usmagazine.com
US Weekly Magazine was one of the original celebrity news magazines. It paved the way for many other media sources like it. The magazine itself amassed a large following, with its website becoming more accessible in 2006. Millions of viewers access the site regularly to read the newest scoop.
The website continues to reel in millions of readers with its celebrity gossip, fashion news, videos, and other content. The functionality of the site is another reason why it is so successful.
Website Design
This makes it easy for online readers to find what they are looking for.
The website design of US Weekly is very professional. The logo is the same as the one they use in their magazine, and it is distinct and instantly recognizable. The layout of the website heavily mimics the setup of the magazine, making it easy for online readers to find what they are looking for.
The US website is highly recognizable and attractive. It features a clean and professional design, with an eye-catching white background that provides a great foundation for the signature pink highlights.
Another great design feature of this website is the organization and setup. The menus are clear and the sidebar is utilized well. The menu floats above everything as you scroll which eliminates the need to scroll upwards. The sidebar highlights the latest news the website posted, making it easy to see for readers. The flow of the website is good, with a pleasing aesthetic. Headlines are intriguing and reinforce reader engagement.
Content
The website US Weekly provides a variety of content, including celebrity news, fashion, entertainment, royals, moms, food, pets, podcasts, video, and others.
The website's news section focuses on celebrities and their latest escapades. There are uplifting headlines, as well as break-up rumors. Some titles of articles on the page are ?Leondardo Dicaprio Saves Man from Drowning? and ?Harry Styles Watched a Dog While Its Owner Ran into a Restaurant.? This section also includes a photo gallery of Hollywood's Ugliest Divorces.
Another part of the website is the Moms category. This portion concerns pregnant celebrities and mothers. There are baby bump photo galleries of the Golden Globes and other award shows. Aside from baby updates and sneak peeks at nursery rooms, there is also a hall of fame list and photo of baby bumps.
The US Food website is a portion of the website that hosts articles pertaining to celebrities cooking, their kitchens, and favorite foods. Recipes are a fun read. The diversity of food articles is plentiful. There are as many celebs who love fast food posts as there are celeb diet lists.
Desktop & Mobile Accessibility
The desktop browser version of US Weekly is nearly flawless. The branding is great. The website layout is clean and consistent. The flow of the article placements melds together well, encouraging the reader to keep scrolling.
The mobile browser version of the website is more difficult to navigate than the desktop. The scrolling is difficult because of the ads. The text is smaller and harder to read. Another issue is the advertisements. On the desktop version, the scale of the ad is not very large compared to the rest of the website. On the mobile browser, the ad is a lot larger and hard to get around to read the website's material.
The app version of US Weekly is not optimized for mobile viewing and the website is free to read. However, the app requires viewers to pay $5.99 per issue in order to access the full content. It's confusing that they would offer similar and possibly the same content on a webpage for free when a paid subscription is available.
Positives
The US Weekly website is amazing because the content is available for free. The company still sells magazines in store, but website undoubtedly gets more viewers. It is a great source of entertainment news.
The branding of the website is consistent, and it is nice to be able to recognize a website from its logo and signature colors. US Weekly does a great job of conveying these things without looking messy.
The website's organization is excellent and flows perfectly to keep the reader engaged. The format encourages viewers to scroll, with numerous backlinks placed strategically throughout the articles.
There is only a few advertisement on the webpage. Most of them pertain to the magazine and website, so they are more bearable. On the desktop version, there is one medium-sized ad directly above the header. It is easy to dismiss the ad and continue reading.
Negatives
I have a small complaint about the website's home page feed. The website is a WordPress website, and this is a common theme among them. However, at some point, readers want to see the bottom of the page. It is difficult to get to things like Contact Us and FAQs with the endless scrolling. This problem only occurs on the main home page. With the category pages, it is easier to get to the bottom.
The menu is neatly set up, but I wish there were subcategories. Instead of lumping all celebrity news into one category it would be nice to be able to filter them by movie stars, tv stars, musicians, etc. Another subcategory that could be nice would be a positive or negative filter that could suss out good deeds or poor choices made.
Although there are few advertisements on the website, they are still an annoyance. One of the worst issues I have with the website is the sudden pop-ups and loud sound from videos. It is startling and interrupts reading experiences.
I have a problem with the US Weekly website's mobile viewing. In this day and age, an app or even an optimized mobile browser is essential for all websites. For such a high-profile name in the entertainment industry, I was very disappointed with this aspect of US.
The mobile browser did notfunction properly because of the advertisements. As I tried toscroll down the website the ads popped up, andI wasinstead directed to those websites. When it comes to the application, there is not awonderful one in place that functions in the same way the website does. The only apps are for selling their magazines. It would be nice to see US design an app that works similarly to its website and provides asense of community.
Improvements Needed
What are some of the improvements that US Weekly Magazine could make to better suit its viewers? One of the most important would be designing a good app. A good app would drive even more traffic to their brand.
I am grateful that the United States does not use a lot of advertisements on their website, but they are still problematic. The mobile browser is close to not working because of the pop-ups. If app designing isn't something that is in the cards for the company, updating the mobile browser would be a great improvement as well.
I think it would be a good idea to create subcategories on the website for readers to find what they're looking for more easily. It would be a lot of work, but it could be well worth it if completed.
The content is varied and unique, with some titles that are off the wall but are still eye-catching. The categories from the main menu are good, but sub-categories would be even better. Overall, US Weekly Magazine is your run of the mill celeb gossip site. In terms of entertainment news, it falls somewhere in the middle.
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