FOX News Website Review

-Aesthetic appeal (2 out of 10). A casual observer could say this site's main page provides users with all the resources they need to successfully navigate; this same observer could also say it is a redundant truncated mess. No discernable layout beyond the search bar located top center of the page with the navigation bar beneath it. Everything else on the front page is a haphazard mess of advertisements, links, and news. Different topics are broken down in rectangle boxes with links beneath them. All pages have advertisements that use the same color scheme as the articles, so you get redirected when you think your following the site. Also some article links are in blue and bold font while others are normal font for no discernable reason. CNN.com at least attempted to place a video icon next to articles that are video; FOXNews.com makes no such effort. If it is a video article it also appears in a popup instead of redirecting your browser.

To the right of the primary content are advertisement blocks and links to blogs, video, radio, weather etc. This brings the total number of poorly formatted and ugly boxes to twenty-seven. The headline fonts are spaced in such a way that you can't tell them apart. The easiest way to read them is to cursor over them. Red, white, and blue is a great color for a flag, but it makes for ascetically hideous website. It personally brings to mind product packaging where the back is just raw information formatted to fit in a small area, but the designs never change like a coke can. Navigating this site will remind users of the internet circa 1997.

-Usability/Functionality (5 out of 10). The site is bare bones browsing with none of the impressive additions you get with bbc.co.uk. Personally I feel like I'm using a stripped down version of CNN.com. In a nut shell the site works so far as it doesn't fail. It doesn't go out of its way to provide any additional tools or features. An example of this would be setting this site as your home page. Instead of providing a button that does that you're given instructions on how to change your homepage by browser. They don't even give you current browsers nor do they provide good instructions:

Windows Internet Explorer 4

• In the View menu, select Internet Options.
• In the "Home page" section, type "http://www.foxnews.com" into the text box.
• Click OK.

So even if you wanted to add this mess as your homepage and didn't know how you still wouldn't be able to because chances are you aren't using IE 4 because it isn't 1997. The list also doesn't include instructions for the very popular Firefox browser.

-Content ( 5 out of 10). Content comprising mostly of personal interest and sensational news with a right bent. Most information from the channel is available here including additional content like bloopers, extended footage, and raw footage yet to be edited. The site just comes off as "News Lite."

-Etc: It is very hard to take this news site seriously when it has headlines like, "Diggin' Mars." Then the article has the first line of, "What's up with Mars?" I figure this is an isolated incident, but then I click on "Election HQ" and here is the lead article, "Fashion Forward - Cindy McCain vs. Michelle Obama: Who's got the edge when it comes to style?" Then the images on the site are just bad quality. It really is just pure laziness on behalf of the site operators because most of these people have stock photos readily available for use by news agencies. Most of them appear like they took a picture of the television.

-Overall (4 out of 10). This site is probably an added bonus for Fox News viewers, but for internet savvy users this site will appear dated. The layout is frustrating and the content is either limited or laughable.

16 out of 40