Gamespot has some nerve. I went to read their GTA IV review, only to be shown this:
It goes without saying that GameSpot is a big website, but they obviously have no idea about design or usability. Pop up windows are now universally despised because they interrupt the user experience. They should never be used unless the user is expecting them to appear.
Any content that is going to automatically pop up in a new window when you load a page is not worth reading. It’s as simple as that. Even worse is that you’re not told what you “may” be missing out on. It could be anything, but one thing is for sure; no-one is going to bother to find out.
This is such an elementary error that I almost have pity for GameSpot. Their site isn’t exactly well designed to begin with, but this is a total shambles.
Published in Usability, Websites, tagged GameSpot on 1st May 2008. No comments.
As any designer knows, ‘whitespace’ or ‘negative space’ can make websites more legible and easier to digest. Whenever I layout a page for print or the Web, I actively monitor how much negative space there is around, then use it to balance out text and images. However, in the world of videogames websites, this and many other best practices are often discarded in the relentless pursuit of squeezing as much content and advertising space into view as possible. This, then, is a guide to how not to design a videogames website, using a number of the most popular sites on the Web.
1. Anything you can see is fair game
GameSpot is one the worst designed videogames websites and a fine place to begin. The entire background is given over to advertisers, with the main content pushed into a narrow column, leaving no negative space whatsoever. The typography and colours within this main section may be consistent, but the overall impression given by the overpowering array of colour is a negative one. Any focal point that the page had quickly disintegrates in the mess that unfolds and the user is left to navigate their way through the treacherous sea of advertisements in search of content.
2. Put content on multiple pages
I’m not sure who came up with this dastardly trick first, but I’m pretty sure that it was an advertising or marketing committee. The theory goes something like this, “if we make people load more pages, they’ll see more ads, click them and make us a ton of money!” How anyone could think that this is a good thing for the user is beyond me. Unless the article is ridiculously long, it should stay on one page. It takes long enough to load a single GameSpot page, let alone two or three.
3. Make the actual article difficult to read
Typography on the Web is just as important as it is in print. Yet some sites like IGN don’t seem to understand this. Their articles seem to use the default line-height and a font size which is too small, making them difficult to read. Most of the other large videogames sites get this right, leaving IGN sticking out like a sore thumb.
4. Take a commercial break
If the amount of ads on the larger videogames sites like 1UP wasn’t enough already, some of them have the cheek to halt your progress through the site to show you an huge commercial. Users don’t pay attention to this sort of brute force advertising; all they want to do is find the ’skip to content’ button as quickly as possible.
5. Put anything you like on the site navigation
IGN’s site navigation is comical at best. Not only is it split up, but it extends down the page for what seems like forever. The most relevant options may be towards the top, but that still doesn’t excuse the excessive number of those available. Having too many navigation links like this slows the user down, prolonging the process of finding what they’re looking for.
Follow the leader
I’m not saying that every large videogames website should ignore its commercial responsibilities in favour of beautiful aesthetics, but it wouldn’t hurt to use some common sense in their designs. It can be done; Eurogamer has plenty of ads and uses the multiple page trick, but its navigation is concise, the typography is sound and doesn’t take breaks like 1UP. In fact, it’s the only moderately well designed large site out there.
There are hundreds of videogames websites, but many of them are much smaller that the ones I’ve mentioned so far. The trouble is that the designers of these second and third tier sites often replicate the layout and practices of GameSpot et al, resulting in a plethora of badly designed sites. Such poverty of design has become so commonplace that it’s now accepted as normal, and that’s a real shame.
Published in Design, Videogames, Websites, tagged 1UP, Eurogamer, GameSpot, IGN on 28th March 2008. No comments.
