I think most people who would write a blog post “Stumped by the NYT” would mean the crossword, but I’m thinking of their online home. I find the layout baffling beyond belief. The very top isn’t so bad — it’s obviously the top news & other-section stories, plus links to sections. But getting below that, we get the tabbed ad box, which doesn’t quite line up at the bottom with the bottom of the “main section”. Then there’s some videos and pictures, which look very cluttered in their arrangement. Following this is a horizontal block of featured articles from other sections, with pictures, then a vertical arrangement of non-featured articles from other sections that doesn’t line up with the previous segment. Finally, this far down the page, we get the most popular stories. Ads now line the left, but are stuck in one wide box on the right, and the lower right is filled with replications of links from earlier.

Does this layout actcually work for anyone? What am I missing that the web design professionals at the NYT clearly see?