ESPN.com Redesigned

i like the old version better myself. but maybe i need to get used to it.

Interesting ... the spotlight column color is a lot like foxports.com. Where I do like the sports score ticker in the top right, I don't like the category section spotlight rotation treatment. I understand I can stop it, but it makes me feel like I have to hurry and read it ... I am at espn.com ... I should be sitting back and relaxing!

I do however, like the quick links for each section (home, standings, teams) I never liked click three or four times just to see the standings.

I also noticed that NASCAR was down towards the bottom of the page ... I thought NASCAR was big?! Atleast bigger then College Football ... which is over isn't it?

I liked the masthead and navigation of your design much better. I've never been a fan of using javascript menus to throw the entire site map at someone in the nav bar.

That being said, I find the layout of the home page of this design a bite more to my liking. By dropping the left nav column, the stories have much more breathing space and don't seem as clustered as they used to (although, as I stated above, I think left column navigation is more elegant than dropdowns)

Overall, the new design really respects the aesthetics you set up with your 2002 design, making the new design much easier to digest (and it's also a testament to how well the site was designed back in 2002). I see this more as a shift in layout than a complete overhaul, perhaps not a "re-align" (a term I despise... Thanks Mr. Moll), but certainly a homage to the original.

I love the flash video all over the site. It was present before, but it seems like there is a lot more now.

One thing I don't quite understand is how the navigation really works. It seems like it changes based on what sport is in season, for example - clicking on "college" lands you on the Men's BBall Page (with a nice feature story on how we're still undefeated :) ) - I would expect to land on a college sports index page instead. It makes sense as the only college sport people care about right now is BBall, but the navigation seems a bit mislabeled.

Anyway, it seems they've done a fine job overall.

Well I like the new layout but not the minimum 1836 HTML validation errors. I say minimum because it's been over 2000 which I assume is down to the various results and news tickers. Oh and the CSS doesn't validate at all.

Surely ESPN can afford a redesign that conforms to web standards?

First impression: Way too much information, very cramps with ads and info all over the place.

We're getting closer to having too many moving elements on the page. There comes a time when you can have too many "tickers".

I don't get why the My ESPN part is so hidden.. makes it pretty useless to me.

Shouldn't the spotlight section and the "main image" be combined into just 1 spotlight section?.. other than that it looks pretty much the same.. busy as hell.

it doesn't validate. Poorly formed.

Somehow, they managed to make the page even busier. Too much text all at once.

It looks like that Bloomberg crap you see on some of the morning news stations. Content everywhere, constantly vying for your attention. All they're missing is the ticker across the bottom of the screen.

Busy to say the least.

I like that they got rid of the double nav, not neccessary; I like the larger "my ESPN" treatment but wish it was further up on the page since everything seems to be moving more towards what each individual user wants to see;
I like the scores app on the top right;
I don't like the little gray gap between the ad and content, wish they could have thought of something better to put there;
I don't like that I can't cut out stuff I just don't care about (e.g. Nascar);

I like redesign IV the best. I also like redesign II but not as much as redesign III. Redesign I was total garbage and redesign VI just plain sucked.

unbelievable that they would launch with over 1800 validation errors

I liked the old site, it seemed much more polished. However, I think that both sites looked too busy.

Why did they move "My ESPN" down towards the middle. Keep it up top!

the old site was much better. bring davidson back...

i was just about to seed this!!
well....i thinkk that it's a little trickier to understand. i liked having the sports on the sides, with for instance under college football during bowl season there was bowls and scores. but i like this new format with the top headlines. just hte scrolling...
some people are too lazy to scroll to get to that stuff
i'm not, but many are
the spotlight feature is nice, sort of like the homepages of mlb teams and of mlb.com
i am a frequent visiter of espn.com and i applaud the idea of mixing it up a little.
i can't wait to look even more thoroughly!

I will have to get use to it--that is all I can say right now. I hope they keep the idea of your "war-mode" on important news stories.

I don't like it at all, and yes, part of that is because I loved the old version.

1. It's way too cluttered- for the first time user, it's insanely overwhemling and offputting. For the daily visitor, it's too chocked full of options- just finding my favorite slices will be challenging, not to mention, an unecessarily ugly venture.

2. Josh is right- it's too crowded left. If you're gonna fullscreen us for maximum content, fine- but at least give some comfortable room on the main story area.

3. There are way too many moving, flashing, rotating pieces. It's distracting to say the least, frustratingly unusable at worst.

4. Aesthetic-wise, it's a mess- there's a few spots of powerful red, but otherwise it's a nast, confusing mess of every color under the son. There's no uniformity, no cohesion, no overall binding pallate from which to deviate.

5. Organization- Yikes. There's no grouping, no division between content and services (such as video or MyESPN), poor division between sports, and a couple sports of borderline confusion between content and advertising.

Overall, I'm extremely disappointed with this design, especially considering how much better the previous one was.

I have to agree with everything Jason has said here. Far too cluttered for my tastes (even more than it was before, how is that possible?), an almost nauseating amount of moving items, way too many colors (none of which mixing well with each other), and completely unorganized. I don't visit ESPN all that often anyways, but this re-design is going to make those infrequent visits even less enjoyable.

It looks like they forgot some polish.

I liked how they pushed the brand in the old one. This is indeed busy.

I thought I'd try out the 360 demo. Waited for a couple minutes when it said, "Stay tuned for video". After a couple minutes I started clicking around. Unfortunately, everything I clicked on said, "This feature is not on the Web version of ESPN360." It basically does nothing.

If they're going to offer a "demo", it should at least show something to get me interested. What do they say about first impressions?