Kinfolk Website

As well as looking at competitors of Country Living, it is also important to look at the wider field of magazines. Kinfolk is an independent magazine that publishes certain articles from the printed issue to the website. The design of the website is very minimalist and therefore reflective of the magazine. The home page presents a stream of articles that are organised in a 12 column grid. This grid allows for a layout out an equal 2,3,4 and 6 main column layout which varies through moving down the page. This grid layout leads to a slick design that has enough consistancy to create flow but enough of a difference between each section to keep the reader's attention. 

Website analysis:

- A mix of serif and serif typefaces are used to separate the body copy from the headings of the articles. This is consistent throughout the article and allows the eye to identify the main section of text from the 'title'. 

- Variations in the chosen fonts are also used to separate different sections of text. For example, quotes in a paragraph of text are in italics 

- A white background and black text throughout each page of the website maintains a consistent clean design that allows the content to take focus. However, when reading a large section of text, the glare from the white on screen makes this difficult. This is overcome by lowering the brightness of the screen however then the clarity and sharpness of the photographs is lost. This is an area of experimentation that is important to test with the target audience as if this is something that they pick up on then it could affect the quality of their user experience. 

- When on a article page, there are tabe to the left and right of the page presenting the option to move to the previous or next story. This is a simple way to display the navigation options between each story however when viewing the wording against the body of text on the current page, it diverts the eyes attention due to the angle of the wording. When the mouse is hovered over the wording, a pop out appears with an image and the title of the next or previous story. Again, this could divert attention from the current page being viewed, however provides a quick and easy option to move on to the ntext story.

- The hamburger icon is used for the menu pullout. This is a shape that is familiar with users of screen based devices as it is a universal shape used by many digital designers.