Online Newspaper website review - The Age
When i think of reading the newspaper, i think buying the paper, having a cup of coffee and learning what is going on around you peacefully, no distraction and stress free.
However looking at the The Age's newspaper online site. I do not get a feel for who they are or what they stand for. Personally i like The Age and its reputation, its informative and a good newspaper to read, but their website doesn't do them any justice. I don't feel the layout of the site is that of a reputable newspaper company.
It is distracting, various advertising all over the website, animation zipping and flying around is really distracting if you want to concentrate reading an article, that isn't going to happen. It feels like the various sections, articles, images are all squeezed in to fit on the one page. It is cluttered and feels claustrophobic. I don't know where to look or what to click on.
Nothing is clearly separated, even the menu bar is blended in the background and the same colour to that of their very small and subtle logo of The Age, which is next a random slideshow of random people saying quotes, which feels a bit useless as you don't know in what the context they are saying or who they are.
Screen shot of the main page
Screen shot of an article
Even when you read an article you are still bombarded with advertising, and various links to who knows where it goes.
Navigating is average, the title for each section of the site says it all but it is very small, blends in the background and somewhat frustrating to find.
Some of the links on the side for each section of the site are really tiny and doesn't give the impression that it is a different section of the paper. It looks like to me it is a random link and lack of thought and been put into it.
Screen shot of a different section of the site
Even going to another section of the site, yet again i'm bombarded with advertising even in the background. The different articles are mashed together with various images, headers are insignificantly small, nothing is clearly defined or separated. Articles are recent and don't date further back, what if i wanted to look for older articles? It is very frustrating even if i went to look for it.
Overall look and feel, it is a very disappointing site, no impression of a reputable newspaper source but a mashed up, unpolished and half- arsed attempt to that of a newspaper layout, with random and annoying advertising everywhere and even in the background.
Layout is squashed together, navigating works well enough but size is so small and not even noticeable to give you the impression that it is a menu bar to take you to a different part of the site.
It feels claustrophobic, frustrating and distracting, a far cry to the joy of reading the newspaper normally with a nice coffee in hand.
Webite of the The Age: http://www.theage.com.au/
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