Overview

“There are eight million stories in the Naked City, this has been one of them…” The tag line from the classic TV police show, Naked City, could quite aptly describe Web Urbanist, which features articles and photos with a focus on urban culture and art.

And if you thought urban culture and art was restricted only to graffiti or wall murals, Web Urbanist will quickly change your perceptions.

You could try reading Urban Abandonments: 7 Deserted Wonders of the (Post)Modern World, or Urban Exploration: Beginners Guide to Building Infiltration for starters.

If not those, then perhaps The Art of Urban Guerilla Gardening, or Subversion with a Twist: 3 Types of Unusually Legal Urban Street Art, will demonstrate the diversity, and creativity, of urban cultures.

Web Urbanist was established in June 2007, by Craig, who acts as editor-in-chief, his brother Kyle, and also Mike of Herebox.org, and Jeff of Hoodmonkey.com.

Liam of BreakTheDummy.com is also a contributor of ideas and stories, while Web Urbanist readers also send in suggestions for features.

If you spend any amount of time reading the social bookmarking websites, then you are bound to have noticed at least one or two Web Urbanist posts already, as a number have been featured on the front pages of Reddit, Digg, Fark, and StumbleUpon, among others, recently.

Layout and Design

Currently Web Urbanist has a three column layout with the site’s content appearing in the centre column. The eye catching masthead image is the work of Los Angeles based illustrators kozyndan.

I think the site could work just as well with two columns though, and this could be achieved without too much hardship.

Currently the site looks quite busy, with “oversize” Technorati, del.icio.us, and RSS feed buttons, widgets, and the content itself, all occupying a rather confined space.

I’d keep the same overall width, but with the space saved from adopting a two column layout, I would make the remaining two columns each a little wider.

Alternatively, if the three column layout were to be retained (something that would offer more flexibility should the site ever be monetised), I would consider moving the main content column to either the left or right hand side of the layout, to maximise its prominence.

In any event the various buttons could be reduced in size, and, so as to keep the RSS subscription option in readers minds, a “prompt” to subscribe to the feed could also be placed at the foot of each post.

I also think that the solid black border that encases many of the images and photos featured on Web Urbanist further contributes to the confining appearance of the site.

This contrasts with a one pixel light gray border around images that were included in the Drop Spots post, which was not nearly as constraining.

In closing…

Web Urbanist draws attention to what many of us probably miss as we rush about the city centres we reside or work in, and with over 200000 unique visitors in the past month, there is little doubt that people are interested in what the site has to offer.

And while the content is top notch, just a little more attention to the site’s aesthetics is all that is required to make Web Urbanist an overall top notch resource.