January 31, 2011

USA Today Improvements

While navigating through the USA today website, I noticed a couple issues that I had with their navigation and layout. Although I will give them credit, it is a pretty easy-to-navigate site compared to some other new websites.

To begin with, there are multiple links on any given page that lead you to the same place. Since the pages seem like they go on and on forever, they could really clear up some space by removing all the duplicates.When then primary navigation is hierarchically distinguished by being in a bar at the top, being in buttons, and being color coded, there's really no reason to put them again further down the page...and again at the bottom.
When you visit the site, you do seem to have the option to create a member account. But the benefits of this account are limited, allowing you to comment and subscribe to get emails. That's...about it. Granted, I didn't spend a lot of time signing up and browsing. SO, if they DO have more features available, I should be able to see them better.
And as previously mentioned, the pages go on forever, and the articles within each category are not organized in any particular method. hierarchy of individual articles could be improved, if there is any. And if there isn't any that is more important that another, for goodness sake, take them out of those boxes that they're almost randomly places in.

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