Redesigning the D&D website

[Gorrstagg]

Seriously, I find going to their website is an experience that borders on the amateur. Just enough to show a presence, but nothing at all seems professional.

Your redesign, immediately grabbed me and made me want to explore the site.

Someone over there better wake the hell up. They talk about all the changes to 4th edition. Well how about they signal it with a completely redesigned professional quality website.

Not something that was just hacked together in the bathroom while .. you know.. someone just sits there.

Chibbel, you've done an outstanding job. And someone at WotC needs to seriously, pay attention and get you hired ASAP.

 

[Benimoto]

At first glance, I really like it. The single largest feature I like is the blog-style news and features posting. But really, there are a lot of superior things in your design, like the alignment, the headers, the navigation and the backgrounds. All around, very nicely done.

 

[MaelStorm]

Not something that was just hacked together in the bathroom while .. you know.. someone just sits there.

WotC website should be flushed in the toilet!!!

 

[Yair]

I like it's overall design better than the current one, less cluttered and piecemeal.

It does, however, seem to be missing the links to the various sections in its navigation bar. The articles each fit into a category, but I don't see the link to the categories (in case I'm interested in seeing what was published in that category, not at what was generally published recently).

 

[neceros]

Great job.

 

[Plageman]

Wow ! Excellent job.

 

[Khaalis]

To be fair to the Wizards web design team, it may be that senior people call the shots on design, leading to something that they hate having to do but don't have any say on it

(speaking from experience...)

I'd bet money that this is the case. There is likely a "corporate directive" that dictates the current web design philosophy and it shows that a "suit" or other non-web professional has called the design shots. The site isn't actually horrible for what it is, but it is obvious, as Lord Tirian noted, that the current design was implemented by someone with Print Layout background, not web design background.

I too work in the IT field and I see this problem all the time. Even though technology has made leaps and bounds of improvement, people's "thinking" hasn't kept up. It really hasn't sunk in to most people (or businesses) that Web Design is truly different from any other form of media presentation and requires a very specific artistic vision and understanding of how people interact with the web.

I do hope that Chibbell's design at least gets some visibility at WotC. They need to understand that their current design just isn't satisfactory for the new breed of web. They need to take a step back and re-evaluate their current design philosophy and bring it into the modern/future day if they really want a digital initiative to be viable.

 

[Berandor]

I like it's overall design better than the current one, less cluttered and piecemeal.

It does, however, seem to be missing the links to the various sections in its navigation bar. The articles each fit into a category, but I don't see the link to the categories (in case I'm interested in seeing what was published in that category, not at what was generally published recently).

I'm guessing that navigation would happen via the nav bar at the top of the screen.

 

[UngainlyTitan]

I did not comment on hte original review because other people said what I was thinking. I was concerned that the site would become one of those that look pretty but it is impossible to find anything.
However, looking at the suggested design, I would say that it is both functional and pretty. That is pretty much it. I would be somewhat surprised if WotC do not have a revamped site design in mind for June.

At the very least the bulk of Dragon and Dungeon is going to DDI and so I would only expect table of contents and links to free stuff on the main D&D site.

 

[Thanin]

Thanks, now going over to WOtC site will hurt my eyes even more knowing what I could be looking at instead.