Where the #$%$^ is Stuff on D&D Insider?

[2WS-Steve]

I tried to go looking for the Hawt Beardless Dwarven Warlock Lady mentioned in this ENworld Thread -- got to the D&D Insider site , and had just no luck. I went to the GALLERIES link off the main page figuring that would help, but then noticed that it's alphabetically ordered with articles going back four years.

The main page itself doesn't seem to deliver much content -- mostly just links to other pages that, like the gallery archive, may be of limited use.

As far as stuff that gets updated regularly, you've got one box with a single news item in it, a sage advice box that takes up a lot of space for a single sentence question, then the tabbed box in the middle, which strikes me as the most useful item on the page, but way too small.

The rest is taken up with static content -- the big banner at the head telling us 4th Edition, which hasn't changed since launch -- submission guidelines which probably just ought to be a link, and yet more links in the last box -- this to accompany the list of links to the left and right.

Compare this to the ENWorld Front page where you see a nice extensive list of all the latest material (or informative blurbs with links to the full material) right when you load up, and can then easily scroll down to see older material depending on how often you check in. Then the sidebars are used for the more static items and site navigation.

Before I start paying for it, I hope D&D Insider starts making better use of its screenspace.

 

[tlantl]

http://www.enworld.org/images/4e/4edwarves.jpg

try this

http://www.enworld.org/images/4e/dwarfwar.jpg

or this

 

[Banshee16]

I tried to go looking for the Hawt Beardless Dwarven Warlock Lady mentioned in this ENworld Thread -- got to the D&D Insider site , and had just no luck. I went to the GALLERIES link off the main page figuring that would help, but then noticed that it's alphabetically ordered with articles going back four years.

The main page itself doesn't seem to deliver much content -- mostly just links to other pages that, like the gallery archive, may be of limited use.

As far as stuff that gets updated regularly, you've got one box with a single news item in it, a sage advice box that takes up a lot of space for a single sentence question, then the tabbed box in the middle, which strikes me as the most useful item on the page, but way too small.

The rest is taken up with static content -- the big banner at the head telling us 4th Edition, which hasn't changed since launch -- submission guidelines which probably just ought to be a link, and yet more links in the last box -- this to accompany the list of links to the left and right.

Compare this to the ENWorld Front page where you see a nice extensive list of all the latest material (or informative blurbs with links to the full material) right when you load up, and can then easily scroll down to see older material depending on how often you check in. Then the sidebars are used for the more static items and site navigation.

Before I start paying for it, I hope D&D Insider starts making better use of its screenspace.

You're not the only one with these worries...

I don't feel that D&D Insider is very well designed at all. It has poor information architecture, and at the moment, there's no compelling case to buy, given that it seems like they'll simply be starting to charge a membership for content we currently receive for free. of course, there will be the character generator, dice roller, etc.....but if they can't even provide information in a logical, easy-to-find format, I don't have a lot of hope for the other tools...

Banshee

 

[Mouseferatu]

iven that it seems like they'll simply be starting to charge a membership for content we currently receive for free.

They've already said there will still be a free section of the site, and it'll contain much of what's free right now.

 

[Mouseferatu]

That said, I do agree that it can be hard to find stuff over there. I hope the current layout is still going through some changes in the near future.

 

[2WS-Steve]

Thanks for the links tlantl.

Since they're doing an online magazine format, it'd probably be best to look at the big online mags since they've already tested a bunch of layouts and have probably gotten past the ones that fail.

Both Salon and Slate look like they've gone with the fairly straight-forward blog style design -- pretty much like ENWorld.

 

[broghammerj]

That said, I do agree that it can be hard to find stuff over there. I hope the current layout is still going through some changes in the near future.

This is what scares me. I don't get the sense WOTC hired a bunch of software/IT guys to keep up with their website with the DND insider. I never went to the "old" website because it was hard to navigate. So far I haven't seen anything to convince me otherwise.

 

[Morrus]

Well, none of the stuff has launched yet, so it's a little early to be criticising it. Dragon and Dungeon launch in October; the virtual gaming stuff later than that. I imagine you'll find it's hard to navigate to stuff on there at present because there's nothing on there yet!

 

[wedgeski]

Well, none of the stuff has launched yet, so it's a little early to be criticising it. Dragon and Dungeon launch in October; the virtual gaming stuff later than that. I imagine you'll find it's hard to navigate to stuff on there at present because there's nothing on there yet!

Exactly, not to mention that a third of the real-estate is being taken up with a 4th Edition banner that will obviously get dumped once the real content starts flowing.

 

[jeffh]

Well, none of the stuff has launched yet, so it's a little early to be criticising it. Dragon and Dungeon launch in October; the virtual gaming stuff later than that. I imagine you'll find it's hard to navigate to stuff on there at present because there's nothing on there yet!

While there is some truth to this, what is there is still needlessly hard to navigate. If it's this hard to find a given article (multiple tiny, tiny links needed when the rest of it is full of useless wasted space), how much worse is it likely to be when everything is there?