Redesigning Instapaper on the Web
http://blog.instapaper.com/post/59614190398
Overall, a strong, simple redesign. It looks tailor made for a tablet, which I’m not even mad at because I think that’s where Instapaper shines; a place where all you do is read.
Betaworks have done a solid job so far (I’m sure it has been ugly behind the scenes) maintaing and improving all their new digital properties.
Putting an emphasis on copywriting turns what could have been just another content farm into something a little more interesting. I think of Digg (and it’s newsletter that’s worth subscribing to) as a smart curation sweatshop. Reddit is the music festival, Digg is the official cd.
Digg’s video blog is another good example of their creative direction as a company. Apart from the small logo in the header image (a vhs tape), it’s essentially an unbranded tumblr theme. It even links to the designer of the theme in the footer (gasp!). Each video get’s a short snappy description, and then it’s just videos. Get out the way, and spend all your time curating content, rather than bliinding users with menus and links. Yahoo, who own tumblr, should take note.