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Message: <blockquote data-quote="talien" data-source="post: 270639" data-attributes="member: 3285">My Suggestions for RedesignHi Morrus!Looking at the site from a design perspective, here's my advice:Studies show that a reader's eyes, when browsing the web, focus from top left to top right in a straight line.  Then, depending on what the next element is, the reader's focus moves to that item (say, a flashy graphic) or alternately moves diagonally downward.  In that relatively small, one screenfull of space, you have to get your points across or you're losing readers.As of right now, that 3E design sucks up bandwidth and is unpleasant looking.  It could just as easily be a black background -- it serves no purpose as it is not effectively branding the site since we can't see it hidden in the background.So Step #1: Get a better logo.  The logo should probably tie in the 3rd edition part.  New viewers who look at this site have no idea what in the world the site has to do with the letter "N".  It needs to be more obvious, more flashy, and incorporate the Third-Edition News aspect.  I'd say run a contest for that before jumping to web site design.Step #2: If you recall my comments at the beginning of this post, the eye starts in the top left corner of the screen.  The first impression is created there.  This is where you get my attention, ever so briefly, so you must use it wisely.  This is what I see now:A) The logo.  Good, I should know where I'm at.  B) The advertiser.  Not so good.  One second into the site and you're distracting with an advertisement.  Which is, in essence, encouraging me to go somewhere else.  Between the logo and the advertisement, there needs to be more content about the actual site.  And I say this knowing that I'm one of those advertisers. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f61b.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":P" title="Stick out tongue    :P"  data-smilie="7"data-shortname=":P" />My eye scrolls back in zig-zag fashion to the far left again, and this is what I get:C) Support EN World.  Whoa.  I don't even know what your site is about and the first thing you're conveying (at this point, third thing) is that you want me to support you?  It comes too early.D) Contact Me.  Important info -- but contact you about what?  I haven't actually read the site yet.E) Logos.  Logos for what?  Logos for who?  ENWorld logos?  Why do I care about this?F) Advertising.  By this point my impression of this site is that it is a news agency.  Which is precisely what people see it as -- everything here is about 1) getting money for the site (advertising, supporting EnWorld) or contacting the site owner to help advertise the site (logos, advertising, contact me).  None of it has anything to do with the site's PRIMARY purpose.G) Links.  Good, but again this is another incentive for me to leave the site.H) Reviews/D20 Guide.  AH HA!  Here it is.  This is what I came for.  Why is it all the way at the far end of the navigation?  It should be first, way before Supporting EN World.We're not even at the news yet. <img src="https://cdn.jsdelivr.net/joypixels/assets/8.0/png/unicode/64/1f642.png" class="smilie smilie--emoji" loading="lazy" width="64" height="64" alt=":)" title="Smile    :)"  data-smilie="1"data-shortname=":)" />The next thing I notice is that big, gold medal.  Oooh, SHIIIIINNNNYYYY.  Except I can't read it (for some reason, it's cloaked in shadow).  This is the right place for such a medal to be -- it's the only graphic element on the page and it caught my eye.  But it really should incorporate the ENWorld logo into it (these are the ENnies after all).  Heck, it could temporarily replace the logo -- you'll recall, that's the #1 best spot to advertise what your site is. Then we have the STUFF.  And boy do we have a lot.  The stuff categories include Community, Guides, E.N.Zines, The Black Pages, Resources, Settings/d20 Games, ENnies, Email Updates, and Donations.  That's just the left side. On the right side: Current Contests, Online Store, Hosted Sites, WotC Product Schedule, and Future Rumors.In the middle: News and Archived News.Let me state up front the top three reasons I come to ENWorld: 1) News2) The Messageboards3) ENWorld Guides to companies/publishers (because I freelance)I think the top navigation has it right.  So why reproduce it?  Let's take the categories already created by the top navigation and lay them out a little better.ADVERTISING:  Why not have a link under the advertising banner which says "if you'd like to advertise in this space, click here"?  Under this category F) which is how to advertise, and E) logos which is more advertising.  Community Supporters belong in this sub-page too.SUPPORT EN WORLD: It's really obvious that EN World really really REALLY wants to be supported.  It's listed first in the top left navigation, then under Community, then in the bottom left.  This strikes me as unnecessary.  Once is fine.  REVIEWS/D20 GUIDE:  The fact that this has a slash in it is a hint.  I do not associate Reviews with D20 Guide.  A guide is not a review, and a review is not a guide.  They are two separate things -- one presumably being more impartial than the other.  This distinction is preserved in the top navigation, but not the left, where the Guides category contains the D20 review information.  I suggest breaking this up into two categories: a guide for those interested in learning about companies and products, and a review section for those who are just interested in the reviews.LINKS: To where?  This doesn't explain to me why I should go to those links.  Nix it.COMMUNITY: Moving on to the left navigation, this is a good idea.  It's one of the main reasons I think many people visit ENWorld.  It deserves to be on that top bar navigation.  Get rid of Community Supporters and Support ENWorld.E.N.ZINES:  What?  What are these?  Why should I read them?  Perhaps put a small graphic that represents the covers for the two zines.  Titles alone don't draw me.  What are they offering that ENWorld doesn't already?  Why should I go there?  THE BLACK PAGES:  Okay, Black Pages to me means that you're boycotting something.  Remember that?  This doesn't mean anything to me.  It's content.  Looks like a guide to me.RESOURCES: This is like the Links section.  Isn't everything a resource?  It looks like these are guides too.SETTINGS/D20 GAMES: More content hopping off the front page.  ENNIES:  Here we have the ENnies again -- the archive should be linked to that big gold medallion.  That's all you really need (and certainly, if they're important, they don't belong in the bottom left corner).STORE: Of all the things on this page, the store is the most appropriately placed. I won't look at it every time since it's in the place I read least (the far right hand side), but it's got pretty graphics to draw me over there.  I would leave that. CONTESTS: The Contests, on the other hand, dont' belong there.  If they're urgent contests that fluctuate often, it should be on the left -- where my focus is.HOSTED SITES: More links to other places.  PRODUCT SCHEDULE: Like the store, this is ideally located on the right.  Not a lot of content, but lots of flash.NEWS: Ahhhh, news.  Sweet news.  It's the number one thing we read.  So why is it cloaked in gold lettering on a black background, which is not easy to read?  Why do I have to scroll down to read the other days?  This is what I suggest:NEWS ARCHIVE: Even better, a little calendar (that can easily be done in HTML) which links to each day for the past month would be great.  So if I want to see what happened last Thursday, I can just look at the calendar and click down.  This would fit on the left/right columns and would work well as a flashy item.My short attention span has me focused on the big sea of gold text only for a few seconds.  Rather than make me work for what I'm looking for, how about summarizing the categories for each day.  Each short intro would be a link further down the page.SITE NEWS: Site RedesignNEW AT WOTC: Random Encounters, In the Works, & Olidammara's Dice...D20 SYSTEM NEWS: Fantages Studio, Ral Partha Europe, & Fiery DragonCOMMUNITY NEWS: Emerald Night, Call of the Horn, Netbook of NPCs, TablesmithREVIEWS: Blight Magic, Occult Lore, & Way of the Ninja.You've just made my browsing a thousand times easier.  Better yet, I can now decide what I want to read about what happened on Monday in a flash.  I then click on any one of the above links and instantly scroll down to the anchors on the page.You can do this for each day and then make better use of the space on the right or left by putting in the previous day's summary.  It's short, catchy, and most importantly useful.  It gets me the news I want right away.Since the site scrolls a lot, the other links off the page (ENZines, D20 worlds, etc.) are best served by small icons identifying them and distinguishing them from each other -- almost as if they were products out of the WOTC catalog on the left.  That would definitely get my attention when I scrolled down.  Little is served by simply having a static link on the left-hand side.  That leaves more room for navigation.To review.  Across the very top: ENWORLD LOGO | ADVERTISINGSecond row: D20 GUIDE | REVIEWS | COMMUNITY | CONTACTLeft Column: NEWS CALENDAR | ENNIES | CONTESTS | ENZINES | D20 GAMES (each treated like a separate product with icons rather than a list)Middle Column: NEWS SUMMARY | NEWSRight Column: ONLINE STORE | WOTC PRODUCT SCHEDULEHope that's helpful!Mike "Talien" Tresca<a href="http://www.retromud.org/talien" target="_blank">http://www.retromud.org/talien</a></blockquote>

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