NYT "Snowfall" Website Analysis
- svictrum2
- Feb 10, 2025
- 1 min read
The article "Snowfall" on The New York Times is an example of multimodal media. "Snowfall" uses many different forms of media from text to audio, to interactive designs to help tell the story. The "Web Style Guide" by Patrick J. Lynch and Sarah Horton helps us expand on the on the different elements that are featured in multimodal stories to help enhance it. One of the elements that "Snowfall" uses is page structure and site design. Page headers are an important part of the site which makes the site cohesive and easy to read. "Snowfall" has many page headers for the different sections and title. The navigation is also very accessible with nothing extra. The Web Style Guide states, "it is convenient to have simple text links at the top and bottom of the page to move the reader to the previous or next pages in the sequence," which is exactly what the article does. Another great element the article uses is typography. "Snowfall" uses a lot of great text and visual elements that help establish the whole connection of the story. For example, there are a lot of images, and interactive graphics that help the meaning of the story like including real images of people mentioned in the article, etc.
Lynch, P. J., & Horton, S. (2016). Web style guide: Basic design principles for creating web sites (3rd ed.). Yale University Press. https://webstyleguide.com/wsg3/index.html
Kaufman, M., & Moskin, J. (2012, December 20). Snow Fall: The avalanche at Tunnel Creek. The New York Times. https://www.nytimes.com/projects/2012/snow-fall/index.html#/?part=tunnel-creek
I enjoyed how the page structure was made and I personally love when articles have sections and headlines because it's easier to read and digest.
Hey Skyla! Great point about the typography. It does a great job at creating a look of isolation while maintaining the legibility and attention of the reader.
The combination of text, visuals, and interactive elements makes the article very interesting, engaging, and immersive. The clear headers made the reading experience very smooth. The use of visual elements with real images and interactive graphics did add more to the story.