The Verge
After working with former Engadget Editor-in-Chief Joshua Topolsky on the re-imagined Engadget.com, Code and Theory was asked to partner on his latest venture, The Verge.
Hailed as one of the most successful blog launches of all time, The Verge offers users what no other tech publication did at the time: a balance of fast-breaking industry news, combined with deeply-immersive long-form content and a community element that unifies the site and serves as a new model for the web-first news organization.
The homepage is comprised of a visual series of content modules, optimized for mobile consumption—a meaningful portion of The Verge’s overall traffic. Users can quickly navigate between featured topics, reviews, product overviews, and original video and podcast content. Social integration is woven throughout the site wherever possible: from Facebook Connect authentication to forums, ensuring that Verge content can easily syndicate to create earned media opportunities that increase overall traffic.
One of the problems that had long been on our mind when it came to tech publishing was that the photography was often comprised of lackluster product imagery and a mash of different styles from different sources. To unify the look of the site and adjust the right amount of style, we designed an image overlay treatment inspired by the colorful sheen of silicon wafers.
Given The Verge’s unique content profile, we placed special focus on the article page to ensure editorial flexibility, and to provide an experience that could gracefully expand to serve a variety of articles—whether a 500-word product update, or a 5,000-word exposé.
Unique article chaptering features allow the reader to quickly navigate between sections of an article, and modular flexibility enables editors to create unique design treatments for featured editorials. All together, it’s a reading experience that has lived up to standard of The Verge’s award-winning coverage of everything that lies at the intersection of technology, science, art and culture.
