Editorial design doesn't mean making a minimalist website.
Nor does it mean a huge serif typeface, lots of white space and nice photos.
It means deciding what someone should see first, what comes next, and how to arrange everything so the page makes sense without needing to be explained.
It borrows ideas from magazines, books and other publications, but applies them to an interface.
What makes a website feel editorial
Four things carry most of the weight.
Hierarchy. Not everything can be equally important. Headlines, body copy, figures, buttons and small notes need different weights so the eye knows where to start.
Typography. Not just which typeface you use, but how size, weight, width and spacing change depending on what the text is doing.
Rhythm and spacing. Some moments call for packing in information; others need room for one idea to breathe. A long page doesn't have to feel long if the rhythm changes as you go.
Imagery and composition. Photos aren't just filling gaps. Their size, position and relationship with the text are part of the story too.
All of this should achieve something fairly unspectacular: you understand the page better.
Editorial isn't a particular look
Two websites can follow the same editorial thinking and look nothing alike.
For El Niu, a llar de criança (an early years centre), we used real photos, soft greens, warm typography and plenty of space.
The site had to convey the character of the place without becoming childish, because the space is for the children but it's their parents who decide.
Somos Focus Media is almost the opposite.
Black, red, big headlines and a much more energetic identity.
There, the challenge was to organise all that personality so it stayed clear what services the agency offers.
Visually, they're very different projects.
What makes them editorial is where they direct your attention, not a shared style.
When it makes sense
This approach works especially well when understanding how a business works is part of the decision.
Professional services, creative studios, architecture, hotels and restaurants.
Brands where the product, the space or the way things are done matter as much as a list of features.
It also fits when you have good photography, projects, case studies or content that deserves to take centre stage.
Not because this kind of website "converts better".
Simply because you have something to say and need a structure that lets you say it well.
When it can become a problem
Editorial design stops helping when the look starts hiding information.
For example:
- the key service only appears six screens down;
- a button looks like ordinary text;
- a hard-to-read typeface is used to keep the style;
- an animation delays something the visitor wanted to see;
- there's so much space that finding basic information becomes a chore.
Some projects need something else entirely.
A shop with hundreds of products needs density, categories, filters and comparison.
An internal tool needs efficiency.
A very direct landing page may only need to explain one offer and lead to one action.
There's no prize for making every website editorial.
Minimalism and emptiness aren't the same thing either
Removing elements can improve a page enormously.
But only when you know why you're removing them.
A website with little content because nobody thought about what it should explain isn't minimalist.
It's unfinished.
And a website full of elements isn't necessarily confusing if there's a clear hierarchy.
The question I find most useful is:
does each thing on this page help people understand it, use it or recognise it?
If not, it probably doesn't need to be there.
If taking it away costs you clarity, context or personality, it probably had a job to do.
What matters in the end
The goal isn't for someone to think:
"what an editorial design".
It's for them to move through a page and understand what they're looking at, what matters and where to look next.
In some projects that ends up as a very restrained website.
In others, a fairly expressive one.
The style changes.
The principle doesn't.
If you need a website where design, content and identity are planned as one thing, you can see how we approach a Brand Website.
We write about decisions that come up in real projects: how to structure a website, how to capture demand and when technology can simplify a business.