We created a site that makes a new priority of visual presentation, that offers a cleaner reading experience across digital devices, and that gives us the flexibility we need, both in our articles and on our homepage, to join the speed and urgency of the web with the noise-cutting and impact that have always been central to The Atlantic’s ambitions.
And:
Oh, and the typefaces are new. Hawk-eyed readers will recognize the display and text fonts, both Lyon, as the same ones we use in print.
In addition to the typography, the attention to detail in the Atlantic’s redesign is top notch. Moreover, they did it all in house. My favorite feature is a subtly which no one seems to get right. Almost every site with a sticky header ignores the fact that some people use the keyboard to navigate the page. Pressing the spacebar generally scrolls the page up so you can continue reading from the bottom, but this behavior doesn’t work when you use a fixed header. The text the reader expects to see ends up below the header, which isn’t a great experience. When your on the Atlantic’s new site and you press the spacebar you’re taken to the correct location on the page with the fixed header offset. These are the kind of details that add up and make the difference between good and great.