The Best and the Worst of the Web - Ryan's Picks

When it comes to determining if a website is "usable" or not, I look for a layout, design and navigation that provides an incentive to stay.

The Good

In the "good" category, I believe the food blog Serious Eats is a great example of a website design and layout that both is functional and attractive.

Each subsection of Serious Eats is nicely presented at the top via tabs, emulating an old fashioned recipe Rolodex. Although rotators are typically the bane of my existence, some slick Javascript implementation stuffs a lot of information in one space, it really helps.

Food always prompts great conversation, so highlighting the recent comments in the sidebar is great.

The Bad

In the "not-so-good" category, no site makes me want to pull my hair out more than The Huffington Post.

I could have a entirely separate discussion about the content, but I rarely get far enough to see any of it thanks to the sensory overload their front page throws at you. It's like it never ends. I'm a sucker for organization, and I have trouble discerning any sort of navigation, be it by time of publish or type of story (outside of the little headers) on the HuffPo front page.

The article pages themselves have their own problems. Any site that lets the main content get so distant from the comment section is doing a poor job of maintaining cohesiveness.