.

I'm pretty insecure with my design skills, but I could do something better than this in 15 minutes.

Probably someone made a good site, and it got feedback and demands from too many people, and it ended up being like this

http://www.eyebleach.me/

It feels like a late 90s site viewed in the 2000s, complete with pixel fonts (on a laptop screen that nav is TINY) and scrolling text.

hard to read in general. why create a line that impedes the content, i felt i had to duck my head to read.

This is breaking my brain—even a print designer would be able to pick an appropriate typeface. I just...I feel like this has to be a test or or practical joke or something.

WHO DOES non-responsive redesigns?!

[edited] Now I am absolutely sure it is a joke/PR stunt. There are just too many subtle design "jokes" going on, and the FastCo article kind of seals it: they know people won't like it, yes it looks like print, and they want people to talk about it. Mission accomplished.

No retina support either.

Hover over the articles. Holy unanimated transitions, batman! Those intro sentences should smoothly slip in and out.

Woah, what are we, in 2003? This is just bad.

:(

Marquee aside. The best thing by far on the side is the hidden bar at the top. Which only contains Log in / Register. So worth hiding that behind a click! bravo.

slow clap

Set the time machine to 2006.

I thought my browser was zoomed out. Nope, that font is officially set to: mini.

Try clicking the 'login/register' arrow at the top. Could be ALOT smoother, and so easy to do, but I suppose that's the least of their worries!

That's one tall fixed header...

The typography is not illegible. Hard on the eyes for a long article or for scanning the menu, sure, but illegibility is something completely different.

It looks like an old blogspot template? .... Is it?

I get the impression a print designer came up with this.

Whoa... hello Archer used for body copy. :S

Unfortunate. A missed opportunity.

I totally agree. I don't even see this as a new design. It almost seems as if they've just re-skinned the old website with some new colors and poor typography. Very unfortunate.