Television Without Pity

televisionwithoutpity.com

Intended Audience

Television Without Pity is a site devoted to television programs, both past, present, and future. It's intended audience consists of fairly regular television viewers, probably from an age range of 18 - 50. I would also say that the authors expect their audience to be fairly Internet savvy and moderately well educated (posters are required to use proper grammar, spelling and punctuation).

Usefulness of Content

As far as meeting the concerns of their audience, TWoP does a fairly decent job. The site provides highly detailed recaps of the 20 - 30 most popular television shows currently on, and also maintains archives of recaps for "deceased" programs. Not every show is recapped, but almost every show aired has a message board devoted to it. From new viewers to avid fans, almost everyone can find what they are looking for.

Consistency of Design

TWoP wisely keeps the design for their website simple and consistent. Beyond the home page, every interior page has the same clean look: hyperlinks that apply throughout the site; banner with the show title on top; various hyperlinks to other content about that specific show, and; a scroll-down menu to choose another television show "homepage". Below, the content is clearly organized, mostly by date, with new recaps and posts listed at the top. The layout applies to every page, and it's simplicity allows the audience to focus on the content, which is smart and funny and does not require any fancy graphics.

Ease of Navigation

This is the only area that TWoP may be weak in. The main way to get to interior pages is located at the top right-hand corner of every page - two scroll-down menus entitled "Pick a show here" and "Pick a form here." While it seems simple enough, I've known a number of people who have had trouble finding how to get to the show they want. Once shown how to navigate between pages people find the navigation easy enough. The site has also had a number of recent server changes, which means that some of the hyperlinks currently do not work as well as they usually do.