Tuesday, June 23, 2009

5 reasons why the Bangor Daily News website sucks

I need to take a moment to complain about the Bangor Daily News website. I do not like it. In fact, I think it's terrible. My reasons are simple and based on common sense:


1. Color. Is this sagey, pale green a new color for them? Because throughout my 31 years of life I have associated the BDN with a dark, pine green color. That used to be their color...and now I'm confused about this lame green on their website.

2. Logo.
Why isn't the Bangor Daily News logo on the site? The content in the newspaper is what is on the site...so why brand it differently if you aren't offering different content?

3. Drop down menus.
This is my BIGGEST pet peeve and could be fixed easily and SHOULD be fixed. The top tabs, which include News, Business, Sports, Outdoors etc. have unreadable drop down topics. The text is hidden UNDERNEATH the photos and text below it. It is so frustrating and makes the BDN website look so unprofessional. Someone fix it PLEASE!

4. Blogs. The old BDN website used to showcase their blogs clearly. Now I have no idea where they are. The blog logos used to be right on the home page where a simple click would bring you right to them. Now I think they are hidden somewhere in the Lifestyle drop down menu, but as you read in #3, the menu items can't be read.

5. Original content.
Is there any? And if not why? The Portland Press Herald puts breaking news up on their home page -- stuff you can't find in the daily paper and won't be able to read about until tomorrow. They also highlight their blogs appropriately.

These are simple, common sense issues. I'm sure more people than just little ol' me are also frustrated with the site. What surprises me is that they MUST know about the drop down menu issue and have done nothing to fix it! Why are they satisfied with just being sort of ok when they could be great?

2 comments:

Nicole said...

I have yet to understand their Maineville concept. Do we all live in one big "Maine"? How are they featuring their users (you know, besides irate comments)?

You know, not that I'm biased or anything. ;^)

Anonymous said...

i also find this website annoying. i can NEVER find what i'm looking for!!