ESPN.com launched its redesigned website today, and at least one person, Venture Beat blogger MG Siegler, hates it.

ESPN launched its new site design today and all I can say is “wow.” And it’s not a good “wow,” it’s an awful “wow.” I cannot separate those advertisements from the content and so I will never visit this site again.

Specifically, he’s unhappy with:

  1. The full screen video ad that launches the first time you visit the site.
  2. Perceived increased ad content
  3. Truncated RSS feeds

About a month ago, when ESPN.com placed its redesigned website in beta, and I gave it a positive review, citing its less cluttered design, easy access to ESPN’s considerable exclusive video content and potentially stronger revenue model.

Having now seen the actual site (which does include more ad real estate than when it was in beta), I think all those things are still true, and that Venture Beat’s criticisms are pretty overboard. The new design actually has its main ad unit lower on the page, which brings navigation higher, and is not larger than on the previous version of the site, as you can see from the screenshots below:

Old ESPN.com

New ESPN.com

Also, the full screen ad in question (screenshot below courtesy of the VentureBeat article), only appears the first time you visit the site, and in addition to being an ad introduces the new site.

This is also not the first time ESPN.com has had a prestitial ad on its site. In the past, these ads have been infrequent, and I imagine that would be the case going forward. I agree that it might not have been the best first impression to give going out the door, but as someone who works for a company that lives on ad revenue, it’s harder for me to blame them.

Overall, I think the resdesign is a step forward. One change from the beta that I liked  are the Video icons in the headlines module on the right that cue users to video content.

ESPN.com has needed a redesign for a while, and I think that they are going in the right direction. As with any major redesign, I’m sure they’ll refine it going forward to make it even better. The Worldwide Leader gets a lot of stick around the Interwebs from places like Fire Joe Morgan or Deadspin, but overall they still have the best content around, and with this new redesign, I think they’ve really improved their user experience.
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