What makes Deadspin so unique in terms of site layout, is their ability to adapt without alienating readers. About a year ago Deadspin radically changed its website design, but they still kept the old layout available to readers who preferred a more traditional blog format.

This format simply lists the posts in a vertical format, with a thumbnail picture and first few sentences of the story. It’s not very space efficient or nice to look at, but at least the option is there for readers who prefer that layout.

Deadspin’s redesign is much better, but it’s also a relatively basic site layout  that is nicer to look at while also being user friendly . The site only has one front, with several divided sections that are easy to differentiate from each other.

The area directly under the banner at the top of the page is devoted to the top story. This is always accompanied by an eye-catching photo or graphic of some kind, with the story’s first paragraph and spikes to related stories below it. Almost always, the graphic they create will have words on it or feature some sort of unusual combination to catch the reader’s attention, such as the top story from the afternoon of April 12. 

Directly to the right is the site’s main tool, the story scroll. Every published post goes on this bar, which is updated in real time. Because every published post is added here, all a reader has to do to find a story is scroll down until they get to it. Since that could take a while, Deadspin also provides a search bar to search for keywords that will lead you to posts on specific subjects.

Right below the day’s top story is two previously posted top stories, with links to related stories below that as well. Since Deadspin also publishes many posts on particular subjects and has several series going at once, they also have a recent archive of four different series on the home front that have recently been in the top story spot.

Because some of Deadspin’s content is clearly more popular and time-sensitive than others, they also post links to some of their other content towards the bottom of the page. These are often posts that have popular tags as titles, such as “Streakers” and “Opening Day(s).”

The final section of the site’s design is a link to Deadspin’s sister websites under the Gawker umbrella. Below a thumbnail of each site, Deadspin lists links to some of the site’s most popular features, which makes it very easy to get to. This is also where you’ll find the links to the site’s “About us” page and the “Tips” section.