SI's Extreme Makeover

For the last week I've been really enjoying the site redesign over at SI.com. I have always been a fan of the site, despite the fact that it's widely seen as the uglier stepsister of ESPN.com. When comparing the two sites, I think that the main advantages of ESPN are that it's faster at breaking stories and that there is generally more content-- any given sport section has an endless roster of contributors, plus Page 2 is a nice supplement. However, I prefer SI.com because the quality of the writing is so much better. Since both sites usually use the same AP stories for the news items, you have to compare the writing based on the columnists of the two sites. To me there is no contest, as SI.com has their entire slate of Sports Illustrated experts like Peter King, Tom Verducci, Phil Taylor and Jack McCallum. Their columns are always insightful and well thought-out, whereas a lot of the pieces on ESPN seem slapped together and written just for the sake of adding another viewpoint to the discourse.

The SI.com redesign is great because it makes all of their content more accessible. For example, the top banner of the site has "mouse-over" links to every subsection of every sport, along with stories and columns. My favorite new aspect however is that on the right side of the page there is now a pulldown menu that instantly takes you to the archive of any writer. I love the fact that pretty much all significant content on every subject is now accessible from the frontpage.

My one gripe with both SI.com and ESPN.com? Too many huge photos. It's like they have no regard for the millions of us who want to surf at work inconspicuously. Why would they alienate their readers by ratting us all out with an 8x4 inch photo of Donovan McNabb that can be spotted 20 yards away?