Read our reviews of 5 different types of entertainment sites, including pros and cons and overviews of the mobile versus desktop sites.
By Simoné Gambrell,Sep 4, 2024
Simoné Gambrell is a Copywriter based in South Africa. She has enjoyed using her creativity to research and write articles about logos for small businesses since 2019.
An "entertainment website" can be defined as any platform that shares and promotes various forms of entertainment, including movies, music, games, or celebrity news. A good entertainment website should have strong, quality content, whether that includes reviews or facts about the chosen form of entertainment.
This type of site can also be a community space for like-minded individuals to interact and discuss their favorite form of entertainment. When designing your entertainment site, try using Zarla's entertainment AI website builder, which will design a site with content for you in less than a minute.
How We Evaluate Websites:
Zarla checks that sites meet basic web standards for mobile and desktop. We also use Google's PageSpeed Insights, and WAVE, a service that evaluates accessibility for individuals with disabilities. PageSpeed scores and accessibility are important factors for search engine rankings. PageSpeed scores may not match user experience and can vary substantially.
- 1.UK Music.
- 2.The Music Network.
- 3.IMDb.
- 4.Slotomania.
- 5.Entertainment Weekly.
UK Music
London, England, U.K.
UK Music offers a platform for collaboration, campaigning, and championing music and is a membership organization for the production side of the music industry. The site is formal, authoritative, and informative, suiting an organization that works towards a healthy industry.
I liked that the newsletter signup and social media links are immediately available in the top bar and that the site has a varied selection of content, from education to policies and diversity. The site is fairly standard and doesn't seem to include multimedia features, aside from the occasional video.
Pros and Cons
WAVE reported less than five errors across various pages of the site. There are no ads on the site and the social media links are clearly available. Due to the simple nature of the site, the articles offer clean legibility, particularly on the desktop site where the font is larger.
The site is only semi-compliant with assistive technologies. The contact details could be more prominent and a number of articles are simply long blocks of text with no images to offer visual relief. The mobile site sometimes shows a lack of consistency in the layout.
Desktop Review
The desktop site reads like a standard news site, with articles placed in a grid layout and CTAs encouraging you to read more. I found it had a pleasing aesthetic with a large font that was easy to read. However, some articles were a touch overwhelming in length, with little to no images to break up the text blocks. In my real-world tests, the site ran smoothly with quick loading times, and PageSpeed Insights confirmed my results with a performance score of 98/100 on the desktop site's home page.
Mobile Review
I found the mobile site less impactful than the desktop, as it lacked a strong hero image or any form of color when first opening the site. The grid layout for the articles was inconsistent, with gapping and some blocks appearing narrower than others, which impacted the visual aesthetic.
I also found the hamburger menu a little clunky, as once I opened it, I couldn't change my mind and close it again without selecting a new destination. The long text blocks were also more overwhelming on mobile than on desktop. However, the mobile site loads quickly and smoothly, and PageSpeed Insights awarded the home page a performance score of 89/100.
The Music Network
Australia
The Music Network features news, interviews, and job openings for the music industry in Australia and abroad. The site has a simple layout, with only five main pages featuring news stories, job openings, and an email link to request advertising. While there are ads on the site, they don't distract from the content, which offers high-quality news pieces. The addition of multimedia features, including some sound links, is a great touch on this site, keeping it from appearing too static and formal.
Pros and Cons
The site is simple to navigate and offers clear social media links and a newsletter signup. While visitors can't comment on the articles on the site, there is the option to share them on social media and comment there, encouraging discussion and engagement.
The site is not compliant with assistive technologies and WAVE reported a large number of errors across the various pages, including empty links and contrast issues. On the desktop site, the ad banner is large, pushing the hero image down until it's almost hidden without scrolling on most screens.
Desktop Review
While the desktop site's home page scored an impressive 92/100 for performance on PageSpeed Insights, slightly slower loading speeds were also noted. In my real-world tests, I mostly noted lags in loading photos and the ad banners. The ad banner on the home page pushed the hero image down, giving more importance to the ad than the news story. However, other ads on the site were well-placed and didn't distract from the available news articles.
Mobile Review
The hero image on the mobile site lacks the impact of the desktop site, with the text superimposed over the entire image. However, the top ad banner is a lot smaller than on the desktop site, allowing the news story to shine. While my real-world tests ran smoothly for the most part, there were some instances of lags and even freezes when loading some pages. On PageSpeed Insights, the mobile site's home page received 86/100 for performance, with slow loading speeds noted.
IMDb
Seattle, Washington, U.S.
IMDb is a well-known site focused on providing information about movies, TV series, and celebrities. Visitors can view a range of information about specific movies or TV series, from a basic plot line and the cast list to fun facts and trivia about the show and the actors.
Visitors can also leave reviews and engage with each other about the movies. We can also watch upcoming trailers and celebrity interviews, highlighting the multimedia features available on this site. When creating an account, visitors can also create a watchlist and keep track of upcoming movies and TV series they want to see.
Pros and Cons
WAVE reported only a handful of empty link and multiple form label errors on various pages across the site, while some pages also showed a handful of contrast errors. The site guides visitors through the latest posts and what to watch, and also offers top picks and popular movies and series.
The home page can be somewhat overwhelming with the number of categories available and the amount of videos to watch. Aside from that, I didn't find much to detract from the site.
Desktop Review
The desktop site draws visitors in with a great hero banner that encourages views, but I did think the sheer volume of articles present on the home page required a lot of careful scrolling and searching. My real-world tests showed smooth video play and quick loading times, findings that were supported by PageSpeed Insights, which gave the desktop site's home page a 100% performance rating.
Mobile Review
The mobile site's home page also received a 100% performance rating on PageSpeed Insights, and I couldn't disagree with this finding. The pages loaded smoothly and the videos had a strong playback. The mobile site is well-optimized for smaller screens, but I found this did mean that I had to scroll a lot more than on the desktop site, giving the same amount of information that was compressed onto the smaller page.
Slotomania
Henderson, Nevada, U.S.
Slotomania is an online entertainment platform where visitors can sign up and play hundreds of no-cash slot machine games for free. As an entertainment platform, it checks all the boxes with bright colors, smooth animations, and quick access to hours of entertainment.
I love how engaging the site is and it's super easy to log in and get started. I did feel that while the site has a disclaimer at the bottom of the home page mentioning the optional purchase of virtual coins, this info should be more prominent and certainly included in the FAQs.
Pros and Cons
The site includes player reviews and an FAQ section. The accessibility button ensures optimal usability. It's easy to sign up and start playing.
The social media icons should be larger and the app download buttons should be more prominent on the home page. WAVE picked up several contrast errors on the home page.
Desktop Review
On desktop screens, the Slotomania site is a visual spectacle, assaulting the senses with bright colors and spectacular animations. The CTA button is hard to miss and easily led me to the sign-up page ready to get started. I did feel that the social media links got lost in the top right corner and only gained contrast when the floating menu appeared. According to PageSpeed Insights, the home page scored 78/100 for performance.
Mobile Review
Although hidden behind the hamburger menu, the social media links are given more prominence on mobile which I appreciated. In general, I was less wowed by the mobile site which seems functional enough but clunky with dense packets of text between random images. Google's PageSpeed Insights test gave the home page a lower performance score of 43/100.
Entertainment Weekly
Los Angeles, California, U.S.
Entertainment Weekly is a journalism site dedicated to what we watch, play, listen to, read, and experience — entertainment! I enjoyed the clear layout of the site, which meant I could find news articles in the exact category I was looking for, from movies and series to books and comic cons. While there were a number of ads on the site, they were well-placed and didn't distract from the articles. The site also includes videos and podcast episodes from The Awardist.
Pros and Cons
WAVE reported no errors on the main pages of the site. The site is well-organized with clear categorization and offers readers quality, fact-checked articles. The social media icons are also on prominent display in the footer, together with a newsletter signup link.
According to accessScan, the site is only semi-compliant with assistive technologies. The banner ad sometimes overwhelms the top of the desktop pages but does disappear after scrolling.
Desktop Review
The desktop site has a clean yet full appearance that just escapes being cluttered through the organized layout. However, the top story does lose some prominence with other stories clustered around it. I also found my gaze jumping around the page to try to take in all the stories available. In my real-world tests, I noticed some slower loading times on images and videos, which was also noted on the PageSpeed Insights test. This test awarded the desktop site's home page 83/100 for performance.
Mobile Review
The mobile site presents a clean home page, with discrete ads that are less visible than on the desktop site. The top story is front and center on the mobile site, giving it clear prominence. I much preferred the vertical layout of the mobile site, as I could easily scroll through all the articles, one after the other, and get a better picture of everything on offer. PageSpeed Insights reported quick loading times on the mobile site's home page, with a performance score of 68/100.
