Stacking is not ranking

News homepages taught a generation of designers that importance is a matter of stacking. More modules, more urgency, more edges touching. Readers learned to squint and leave.

Density is not the enemy. Noise is. A page can hold a great deal if each piece knows when it is allowed to speak.

One story is large

A calmer page is not an empty page. It is a page with a sequence. One story is allowed to be large. The others wait their turn.

Type does the ranking that boxes used to do. A heading, a measure, a margin. The reader can tell what matters without a badge that says it does.

Start with the paragraph

If you are building a publication, start with the measure of a paragraph and the size of a heading. The navigation can come later.

People do not bookmark a menu. They come back for the piece that let them finish a thought.