Site attractiveness, new player aquisition improvement

Eric

What to say? This is quite possibly one of the least attractive gaming sites out there...

I think that's due heavily to the style of the design and colors.

I'll add notes...

So as you can see there's a fair bit that I don't think works for this site, it has a lot to do with the layout and typography and heirarchy... which you don't seem to have at all.

Take a look at Miniclip - http://www.miniclip.com/games/en/

You really need to think about your target audience before designing a website, also look at what your competitors are doing and have a real brainstorm with users, eg non techies, and get their imput, otherwise you'll lose customers quicker than you make them...

Good Luck!

Hi Eric,

I noticed that your website has been for a very long time on the market - since 1997. Wow, respect :)

The problem is new users will not pay attention to the length of your online presence. They will just look on your site and decide in seconds about using it or not.

I see 3 serious issues:

1. Credibility is everything. Your site's credibility suffers because of an old (which means cheep for modern users) design. Please don't get me wrong as I'm not trying to be mean but it looks like the graphical design has not been changed since 1999 :) Most of your competition has a pixel perfect, 2.0 cute, Mac-glossy, etc, ect design - they do understand that visitors thinking is like this nice looking == trustworthy

2. Obstacles are conversion killers and should be avoided at any cost. I noticed 3 obstacles: Download, Install & Registration. Why should people try to overcome them when they can use competitive websites with in-browser gaming experience at once, even without setting up an account.

3. Download & install is the biggest obstacle and conversion killer and potential security threat in peoples perception. Most of the prospect users will have hard time understanding why they should install those games and why can't they play them instantly in the browser. They also will not be sure if installing of this software is safe, and it really does not matter how many times you will mention on the website that this is perfectly safe.

As far as suggesting solutions I would recommend investing in new, good, cute design and this is the easy part. The real difficult one is to convince users that for some reason downloading is better than in-browser experience. IMHO it will be easier to change the whole gaming concept to in-browser gaming and create a special/unique experience than to make downloadible solution a success in a long run. Otherwise is just like kicking match with a horse :)

Hope this helps.

Cheers!

Michael

(user experience designer & strategis)

The site has a very "shareware" look and feel to it. It's dark, uninviting, and everything is crammed together with equal value. My eye doesn't know where to rest. The biggest element lacking for an entertainment site is "where's the fun?"

So, prioritize and segregate things. You have so many mixed messages going on all at the same time.

Don't let your main message get lost with all the competing stuff and fluff. It seems to me your main message is "Enjoy full screen arcade-quality games." And that should be your main headline, and it should be bigger than "download now" which dominates the entire top banner area.

Follow that headline with: "Join the longest running skill game site" - this is a powerful way to establish credibility, and add "free, safe, and fun!' to increase the feeling of safety. I sure don't want to download a piece of software on my computer unless I really trust the people it's coming from.

It seems like the first step for visitors is to "Download Now" and that's the path you want them to go on, yes? But before I feel safe enough to do that, I need to know your other strengths - longest running site, thousands? of users, millions of games played, always FREE, lots of fun, we're here to help and happy to do so, and here are a bunch of testimonials from happy customers.

Sorry, but this site has spam/spyware written all over it. I would leave within seconds and definitely not trust the registration or download step.

I think in general the design is too busy and outdated. There are so many things screaming for attention. Despite the large download button, the call-to-action is not that clear. Besides, like Michael I wonder what the future is of game downloads when modern games seem to be in-browser.

Some suggestions for a better design:

• Redesign the logo. It looks like a badge, not a logo.
• Rethink the color scheme. It is very much possible to have a nice-looking dark theme. Try more subtle gradients and a more consistent scheme
• Get rid of all statistics, I doubt anyone who is still to play the game already wants to know about this.
• Instead, consider a large image slider where you present each game with a nice graphic, description and download button
• The call-to-action "download now" graphic should be redesigned. There is a lot of empty space and the black button does not grab the attention. The gradient can be made more subtle. Don't refer to www.tournamentgames.com, the user is already here so there is no need
• The header navigation bar is ok in terms of options and simplicity, but you may want to consider restyling it and also highlighting important options
• The right sidebar seems out of style and suggests they are ads. Make it look more consistent and/or consider making it look like the rest of the site.
• In general I hate non-consistent widgets such as the Facebook like button. Consider removing it. What is the point, really?
• The footer navigation is not consistent with the header navigation. Doesn't have to be a problem, but they look crammed and the [ ] reduce readability. Consider moving the language options to the top, in a graphical dropdown

Sorry for being so critical, but I think a lot is needed to make the design of this site credible. Whatever you do next, I think it should be focused or building trust.

I hope this helps, and good luck!

just like to say I read all the comments till this point and then after going over the site. I can't disagree with any of it.

sorry mate but it's like coming up against a brick wall.

The download software thing is a right put off. Because of it there is no flow into the deeper pages of the site. I can't remember the statistics for people who just scan through but I feel sure they just turn away.

Building your relationship with the gamers has to be encouraged and built on.

The length of the pages and the content offered is below par. You aren't selling yourself well enough. for a gaming site you aren't drawing me in enough, I'm not a gamer but My advice would be to see things your competitors are doing to catch your eye and hold your attention, then adapt them to your site.

You don't want to get overwhelmed only a couple of projects at a time and make sure you complete them and improve them before moving on. Really get into the analytics of building a site, target people and not search engines.

find out how optimised your site is now

those thing alone will show you where the changes need to be made. hope this helps

Sorry but it seem homemade and unprofessional... The Download Now button scream "Hey I'm a spyware, please download me".

The blue and black background is too dark and oppressive.

Try with a colorful design an more fun in it: people playing, some cartoon, icons.

Good work

i suspect this thing was designed 10 yrs back..

don't do anything with this- scrap it- find a 2 column template and use that as a starting point.