Smackdown: Bad Website vs Good Website

 By: 

Mr. Ari Cecilia


           Bad vs. Good Website Design

    I chose to cover two sports sites for this week's Smackdown Assignment. What stood out to me the most about the Live binders article, on this website-building topic, was the study of the 4 Principles of a great website that Widmer explains: 

"

  1. Purpose. Great design starts with a purpose in mind. Ask yourself, “What do I want to accomplish with this page?” If a page doesn’t have a clear purpose, consider getting rid of it.
  2. Aesthetically pleasing. I’ll dig more into this in section one on visual design, but your site needs to look good. If your site looks like it was built in the 90’s, it’s time for an update.
  3. Relevant and original content. Your site should show content that’s relevant to your target market and original. Plagiarism is illegal and penalized by Google. Besides, it’s better to be a first-rate version of yourself than a second-rate version of someone else.
  4. Clear site navigation. I’ll discuss this further in section two on technical aspects, but know that navigation matters. Any page on your site should be within three clicks of any other page on your site. Your navigation should be intuitive and simple. This helps both Google for SEO and your visitors for navigation.

 "

(From 

What Makes a Good Website: A Quick Guide to Website Design )
 These principles combine digital marketing, digital design, and communication all in one (similar to work in Digital Studies). Harnessing a strong eye catching visual site while ensuring efficient, quick, and innovative connection (communication) is harder than it looks.    
    The first site I chose, https://www.menssports.com/, is meant to sell sports gear to men across the internet. The lackluster UI, useless navigation HUD, and bear imagery serves negatively towards the sites purpose. aesthetic. and navigation. Meaning, without change, the site is set to lose relevancy as a "bad website." The "good" site I chose, https://awfulannouncing.com/, is  a sports news site,  and serves its purpose as an upfront, consistently updated, smooth transitioning, and quick clicking news platform. The urgency of the site to show its audience, its content load, matches the urgency of the audience's tone when looking for their favorite sports news (this site knows its audience well). This makes the site a better site, as it is tailored towards its users, and makes its user experience more memorable. 

    Here is my video overview:




Comments

  1. Anna RothNovember 20, 2025 at 7:19 AM

    Hi Ari!
    I like how you included a long list of good website principles at the beginning of your presentation. That allowed me to keep my eyes open for these characteristics when being shown each website. I also found showing each website outside of the presentation to be very helpful too! It really allowed me to grasp a deeper understanding on what makes a website good vs. bad. Great job!

    ReplyDelete
    Replies
    1. GioNovember 20, 2025 at 2:38 PM

      You broke down the 4 principles really well and connected them to your two sports sites in a way that made sense. I like how you pointed out how each website matches its audience. Your comparison made the differences in purpose and navigation really clear.

      Delete
  2. Mel GroffNovember 20, 2025 at 8:43 PM

    Hi Ari,
    I think your presentation was extremely well organized and planned, with the list being great to hit every base for both websites you cover. I also like how specific you got with the issues of the website, instead of being broad.

    ReplyDelete

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