Web Design Theory | Webdesigntuts+
…a series of essays, articles and tutorials on the theory behind great website design.
This is supplemental reading for students. There are some really great articles in here. Understanding design principles and having the ability to discriminate design flaws and design excellence on webpages are critical skills to anyone who works on a website, whether you consider yourself a designer or not.
good reads about F and Z layouts.
If I applied a similiar principle to nytimes.com I would say they use an X layout
the nytimes homepage looks more like a grid layout, which seems to be another emerging trend. I wonder if nettuts+ will cover this in their series. check out http://960.gs/ , a layout tool that can be applied to F or Z patterns also, but really simplifies a grid structure like the times.
While you can explore how users naturally scan a document, I think it is more applicable to use a layout pattern that accentuates the page’s purpose. For example, a Z layout is great for a call-to-action landing page, while a grid layout obviously maximizes the information on a page who’s job is to present ‘all the news that’s fit to print’.