Writing Assignment #2 Comparing and Contrasting Two Websites essay

Writing Assignment #2 Comparing and Contrasting Two Websites essay

Writing Assignment #2 Comparing and Contrasting Two Websites essay

The New York Times and the Washington Post

Introduction

The New York Times and the Washington Post have websites on which they provide news stories and advertisement content. They both have similarities and differences in equal measure regarding alignment, proximity, repetition and contrast. Presentation of content on a website is as vital as the content itself and helps to pass the intended message across to the audience. This paper compares and contrasts the two websites, The New York Times and The Washington Post based on the above design principles. While the two websites make good use of the design principles, The New York Times is better designed than The Washington Post.

Alignment

Both websites are well-aligned on their homepages. Alignment on websites is essential as it makes it visually more appealing and makes it easier for the user to navigate (Lynch et al., 2016). The text on both websites is left aligned. While both websites have texts mixed with images, The Washington Post makes use of more images than The New York Times hence making it more appealing to the eye. The New York Times has all the sections of the paper aligned at the top banner, with the top story appearing just immediately after the menu that is horizontally aligned. On the other hand, The Washington Post has its menu given in a drop-down menu at the top far left of the website. Navigating The New York Times website is far much easier because its menu is clearly visible right below the top banner.

Figure 1: The New York Times homepage. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/international/

Figure 2: The Washington Post homepage. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Proximity

Proximity on a website entails placing similar or related elements together while separating those that are dissimilar or unrelated (Lynch et al., 2016). Both websites have made use of grid design which allows for adequate room for sections. While both websites have made good use of the proximity design principle, overall, The Washington Post has a pleasing design due to the choice of typography and color. Besides, it has an uncluttered and clean look particularly in the header section.

On both websites, the logos are large, centrally placed and conspicuous, which contributes to their branding. For The Washington Post, every bit of information on its header is placed together with related items, save for the logo that is standing alone. This makes The Washington Post website better off on proximity design principle.

The New York Times is quite content-heavy with minimal use of the white space. White space in website design is important as it acts as a guide to the user in the intended direction, creating contrast and making a positive impression. The Washington Post has made good use of white space in its design hence not overwhelming the user visually.

Figure 3: The Washington Post homepage. More use of white space. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Figure 4: The New York Times homepage. Limited usage of white space. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/international/

Repetition

Repetition implies the use of similar or the same elements in the website design. It is designed to bring about unity, consistency and cohesiveness of the website. Repetition cohesively brings things together, guides users how to interact with the website and cultivates comfort hence making the users stay longer on the website. Repetition is also used for reinforcement (Rosen & Purinton, 2015). Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have used the element of repetition well. On both websites similar typography has been used with the color and fonts of the article titles being bold and dark black. Calls-to-action are highlighted in blue, although for The Washington Post it is dark blue as opposed to light blue for The New York Times. The logos of the two brands are repeated on every page on the websites and in the same place. Also, menu items are also repeated in the same place on the websites. In addition, both websites have footers that provide quick access to important sections of the sites. Clickable elements are also notable as bold and dark black. Anything that is clickable has a hover state throughout the two websites.

Figure 5: The Washington Post homepage. Logo repetition on every page. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/coronavirus/?itid=hp_top_nav_coronavirus

Figure 6: The New York Times homepage. Logo repetition on every page. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/section/politics

Contrast

Contrast entails creating design elements to appear different from each other with a view of making important elements stand out (Rosen & Purinton, 2015). This design feature can also be used to make a central point and create visual interest through the manipulation of the differences in space, color, size, and other elements. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post employ the contrast element in the sizes of article blocks and images. The major news articles take up larger portions of the homepage unlike other sections such as opinion sections. In contrast design element, the bigger the item the more important it is relative to others. Both websites make use of contrast well and in a similar fashion.

Figure 7: The New York Times homepage. Contrast by item sizes. Retrieved from https://www.nytimes.com/international/

Figure 8: The Washington Post. Contrast by item sizes. Retrieved from https://www.washingtonpost.com/

Conclusion

To effectively convey the intended information to the target audience, websites must make good use of the four design elements of repetition, contrast, proximity, and alignment. Proper use of these elements ensures that the websites are attractive and easy to navigate hence making the user to want to visit the sites more often. Both The New York Times and The Washington Post have employed the use of these design elements to attract more visitors. For both websites, repetition and contrast elements tend to be more or less similar while significant differences exist in their use of proximity and alignment elements.

Writing Assignment #2 Comparing and Contrasting Two Websites essay