I chose the New York Times website because the overall design is user-friendly. This site uses a common fate design for its top scrolling menu (US, World, Business, Arts, etc.) banner that remains on top while navigating the site. The site also uses proximity throughout; as you can see, the headline US news is about Hurricane Helene, and in the left column nearby are additional articles about the hurricane. The headline news sections utilize the design principle of hierarchy, which helps the reader determine which articles are most important in a topic. The design effectively communicates that any user can easily navigate to multiple articles associated with their choice of topics. The live updates (in red) let the audience know exactly how long ago the information was updated, and the design principle used for live updates is repetition. I like this design because some news websites could be more user-friendly, the breaking news is usually upfront, and navigating around the headline can be challenging.
Next, I chose the New York Post’s website. At the start, the site seems as if it is not completely loaded. There is too much white space/blank space. It is not very user-friendly. The use of similarity and continuity is sporadic or broken. To improve this site, I would eliminate the white space/blank space areas. I would also incorporate the similarity and continuity throughout the site. The use of the hierarchy principle seems to work best for news and media sites.
