Thoughts on new News Page

[A2Z]

A couple of comments:
1--Where's the link to the reviews page? Please, also make it easier to find than on the old page. I've referred people to enworld to find reviews, but eventually had to send them an url to the actual reviews page because they couldn't find the link.

It's the third link down under Guides on the left. How could that be any easier?

 

[jmucchiello]

There are lots of other RPG sites that use a similar format. Yet, ENWorld is the most popular 3rd ed D&D site. Why would the popular site switch to the method used by the less popular sites? Unknown. What makes it the most popular site? I would guess the reason is because it seems personal. Even when it was Eric's board, the news page was personal. "So and so informs me that ...." is the reason I come back to the page far more often the other unnamed sites. It's the personal touch that makes this place friendly.

Just my thoughts.
Joe

 

[lambdaZUG]

It's the third link down under Guides on the left. How could that be any easier?

Personally, I consider the reviews section the most useful resource on the site. Going by the placement of the links, however, it is the 17th most important section. Some things that have a higher structural priority than reviews:

* D20 Topsites
* Chat room
* What is the d20 system?

I don't know about how you use the site, but at least for me, the three most important assets this site has over any other are these: news, reviews and this board. Navigation structures should have more used things at a higher priority. (Furthermore I should note that the Reviews link is visually estranged from the Lastest Reviews link. They even are in different types of lists! Horizontal and Vertical)

Do you really think that the reviews section is the 17th most used part of enworld? Furthermore, do you also think that it is only the 3rd most used guide here? Only slightly more used than the Guide to Free Adventures?

Now to actually answer your question: "How could that be any easier?" From a user interface design standpoint you want the most important things closest to the visual focus. In the case of web pages, visual patterns are: center, then left side top to bottom, finally right side top to bottom (note: reverse these for RTL languages). So, you put the most important resource in the center: the news. Then, working from top to bottom on the left-hand you order links from most important to least. The human mind tends to boggle after seven to ten "objects" (links, in this case) so try not to exceed that, dividing things up into sections if need be, but not exceeding 7 to 10 objects in each section. Less than that if you have more than, say, 3 sections. Within each section, order the objects from most important to least, and order the sections themselves likewise.

To really say anything definite about how the site's navigational structure should be put together, I'd need some concrete statistics about how the site is used (server logs, say).

Yeesh, that was longer than I had expected. Guess what I do for a living

 

[Morrus]

Personally, I consider the reviews section the most useful resource on the site. Going by the placement of the links, however, it is the 17th most important section. Some things that have a higher structural priority than reviews:

* D20 Topsites
* Chat room
* What is the d20 system?

I don't know about how you use the site, but at least for me, the three most important assets this site has over any other are these: news, reviews and this board. Navigation structures should have more used things at a higher priority. (Furthermore I should note that the Reviews link is visually estranged from the Lastest Reviews link. They even are in different types of lists! Horizontal and Vertical)

Do you really think that the reviews section is the 17th most used part of enworld? Furthermore, do you also think that it is only the 3rd most used guide here? Only slightly more used than the Guide to Free Adventures?

Since you've evidently seen the Latest Reviews link (etc.) I can't quite seem to understand your position that it is the 17th link down. It's right at the top.

So, you put the most important resource in the center: the news. Then, working from top to bottom on the left-hand you order links from most important to least. The human mind tends to boggle after seven to ten "objects" (links, in this case) so try not to exceed that, dividing things up into sections if need be, but not exceeding 7 to 10 objects in each section. Less than that if you have more than, say, 3 sections. Within each section, order the objects from most important to least, and order the sections themselves likewise.

Jeez, you make it sound like a science. There's no need for me, really - it's all done by a set forumula. Very cold. Sounds more like someone laying out a corporate strategy than a hobby fan site.

EN World is a very personal thing; an art as opposed to a science, if such a thing is possible on the internet. Yeah, you may not like some aspects of it, but my website is an expression of me, not of some formulae cooked up by web-design-efficiency-experts.

Incidentally - where does "17th"come from? Depending on whather you include the links at the top, it's either 5th or 9th.

 

[Morrus]

Oh, one thing - I don't mean to sound snippy, but can people please stop fixating on the font size? And, more importantly, stop explaining to me why a too-small font size is bad (Duh! It's because it's harder to read! Thanks! In exchange I'll explain to you why stabbing yourself in the eye is bad - it's because it hurts. And you won' be able to see afterwards. Just in case it's not obvious to some people...).

I agree about the font size. To illustrate this, I'll point out that the first two posts I made in this thread both consisted of me agreeing about the font size. Y'see, I agree about the font size. About the font size - I agree. I am in agreement. I do not disagree. I do not have an opposing viewpoint. I do not hold a differing opinion. That is to say - I agree. Our views coincide.

What this means is you don't need to convince me of anything or explain anything to me about the subject of font sizes!. Honestly.

That is all.

(God... I just woke up and I'm being narky as hell! Sorry folks! )

 

[Kershek]

Someone needs decaf!

I want to say that I love the format of the temporary news page. I especially like the time/date stamp on each item. I also love the ability to comment on each item. In fact, I can't really see anything bad about it. I certainly hope this is how ENWorld will look in the future! This exactly the kind of format I'm used to in a news site.

 

[Morrus]

Someone needs decaf!

I want to say that I love the format of the temporary news page. I especially like the time/date stamp on each item. I also love the ability to comment on each item. In fact, I can't really see anything bad about it. I certainly hope this is how ENWorld will look in the future! This exactly the kind of format I'm used to in a news site.

Coffee and a cigarette have been consumed/imbined/whatever.

I do agree with some people that it's a lot colder, and lacks that special "something". Almost corporate looking, in fact.

However, balanced against that is the fact that it's massively more functional. I'll probably do both. Maybe.

 

[Dragongirl]

Personally, I don't like that new thing at all! Way too divided up, I prefer the news the way it is.

 

[lambdaZUG]

First I want to apologize: I was in no way attempting to tell you how to construct the site, or in any way prescribing what you should do. I was merely offering my interpretation of the layout.

Since you've evidently seen the Latest Reviews link (etc.) I can't quite seem to understand your position that it is the 17th link down. It's right at the top.

Actually, I only saw the Latest Reviews link when I was counting links. I had never noticed it before. Furthermore, dosn't your answer seem to indicate that one of the two links is redundant?

Jeez, you make it sound like a science. There's no need for me, really - it's all done by a set forumula. Very cold. Sounds more like someone laying out a corporate strategy than a hobby fan site.

My background is both in fine art and in graphic design. The analysis I did on the layout is very much like how art is constructed and critiqued. It may not be readily apparent from a distance, but there are rules that have been built up over the years. A grammar, if you will. A student is told, "learn the rules of the game first, only then will you know what you're doing when you break them." Take a color theory class sometime. It is facinating.

EN World is a very personal thing; an art as opposed to a science, if such a thing is possible on the internet. Yeah, you may not like some aspects of it, but my website is an expression of me, not of some formulae cooked up by web-design-efficiency-experts.

My apologies again, I didn't want to be as authoritative as I sounded. However, please don't dismiss me out-of-hand. The human mind has a certain way of interpreting information given to it. It is easily overwhelmed, and easily confused. (See here for a reductionist example.)

Incidentally - where does "17th"come from? Depending on whather you include the links at the top, it's either 5th or 9th.

Start from the top, the horizontal bit has 7 links in it. Then, move down to the left hand column, and count down: Community, 6 links (13 so far); Guides, 3 down (16). Ok, I was wrong, 16. A couple of the items take up 2 lines, so I lost count

Sorry about the font size, too. It's a pet peeve of mine, even with the original enworld.org site. Sooo many sites have their text at size -1, its absurd.

I guess when it just comes down to it, I'd encourage you to just think about what parts of the site are most important and make getting to them easy and obvious. That's really what all my yammering boils down to.

 

[Usurper]

I wouldn't mind the splitting up of topics if they were grouped by date.

I think if you define the font sizes in "em" units instead of "pt" or "px", then you can resize them in all major browsers.

Is that one of the -Nuke CMS's? Or a homemade one? I didn't see any copyright or powered-by notice.