In honor of Thanksgiving, this week’s NewsTrack is focusing on a Seattle Times holiday recipe article.
It’s a cute and classic premise: local chefs put their unique “riffs” on classic holiday recipes like cranberry sauce and stuffing. What makes this article different is its setup. It’s essentially a collection of digital recipe cards complete with tips from the chefs and mouthwatering rustic-inspired photos.
Screenshot of the “recipe card” for my favorite Thanksgiving dish: stuffing
I really liked how this was done. Even though this was just a simple collection of recipes, the web design is what made this article interesting. Save for the gourmet-quality photos and tips, each item looked just like the recipe cards my mom has in her kitchen. Clicking on each recipe made me feel like I was thumbing through my mom’s (extensive) collection of family recipes. That homey touch was perfect for a holiday article. The design was also well-executed in general. The layout was clean, the colors contrasted well, and the photos were appealing without being distracting. This presentation was a great choice on the part of the Times.
This was a stand out from the Time’s other holiday food articles (specifically this other recipe collection and these two about Northwest wines and local bakeries). The others were just straightforward lists with accompanying photos. This format works for these types of articles, but it’s not very engaging nor exciting. I can’t speak for why the Times chose to pimp out one article and not the others, but I can appreciate their collective ability to make me hungry for Thanksgiving dinner!
alenebouranova 