Good: Pinterest.com

Pinterest is a form of social media where you can browse and save 'pins' of different articles based on topics you are interested in. The site has a neutral color theme that makes scrolling through and reading the different pins easy. The pins themselves are presented as rectangular images with titles, a short description, and the name of the user who pinned the article underneath it. This layout makes using the website easy, as you can scroll through the page and view the topics of the pins by the image or the title. When a pin is clicked, it takes you to a page where you can go to the original article or view similar pins. This makes reading and learning about a certain topic very easy. Finally, the search bar is prominently displayed at the top of the webpage and remains at the top of the webpage as the user scrolls. This makes it easy for the user to access the search bar at any time and search for any topic of their choice.

Bad: Blinkee.com

Blinkee.com is a website that aims to sell flashing items. So, they decided to make their website do the same. The page is very distracting, as it has a black background riddled with flashing animations and rainbow text. The bright, moving colors of these animations were too excess and made it very difficult to focus on and learn about the company's products. Also, the homepage did not fit my screen properly. There was an empty black bar on the right side of my screen that had no information, but took up about a quarter of my screen. Finally, the menu on the right side of the page featured categories of products. Each link was a different color from the last one, which made it distracting to read through the different categories.
I understand that while they were making the website, the creators were most likely trying to keep with the theme of their colorful, flashing, and fun products. However, I think that they took those aspects of the design a bit too far and instead made a distracting and ineffective website.

Good: reserveamerica.com

Reserve America is a website that allows you to plan and make reservations for your outdoor vacations. Many state parks use their service to allow visitors to make campsite reservations in advance. I love visiting their website, as it always makes me more excited to find new destinations and book my next camping trip.
Their home page has a simple layout that makes navigating their website easy. Their search bar allows the user to easily search for an area or campground that they are interested in. The search bar is easy to use, as it is prominently featured on the main page within a moving image of an outdoor scene. There is a feature below the search bar that scrolls through different articles and images of parks around the US. Finally, above the search bar, is a menu of options. It is easy to find and navigate through. I think one way that they could improve their website would be to add an option to the menu that directs the user to their reservation page.

Bad: news.google.com

I constantly find myself scrolling through the articles of Google News on my phone. I love the way their mobile site looks and the way it organizes the articles makes it easy to use. However, their desktop site is a different story.
Upon opening the website on my laptop, I was overwhelmed. The page was filled with sports scores, weather information, a menu, and links to multiple news articles. It seemed that Google ditched its organization methods that made its mobile site so easy to use and filled the front page with everything they could. The sports scores and weather sections on the right hand side of the page were very distracting and made the article section look cluttered. Also, the "Top Stories" portion of the menu on the left side of the page had too many options and made the menu more difficult to navigate.

Good: Amazon.com

One of my favorite websites to browse and shop is Amazon.com. When the page first loads, it brings the user to a page that prominently features their newest devices and deals and items that are related to your recent purchases. While the homepage features such a wide variety of products, it does so in a manner that allows the user to browse the page without feeling overwhelmed.
Two other features that make this website great are the prominent shopping cart icon and search bar. Both features are essential to the user's experience. These features are clearly visible and accessible throughout the site's different pages, which also attribute to the site's ease of use.