What is Bleacher Report?
It is a website that is focused on sports and sports culture. With offices around the world they cover all sports from soccer to WWE. Self-proclaimed as The Open Source Sports Network , Bleacher Report claims to be not an ordinary sports website. In 2012, they were acquired by Turner Broadcasting System for $175 million. Since then Forbes.com as called Bleacher Report "one of the leaders among sports startups figuring out the digital space." In 2011, they were named Time magazine's 50 Best Websites. Now they have become almost more than just a sports website. They have launched B/R Live a streaming service they offer, and also launched multiple shows including: Game of Zones, NBA Playoff Battle Royal, Up Your Game, and Gridiron Heights.
What I Like
There are multiple things I like about Bleacher Report's website. Mainly that it is very simple to find your favorite sports team page. Their header along the top makes it very simple to see the different sports, then from their you just have to find your team. It is very simplistic which is definetly a prefeernce and can be seen as a dislike but I don't mind it for this type of website. Also while doing this exam I had it in a scaled window for the most part, and it looked great at half width, I would even say better than at full-screen.
What I Dislike
- It can be difficult to find scores of games, or upcoming games, which is very important
- When you get to a teams page it is very unappealing to the eye. There's a lot of unsused space, there's ads in the background, even weird email newletters while you're scrolling.
- Where the home page gains in simplicity, it loses in functionality, which is very ironic. In most cases more simplicity equals more functionality, but they somehow got that wrong.
- I mentioned that it scaled well, it does when you're just scrolling but using the navigation, while minimized looks ridiculous.