Rotten Tomatoes

Rotten Tomatoes

A website designed to collocate movie reviews into a visual representation of rotten vs. fresh. Rotten Tomatoes’ FAQ touts that this method is an objective resource due to its amassing of the nation’s top print and online film critics and then averaging their reactions.

Target Audience:

Audience can fit in the spectrum ranging from casual movie-goers to fine* film connoisseurs.

*completely subjective

Usefulness of Content:

The website creates a pool of resources for readers to access in both quick summations via the “Tomatometer”, and through forums, discursive articles, and full-length reviews. The “Tomatometer” is the site’s barometer of a movie’s awesomosity. Besides being an aggregator of reviews the website also provides readers access to trailers, synopses, show times/tickets, DVD and video game news, and a local social networking system called “The Vine”.

Consistency of Design:

The colors are complimentary, muted, and earthy. Each section is self-contained in boxes so as to break the information into easily digested segments. When you choose a specific movie it opens to a new page which follows the same format as the main page.

Ease of Navigation:

Upon first navigating Rotten Tomatoes the overload of information might be disconcerting. Ads alongside the top and right hand side of the page are often animated and can lead to distraction if easily attracted to shiny things. On the left hand side is a box containing new releases and their status of either rotten or fresh, signaling whether the movie is a magnum opus or a dud. Each movie has its own dedicated page with a “Critic’s Tomatometer” which clearly indicates if the movie is considered “fresh” (at least 60% positive reviews) or “rotten”. Below the tomatometer are snippets of reviews enclosed in conversation bubbles with links to the full versions.