Mock-up attached?

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Yep, and maybe for few next days depending on the webhost capability to let me solve the cpu load problem (sitemap generator plugin went wrong and consumed most of cpu load:|) without upgrading to a not free account.

Looks lovely now, though.

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Currently doing a plastic scenery kickstarter

Looks b**dy fantastic! Well done! I hope it sees the light of online one day.

Graphically it works, in terms of UX/design here are some initial thoughts/comments/crits if you want them, feel free to ignore:

If i get to this site with little prior knowledge, the main page tells me nothing about what the Net ERC does (or even what the name stands for) without having to go to sub pages. Is this a rules page? do you sell minis? does the Net ERc organize tournaments? is this independent from GW? etc, at the very least have a one line strap intro. The map adds interest, not certain about function being just new resources.

I would say no to the 'in character language' or at least as it is phrased in mock-up. For example – the 'search' labeled as 'locator' situated next to a map sounds like it would locate something on the map, not search the site.

That main page looks to have potentially six different navigation menues, depending on their exact use:
right top links, race bar, main left nav, map as nav to new resources, right side top as nav to new resources, right site lower as nav to current events.
Maybe that works, dunno without seeing some IA, seems like an excessively large number of separate nav elements. Gets more confusing when you have them highlighting which page your are on as well, for example currently the screen shows NetERC Overview and Imperial as the selected page due to overlap.

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

thinking about it, it wouldn't have to be a one line intro etc, just needs to be 'something' to help people get their bearings, GW site does not say welcome to GW we make little plastic men, but it does have lots of picture of war-gaming figures in scifi/fantasy settings.




I would politely disagree with regards to this as applied to the mock up, or at least say that there is a balance between encouraging exploration vs risk of confusion and/or possible choice paralysis. Should be possible to have something that creates a sense of activity, without creating excessive visual busyness*. Im not necessarily saying there are too many options, just that they are spread out over every area of of the screen except the bottom and could maybe be organised differently.


*Eg: taken to extremes: http://www.belloflostsouls.net/ ye, well it does look like their is activity and you have more nav link areas to 'explore' than you could shake user testing at, but i mean

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

yep the labels and buttons would probably do it, look forward to seeing it progress

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

I have to agree with Apoc's points about UX. I showed the mockup to several of the guys here in the office who don't know much about epic and they were completely lost as to what the site's purpose was. If you have any wireframes of the site structure done it could help to answer a lot of the questions I'm going to ask from the perspective of someone visiting the site without the benefit of your explanation text.

Your news, sitemap, and other links at the top are getting lost with the other layers of navigation. They might be more visible once the site is laid out, but I didn't even see them when I first looked at the image you posted. I gather these aren't primary nav links, but I'm still curious as to why they need to be offset like you have them rather than integrated into the primary nav.

That brings me to another question. What IS the primary nav? The menu on the left seems to be it, but the race buttons at the top could also be it. Do the race buttons just change the skin or do they also access different pages?

Speaking about the race buttons, people familiar with 40k might be able to decipher them, but without some way of labeling WHAT the icon is, you've got mystery meat nav for those not in the know visiting the site. It looks cleaner to leave off the labels, but if you are putting much emphasis on the top nav then you should also label what it is so people aren't blind clicking.

That brings us to the content area. As apoc says, you need to lose the in character speak. All it will do is serve to confuse the user. For example, what's the difference between news and intelligence data? Both would seem to serve the same function which begs the question why not just call intel data what it is and remove the link to the news in the ambiguous top bar?

The same goes for Operations. This seems to reference tournaments by the content in the box so why call it current operations rather that tournaments?

I'm also confused at the purpose of the map. It looks pretty, but what function does it perform on the page and why does it use so much of the screen real estate to the exclusion of any other content? The large map combined with the search box labeled Locator far down on the page makes me think that it's supposed to search the map rather than the site, but from the image of the map I don't see why it would require a search box.

Last of all, graphically I have a few questions. I understand the use of the stencil typeface to indicate guard or military themes, but what you've chosen for the NET ERC is rather anemic. It would be good to beef this up a bit with something that doesn't look like light condensed version or switch to a completely different typeface like Caslong Antique if you want to follow the GW styling.

I'm also curious as to your reasons behind the decision to float the site in the middle of the screen rather than align it left since you haven't broken the content area from the site background. On 4:3 displays it'll be alright since the won't be as much space to the left and right, but on widescreen displays this looks quite awkward with the amount of space between the content and the frame formed by the browser. Are you planning on the site dynamically expanding? I also find your choice for a small floating copyright block curious. Is there are reason behind the choice to do this? It would be more natural to mirror the top of the page by having the copyright bar go entirely across the screen since you haven't enclosed the content area to make the smaller copyright bar flow naturally.

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-Vaaish

huh, id never considered the imperium using letterpress befor

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AFK with real life, still checking PMs

The look of it is really nice, but I am totally lost with the navigation. If I were to click through to this website, I would be thinking:
1. What is this site I have landed on, I have no idea. No description, and even the title is just an acronym I probably have not heard of before
2. What is this map supposed to show me?
3. Where do I click next?
4. Why have you made me decipher what everything is from some foreign dialect?

Just so it's not lost in the above, I'll re-iterate my first point: it still does look really nice.

One thought - is this a NetERC site, a NetEA site, or something more general than that (i.e. anything about Epic Armageddon)? IMO what is needed is a NetEA site that is very simple to help orientate new players with the state of Epic, how to get started etc. Really to begin with the site only needs a few things:
1. Intro to Epic of some form, e.g. definitions of acronyms, a brief history.
2. Somewhere to host army lists. It's important it is good enough that ACs will put all lists there, it only takes a few missing lists for the site to lie unused. Likewise new players want to be able to tell which lists they "should be using" so a very usable browse function is needed.
3. FAQs.
4. To have good content authoring capabilities. People need every incentive to keep information up to date. Just look at the state of the old stickies dotted around the forum that are supposed to contain important information.

More stuff can be added later if necessary, but I'd be wary of whizz-bang features which will probably detract from the simplicity and clarity that is required.

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Kyrt's Battle Result Tracker (forum post is here)
Kyrt's trade list

For an example of what I mean about army lists, have a look at the play site I did some work on a while back:
http://netea.redsilico.com
Use of Games Workshop images aside, of course

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Kyrt's Battle Result Tracker (forum post is here)
Kyrt's trade list