Website Elements

I looked at a few websites, and finally landed on the National Geographic Website. I would say that there is a tree type of element, however there is also a top-down structure that is evident. The tree element comes into play when the title "National Geographic" is at the top of the page in the left corner, but very present. As your eye moves to the next line on the web page, you see the tool bar, which have links you can click on that take you to the various subject headings found on the website. The information is broken down on the main page, with smaller headings such as "Editor's Pick" and "Featured Videos."
In addition to the tree format, as your eyes move down the page, you go up-down, however in most of the lines, there are headings that go across the page in an almost given and new format, displaying the left-right design elements. Being that it is a news-related website, the news is always changing which means that it is hard to display old with the new. The content is always changing while the format stays the same and the titles never change on the top of the page. There is always a big video slide show playing when you open the website, causing your eyes to look there first and maybe find more stories that are of interest to them.
There is a smaller side bar that seems less important only because the pictures and words are smaller than the rest of the section headings mentioned in the middle and the column to the right once you get a little further down.
I think this is a good use of design elements. It is almost as if you're reading an actual newspaper, maybe not so much a magazine, which National Geographic actually is in print. There are links to the stories under the different headings that will help you to navigate exactly what you want to read and where you want to go. You can go back after entering a link fairly easy, making the design user-friendly. It is also appealing with the yellow markers in front of the subject headings so you know what they are in a simple way that doesn't involved bolding them.