D&D 4E Video Review of the 4E D&D Website

[FreeXenon]

I am a web developer as well. Margins, padding, and font sizes... Uggghh!

The usability of their site needs a major work over. It would be great if their could hire a professional standards based developer team with large dose of usability added on.

I ma pretty sure that WoW has a hell of a lot more money to devote to a website.

 

[AllisterH]

A simple example.

I think there was a 4e pit fiend previewed in some article a couple of months ago...

My first reaction would be to click on "previews" in the home menu, or is it "excerpts"?

Neither. I should have known it was in "Dragon". why i have to sign in (or later pay) for this particular preview isn't quite clear but hey...

So it's not a "feature", it's a "column" of course. It makes much more sense.

"Design & Development" maybe?
NO it's in "AMPERSAND". the name tells it all! I should have known from the start!


....OR I could have googled [site:www.wizards.com "pit fiend"] = FIRST HIT

Um, why wouldn't you use the SEARCH feature at the top right page? I typed in "PIT FIEND and it returned various PIT FIEND execrpts....I didn't think that was hard to find....

 

[Piratecat]

Can I get a crappy video on the front page too by posting it too my blog?

Will shooting in in ghastly lighting and camera angle and facial hair that accentuate my neck fat help?

Personal insults are absolutely inappropriate.

If you can't critique the content, and have to rely on personal insults of the guy making the video, don't even bother posting.

 

[Aluvial]

Do any of you remember the fiasco when 3.0 went online? They changed the website, and announced this big "tune in at at this absolute time" and the site overloaded and crashed. You might get the front page, but forget about navigating about.

I see the countdown timer again.... I predict... another crash!

The reviewer is right though; the site is uninspired, and Dragon and Dungeon going "digital" has been a huge letdown, and I don't care if it is free or not. I certainly wouldn't pay for it.
WHERE ARE THE PROMISED COMPILATIONS IN PDF?

Also, despite the large amount of good content on the site, the search function really stinks... tryign to search through the archive is dificult, I despise the new Sage Advice, and really don't care for tight menu options.

I do like the art preview, the Coming Attractions on the right hand side, and some semblance of a news ticker cycling through the new content...

I'd also like to voice disent with those who have the opinion that WotC "can do no wrong."
Yes, they can and frequently do.

Anyhow, hopefully with 4e we get a new website, even if takes a few days to be able to log on after launch.

Aluvial

 

[ObsidianCrane]

WotC's DnD site never bothered me much until I tried to browse it on my PDA, then it became utterly useless. Thankfully ENWorld works fine still for the PDA.

Now while I wouldn't hold the WoW site up as a paragon of web design, from a graphical and access point of view its leaps and bounds in front of the DnD site, and as others have rightfully pointed out - WotC is expecting people to pay for this stuff soon, and the quality of service now suggests you will not be getting your $$ worth at all.

 

[Aluvial]

I am a web developer as well. Margins, padding, and font sizes... Uggghh!

The usability of their site needs a major work over. It would be great if their could hire a professional standards based developer team with large dose of usability added on.

Didn't they recently make known that they were hiring an individual for this very task?

Aluvial

 

[AllisterH]

It definitely will crash on 4E's release day. That's just the nature of the beast on the web.

Even WoW tells people NOT to lon in the same day an expansion hits the shelves because of the unusual load. I guess for me when people say "I want an inspired website, WoW is a great example" leaves me scratching my head because seriously, they look somewhat like carbon copies of each other....

 

[Einan]

I'm not a web designer, so I won't touch that aspect, but I do have to say that the WotC site is a bit labyrinthine to navigate. Finding exactly what I want, especially anything from before the 4e redesign is a chore which can take 5-6 minutes.

That being said, I wouldn't say that it's horrible, merely unplanned. It seems like it was created and content was added, but no clear plan for how and where future content might rest was in place. It would very much benefit from some sort of logical plan for its sustainability.

Einan

 

[lutecius]

Um, why wouldn't you use the SEARCH feature at the top right page? I typed in "PIT FIEND and it returned various PIT FIEND execrpts....I didn't think that was hard to find....

Because it's the tenth result? Because had it been an article about something more common like "elf" (in which case google wouldn't help either, granted) I would have had to dig anyway?
Because menus are there for some reason, and should be intuitive or they're a waste of space on an already busy page?

 

[JVisgaitis]

What other website do you guys recommend that I check out? I've been a WoW player and I've never though WoW website was impressive. Then again, my standard is pretty low (can I find it easily? Then it works).....

I think our website is cleanly designed and easy to navigate: http://www.icirclegames.com

Granted, WotC has a much harder time with all of the content they have, but they can do a much better job IMO.