My report navigating the D&D website as if I were new to RPGs

[PaulofCthulhu]

I must admit I'd be interested in hearing comments on the usability of my own (RPG-related) site: Yog-Sothoth - YSDC Front Page

 

[jonesy]

I must admit I'd be interested in hearing comments on the usability of my own (RPG-related) site: Yog-Sothoth - YSDC Front Page

I'm impressed. That looks excellent. I'm actually struggling to come up with something to complain about.

Umm.. I guess the 'latest forum posts' scroller widget could use a way to scroll it back upwards, or to stop it (and I don't mean just by hovering over it). But that's such a tiny nitpick I'm a little embarrassed to even say it.

You know that thing I said earlier about how I value clear design over everything else? You really couldn't have made the site clearer. And it still manages to look first rate.

 

[Hussar]

My only complaint about the Yog-Sogoth page is I have no idea what it's about. Ok, that's not true, I know it's something to do with Cthulu, but, is it a CoC page? A blog? what? See, I don't know what YSDC is, so, this page means very little to me.

 

[jonesy]

My only complaint about the Yog-Sogoth page is I have no idea what it's about. Ok, that's not true, I know it's something to do with Cthulu, but, is it a CoC page? A blog? what? See, I don't know what YSDC is, so, this page means very little to me.

You could check the little link titled 'about', but I think it's already quite well said by the logo of their site right there in the top left corner. 'Lovecraft & Cthulhu'. That's what their scope is.

 

[Janx]

I hate this kind of armchair quarterbacking. Even if you're a professional web designer, you don't know their business (even if you know what you like to play) or what constraints they're operating under.

As end consumers/target demographic of the web site, our impressions of the site ARE valid because we DO know their business of selling to us.

As a developer, I don't want to hear how to fix it, as THAT's where you get bad advice. But even with the bad advice, what I extract from that is "you don't like it, it's confusing, it should be better." and I work from that to consider design changes to fix that problem.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

My only complaint about the Yog-Sogoth page is I have no idea what it's about.

Brand new visitors to YSDC should see this dismissible banner across the top, that explains it further:

​

- but anyway, back to D&D. It can be difficult sometimes to order information when you have so much of it available.

Having done web design for a living in the past I know how easy it is to assume that everyone is running on at least the same screen resolution as you are.

Doe anyone have candidates for tabletop games web sites (not just RPGs) that they think are done well?

 

[Hussar]

Ah, PaulofC, I actually missed that line across the middle. Fair enough. Although, that does presuppose that I know what a Lovecraftian game is. Probably not an unfair assumption really.

I always found the http://www.cartographersguild.com/content.php front page pretty friendly.

 

[PaulofCthulhu]

that does presuppose that I know what a Lovecraftian game is. Probably not an unfair assumption really.

Indeed. Hence the "New to it all? See our Introduction" link!

I love the maps at the Cartographers' Guild site. They use the same software as we do (which is the next version along from that currently used by EN World). I think people are still getting to grips with the change in the behaviour of the latest 'What's New?" button, in the latest release though.

I know EN World has been toying with upgrading to the current version of its software. From the sounds of it version 5 is due down the pipe later this year so it might pay to hold off and skip over version 4 completely.

 

[BriarMonkey]

...
In this case, thanks to the magic of cookies, you don't even know what newbies see.
...

They aren't magic - and if you build your site to rely on them, you are building your site based on false assumptions. With the bad press cookies have gotten over the years, there are numerous ways to disable them, delete them, and prevent them from being set in the first place.

...

Criticism is easy. Building stuff is hard. If you have an idea about something great for D&D newbies, go build it, and tell us about it. I'm sure we'll be thrilled to see it. If it's really good, everyone will link to it, and newbies will see it too. (And if not... well, building stuff is hard.)

And no, building stuff is not hard if you pay attention and listen to your customers (and have the skillset to do it).

And again, no. Unless you are beholden to the GSL, you can not just go roll your own. WotC/Hasbro lawyers would shut you down.

So, it actually is up to us to point out issues and say "Hey, this is confusing, please fix it.". Because, after all, they don't think it's confusing - they built it.

 

[Hussar]

Problem is BriarMonkey, its not really that confusing. If people are disabling cookies, then they get the base front page which is about as easy to navigate as it can be - three giant buttons, one of which says, "Newbies press here!"

It's only confusing if you have come to the site more than once. So, yup, a public computer might have these issues. Of course, the next question is, how many people access the WOTC site from a public computer? I imagine Google Analytics might be able to tell you something about that.

To put it another way, the OP's example is flawed because it approaches the site from the point of view of someone who has already accessed the site and has the cookies sitting on his computer. For a complete newbie, accessing for the first time, there are very few problems - it's pretty clear.

As far as the GSL/OGL wank, I'd point out that fansites are not covered by either. There's a reason there's no Section 15 on the En World site, despite hosting vast amounts of OGL material. If you want to create a 4e fansite, the fansite kit: Fankit TOS View | company.wizards.com is right there.