Technical Blog: Comparing websites

August 10th, 2014

Three favorite websites:

  1. www.buzzfeed.com>
  2. www.cnn.com
  3. www.codecademy.com

    4. -Buzzfeed: I enjoy reading this site during my spare time. It displays articles of top-trending stories in the news or on social media. - CNN: I like to stay current with news around the world. CNN allows me to stay up-to-date - Codecademy: This website is one of my favorite resources to practice programming because it’s a very interactive site and makes learning engaging and fun.

    What area of the site is your eye drawn to when looking at the homepage? Stand back further, what area is your eye drawn to now? Is that area the most important area of the site?

    I would say that the organization of the site attracts me. The more user-friendly and intuitive it is, the more I am likely to spend more time on the website. The quality of the content matters to me as well.

    How would you describe the website visually? List 5 adjectives. (i.e. "well-branded", "minimalist", "organized", "cluttered", "dated" etc)

    1. Organized
    2. Bright
    3. Intuitive
    4. Consistent
    5. Dynamic
    What problem does this website solve? What content does it have? As more of an entertainment website, Buzzfeed allows articles to be shared very efficiently, via email, Facebook, Twitter or even Pinterest. From breaking news to politics to pet videos, Buzzfeed makes sharing with others extremely easy. Back when websites didn’t have the option of sharing via various social networks, you would have to copy the link of the website and email. The ease of sharing makes Buzzfeed the go-to source for trending news.

    What 5 adjectives would you use to describe the content, focus, and purpose of the site? (i.e. "practical", "entertaining", "aspirational", "informative", "engaging" etc)


    1. - entertaining
    2. - indulging
    3. - purposeful
    4. - direct
    5. - accessible
    How does that compare to the adjectives you used to describe the site visually?
    Aside from its ideal visual attributes, an effective website must serve its purpose. How easy is it to find what you are looking for from the homepage? How about from another page? Navigation overall is very simple and seamless. How easy is it to browse through all the content of the site? I can browse from topic to topic very easily. How do you feel after being on the site for a while? (i.e. "bored", "happy", "anxious or hyper", "like I wasted a lot of time" etc) After being on Buzzfeed, I sometimes feel like I did waste a lot of my time. That just means Buzzfeed did their job right. It’s meant to entertain me when I’m not programming. Does the site sell anything? If so, have you purchased any of it? Why or why not? The purpose of Buzzfeed does not aim to sell.

© Tina Tien