Good or Bad Design

Design aids in the understanding of the topic for the reader in numerous ways. When I hear the word "design" I think of the layout of a website, the theme of the topic/presentation, colors, format, photos, graphics, and anything else that helps keep the story's focus cohesive. Design helps direct the reader to the other parts of the website, while still maintaining a focus on the central topic. I think that in order to keep a reader interested in your site you have to have originality, multimedia, fun elements, informative information, and communication with the community.
In my opinion, people rather see a graphic that explains statistics than numbers in text that explain the same statistics. They like to gain knowledge without having to concentrate too much, and photos/graphics allow this to happen.

Bad design loses the audiences' attention and causes the company to lose credibility because it seems as if they don't care enough to make their design look appealing. Bad design could also offend people because if the design is not appropriate for the topic that is being covered then your whole story could go discredited.

My favorite news website is The New York Times because their design is appealing and is not crowded. They provide a lot of graphics and links but don't make it confusing to the eye. Their ads are not overpowering and annoying to the reader as well. Their stories also provide a multitude of media from videos, slideshows of pictures, audio bites, and graphics of all sorts. Overall, I think their website is well designed and informative.