In terms of composition, I think the website is laid out in a very easy to navigate way. First, it has all the breaking news stories on the right side of the screen, ESPN even gives you the option to customize which stories you see based on which teams you are a fan of. Also, the most recent highlights and game results are in the middle of the screen, which allows you to see highlights and watch live games with only one click of the mouse. Also, the website is laid out in a way that allows you to easily get information on the sport of their choice. On the top of the screen, the user has the ability to go to the homepage of any sport you could imagine, whether it be football or even cricket!
Lastly, in terms of social, I think ESPN is trying to appeal to a very large audience of people. I think what makes them able to do this, is that they have information on nearly any sport you could imagine, so no matter what your interest is, there will almost always be something for you to read. Also, because the site is so easily navigated and the articles are not written in language that is all that complicated, I think that nearly anyone can enjoy the website.
After reading the excerpt from "Visual Communications" I learned a few interesting things, that I think explain why the website is laid out the way it's. First, I learned that all images have a focal point, and that is what our eye catches first. I think this explains why ESPN almost always puts a catchy or interesting image right in the center of the screen. Lastly, I learned that when people are reading things they like it to be evenly spaced. This explains why all articles written on the site are evenly spaced, and all the paragraphs are close to the same length. I found the logic behind this to be very interesting.
To help those of you who have to respond to my post here are a few websites that you might want to consider looking at to get some ideas: yahoo.com, cnn.com and usatoday.com
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| This is a screen shot of how ESPN.com appeared during my evaluation of the site. |
Tyler,
ReplyDeleteAfter reading your analysis on the assigned readings and how they relate to ESPN.com, I realized I completely agree with your logic. ESPN.com, like many modern websites, is now trying to market themselves to as broad of an audience as possible. This fact alone is a major reason they have such a simple main page, scores across the top, breaking news in the middle, and headlines on the right. I believe it was in the Hilligross and Howard when the work commented on how people "group" similar objects in their mind the second they see them. ESPN has made their website easy to use, easy to understand, and most importantly; easy on the brain because everything is already sorted. This type of format is common amongst professional organizations because it allows for many to enjoy with minimal criticism. Finally, I completely agree with your statement on the catchy title, as everyone knows first impressions are lasting.
It's funny that you chose ESPN as an example for explaining the key elements of both articles because I also thought of a website very similar to this one. As i was reading about the evenly spaced text and the bold headings I thought immediately about a website like NYTimes.com This website, like ESPN, has visuals to make the information memorable and it also has paragraphs that are close to the same length. The whole idea about the main picture being the focal point is a very valid statement and i definitely agree. I know that if you showed this screen shot to a group of let's say 20 people, almost all of them no matter the age or gender would say that the picture is the first thing they look at. These articles helped me understand why we look at things the way we do. Primarily, color, font size, position of the image, basically the composition of the website as a whole is essential for grabbing the audience's attention. Clearly the makers of ESPN wanted us to look at the image or why else would it be in the center of the page? I found it interesting that a composer of a website can adjust the website either by using certain technological techniques or simply changing the composition in order to get the viewer to see the more important aspects of the website. The article about visual perception talks about how sometimes readers skim webpages and if someone was skimming a blog or a webpage it is the authors job to make them want to fully read the text. Lastly what I thought was interesting which you also touched upon is the fact that all these modalities help change the interpretation of the viewer. Just a small adjustment with font size and color can give a website an entirely different vibe and it could make the reader more interested in the content. Overall I agree with your ESPN analogy because I also pictured a website in my mind when reading through these articles. I also agree with the logic being interesting. Who knew that so much thought was put into creating a successful website?
ReplyDeleteBrandon,
ReplyDeleteWhen thinking about the social aspects of modalities and production, you want to consider what political and social institutions and norms are influencing the way the ESPN website is designed. So, for example, we could talk about the choice of color on the website and how that relates to traditional ideas about masculinity (this could translate to the language used in the site's titles and text as well--but let's focus on images). In addition, the question of genre comes into play when we look at sports photographs. There are various types of images that are typical--the action shot of the player catching the ball in mid-air or the player profile image--a sort of mugshot of an individual player. These are all types of images that readers/viewers of ESPN are going to be familiar with and expect of this site due to their image memory.