Gamespot's & IGN's Visual Design

The design difference between Gamespot and IGN is both easy and difficult to compare. It's difficult to compare because of the both web pages having blaring similarities in their design layout, items such as main navigation layout, main center screen, log-in screen, and both even have a search toolbar located at the top of the page.

vs.

But although the similarities are numerous, their is one primary design difference that brings Gamespot on top of IGN. And that is the clever and organized use of space and advertisements. As can be seen from IGN's pages versus Gamespot's webpages, IGN ads feel like there randomly placed, destroying the aesthetics of the design and making the area look disorganized and cluttered. On the contrary, Gamespot cleverly puts their webpages where the eye can differentiate where content ends and where the ad starts. Also adding to it's great layout, Gamestop put it's ads in such a way that they don't distract a reader from the webpage itself. This can be witnessed from how Gamestop purposely put it's ad banner on the bottom of the page away from its content while IGN did the exact opposite.

vs.

Another design difference that puts Gamestop on top of IGN is its uniform background image which gives the website a wholistic view. As seen from the screen shots, each table in IGN has a different background, while Gamestop still having slight different backgrounds image/colors in it's table, it overshadows this anarchical image by having a large uniform background image behind everything. This make the webpage of Gamestop look relevant and related, and adds more authority to the page as it shows whole branding. IGN lacks on this feature and to make matters worse, uses very dull colors in its background, furthermore decreasing any of it's aesthetic pleasure.

In conclusion after scrutinizing both the design and layout of Gamestop and IGN, it is apparent that Gamestop as a better design by properly and more efficiently organizing content, creating a brand feel and a more relevant look.