LO1: Research - IGN

IGN

http://uk.ign.com/

IGN is a dedicated news website that provides the latest gaming content across all platforms along with reviews, news videos and podcast with reoccurring presenters. Not only do they cover video game content but also TV and movies, since it is likely that the target audience also shares and interest in this too.

IGN's design is heavily advert based having adverts at the top, right and behind of the news feed. The main focal point of the design is a graphic that changes every 2-3 seconds (this is shown by the red lines that follows underneath the news piece's title) which if clicked on fill take the user to a different page that is mostly articles of reviews. These articles usually cover a variety of content from IGN that covers all of their content. Though if you want news on a specific platform of other you can select this in the navigation bar.

Purpose

IGN is a dedicated Video Game news website. That delivers reviews, news and other content related primarily towards video games. Although occasionally feature content related that would generally appeal to people interested in the 'nerd'/'geek' fandom.

Visitor Needs

When entering the website the main focal point is the main news feed graphic which switches between articles roughly every 3-5 seconds. This is the main source of information that covers a range of content throughout most platform depending on the news. Although you can select the news to narrow it down to a specific platform.

User Trust

The website allows you to create an account and enter a subscription that will keep you up to date on regular news. The website also has hosts and reoccurring presenters who often will share roles in writing reviews or in some case have dedicated sub-shows that will be uploaded weekly for example "Up at Noon with Greg Miller".

Having reoccurring presenters with different looks and personalities allows the user to create a connection with them and re-enforces a trust with the website.

Below the main graphic is a list of articles labelled "Top Stories" which is a selection of articles that are listed by how many people have viewed the page. Yet again this feed can be narrowed down depending on what content you want to use.

Further down the page directly to the right of the page there are columns to other content such as "Top 100 etc." and community blogs along with other adverts. 

Looking at a review of a game we can see that the reviews from IGN follow a specific layout. This layout features IGN's video review at the very top of the page, this is since a video review is easy to take in information as it is more visual and generally more interesting than reading text. Though for those who would prefer an more in-depth review there is a written version below that follows down the page with links to various videos to back up their points made in the review. This is also a graphic included at the very bottom which breakdown their review into figures to conclude an overall score.

It is also featured in the review who wrote the review. The review follow a typical formula having a tag line followed by the actual review that usually starts off by making a irrelevant comparison for comedic purposes.

The score given to the review is also follows a layout. The numbers assigned also carry a label for example a 10 is labelled a masterpiece. It also features a single sentence to sum up their thoughts. To the side of this is a list of positive and negative points which concluded their score.