Difficult Choices, the first 800×600

I have always been fascinated with ESPN.com. As a lover of sport, it is my de-facto source for information. As an interested observer of web-design principles, it is nearly always a place to look for examples of how a gigantic internet presence is attempting to solve the problems we all face. Some of the decisions made are absolutely questionable, decisions like auto-playing video content on the homepage, but some can offer valuable insights.

It seems that every few months the little corner of the blogosphere inhabited by professional web designers/developers blows up discussing the issue of acceptable resolution sizes. At this point, the defacto standard seems to be 800x600 but many are lobbying and many more are simply designing for 1024x768. I'm not here to weigh in on that battle, but rather to point out how ESPN has decided to parse out their precious 800x600 pixels. Their design is optimized for a wider resolution, but their grid puts their primary content within an 800px boundary.

Take a quick look at this screencap:

For most, it has been generally accepted that there is no such thing as a fold in the web. Vertical scrolling has been accepted and should not be looked upon in agony. There is something to be said, however, for making a first impression with your available vertical space. ESPN is using their space for two things: advertisements and brand.

Neither of these things are particularly user-centric. The availability of the navigation is nice, but the content doesn't begin for 235px, which is increased to approximately 335px if you include the users' browser chrome, or more than halfway down the page. I have a friend who used to art direct for ESPN.com and he indicated they received a lot of griping about the number of ads on their site. His response was to remind them that the majority of the content was FREE and they were easily the largest sports site in town.

If the intention is to grab a user's attention when they come to a site and compel them to stay, I'm not sure ads and brand is the best approach. ESPNs brand is fairly well known already and flashing ad banners is no way to retain visitors (even though in this screencap they are promoting internal initiatives, these spaces have been used for external products).

But I don't work there and don't have to live with the harsh realities of life at ESPN.com. I simply find it interesting to observe that they have used what seems to be their most valuable real-estate for two elements that would seem more at home in print or other forms of media.