Good and Bad Website Design

GOOD

Website Address: http://www.deviantart.com

deviantART is the world largest online art community, sporting images from many different people worldwide and aspiring artists of varied skill. The first thing that meets your eye when you go onto the site is a range of the most popular images or whichever category is selected on the left hand side where the sites main navigation links are present. The main colour of deviantART is green, a colour that isn't too bold, or bright, but rather neutral and appealing to an audience. The target audience for the site is primarily artists of all kinds, the site is not specifically aimed at an age range. The navigation around the site is fairly simple to understand, and once you are a logged in member of the community you gain access to more specific buttons which enable you to view your own profile and statistics personal to you.

Website Address: http://pinterest.com

The layout of Pinterest is similar in a way to deviantART. When logged in, the 'home page' consists of what could be classed as a random assortment of images pinned to boards you create. You can't browse the sight unless logged in to an already existent account or are willing to sign up to access the sites features which makes it not as accessible as DA but just as rewarding when a member. The site overall is rather plain due to the images being the main subject, the blank background proves this as the user can leisurely stroll through the images they've pinned (To start off you choose specific topics to begin following pins of) and then progress to create your own boards of pretty much any subject of choice. The navigation around the site is simple. 

BAD

Website Address: http://arngren.net

I tend not to look at a website and judge it. If it has what i'm looking for i'd consider it a good enough website. But one thing i can't stand about websites is when nothing makes sense. The first time i found Arngren, my first thought was that i had absolutely no idea what the website was about... The layout was terribly crowded to say the least. Everything overlapped, the colours clashed, and overall it seems to me to be just a bundle of random words and images... I suppose it doesn't help that i can't understand it... But however bad the layout seems the navigation on the left is hard to ignore and is pretty straight forward.