Comparing and contrasting two Websites
Websites often apply numerous strategies to ensure that they are appealing to their viewers. The sole purpose of an online presence is to pull an audience and the more the views and users a website has, the better the returns. Therefore, these websites will set up their overall appearance in a manner that is attractive and easy to navigate for their users. As reputable news websites, The New York Times and Wall Street Journal ensure that they advance the appeal in their viewers thus their websites are developed in an attractive and simple way to ensure the ease of navigation for their users. It would therefore be prudent to compare and contrast these two websites while focusing on their use of proximity, alignment, repetition and contrast.
Proximity
Proximity describes how information that is related in a website is seen as a unit ( Whybrow, 2015) . It is necessary that the user see a visual unit in such information. When comparing the use of proximity by New York Times and Wall Street Journal, one can identify that information that is related is grouped together on both websites and that which is different is separated. The separation in these news items is advanced by the use of headlines that are in bold. For both, their main news item is placed at the center of the webpage with the descriptions below it. However, the New York Times has different news articles besides their main article while the Wall Street Journal has other news articles below the main one. Their similarity and difference in proximity are demonstrated in the graphics below.
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Alignment
Both websites have their choices for alignment and one can identify that they are different. The WSJ uses left alignment where texts and items align with the left margin but are jagged along its right margin. The NYT has texts and items centered where information is placed at the center of the webpage and remains jagged on its left and right sides. One can see that the news article by the NYT is placed at the center of the page while the WSJ has its news article aligned to the left. Further, the WSJ has other news items besides their main article and these are also aligned to the left while the NYT only present one news item centered. Their similarity and difference in alignment is demonstrated in the graphics below.
Repetition
Repetition on a website occurs when one element is seen to have been used more than once. The repetition is not often for monotony but to improve user navigation ( Whybrow, 2015) . For both websites, repetition is present in how all the headlines for their news articles are all in bold and a large font size that the rest of the news article. Both have their website titles centered and in bold. However the NYT website title is in larger font than that of the WST. Both websites have articles they need their readers to focus on and these represent current events taking place across the world. Both headlines are centered and in bold. It makes it easy for the ready to single out these news articles as these websites want. Both websites have some items presented in blue while others are presented in red. They all have some items in larger fonts while others are in smaller font size. Their similarity and difference in repetition is shown in the graphics below.
Contrast
Websites will have items with varying levels of importance and they will need to communicate this visually and effectively ( Whybrow, 2015) . It is usually achieved by the use of contrast. Contrast can be achieved through color, size or alignment. For both websites, their primary color is white but some images with differing colors are used to achieve contrast. Contrast by color is also present in their news headlines. These news items have headlines in bold while the rest are not in bold. For both websites, contrast is further achieved through size and especially font size. Both have headline in a larger font size with a further difference in size among the headlines. The rest of the texts are presented in smaller font sizes to attract the attention of readers. Both websites use left alignment especially when presenting numerous news items. Their home pages have more than three news items and these are all aligned to the left. However, the WSJ has one item with a title that is centered. Their similarity and difference in contrast is presented in the graphics below.
Overall, one can identify numerous differences and similarities in the design of the two websites. As news websites, the primary items are news articles and these are presented with headlines with the articles below them. For proximity, both articles have information that is related grouped together. However, the NYT has other news articles on its webpages alongside the main article while the WSJ only has its main article. For alignment, the NYT has a specific news article centered while the WSJ has its news article aligned to the left. When considering repetition, both websites have items in larger font sizes and these are mainly the headlines with the article taking a smaller font size. The headlines are also in bold for both websites. For contrast, both websites use a white background with a few pictures in difference colors. The news articles have headlines in bold with the rest of the articles in normal font color. The difference in font size also helps achieve contrast for both websites.
References
Whybrow, L. (2015). Using C.R.A.P Web Design For eLearning - eLearning Industry . eLearning Industry. Retrieved 29 February 2020, from https://elearningindustry.com/using-crap-web-design-for-elearning.
