Poll Results In: How Is Our Website?
The results from the last poll are in, and to the question: “How is our website?” the lovely readership has buzzed in with their thoughts.
Thirty-two percent of you feel that this website ‘Can Be Improved”, which is absolutely fair enough. We’re a fairly new gig here and we do our best but I think that all blogs out there will always have room for improvement. It’s a fair assessment of Play-Girlz.com in my opinion, since we’re constantly trying to improve and provide better content for you. We’re doing a fine job of that according to 27% of you who chose the ‘Good’ option on the poll and a further 23% of readers who think we’re doing excellently (-blush- why thank you).
I’d just like to point out that the question was rather misleading in that it was unclear whether we wanted you to comment on the web site itself, or the content we were producing, so here’s your chance to weigh in with exactly what problems you see, what we’re doing well, what you’d like to see more of, what we’re doing a craptastic job at…and this goes for either the site or the content.
Related Stories
POSTED IN: Announcements, Polls
8 opinions for Poll Results In: How Is Our Website?
Cal
Nov 28, 2005 at 8:00 pm
My 2c: (you can edit for length or content if you wish).
Design: isn’t bad, I would move the b5.media “tab” from it’s side position and move to the top. Reason is I use a rss reader and the window width cuts off the “Subscribe” sidebar. Whether it’s good to have it cut off or not is debateable I guess. Of course I could cut down the width of my feed list window to fit all your stuff in, but hey it’s _my_ reader. Possibly you could put one sidebar on the left, the other on the right and content in the centre (yes that is how you spell centre!). I’d still lose 1 side bar, but as we are trained to read from left to right, put the more important one to your site on the left.
The colour scheme is good - very readable and doesn’t jump out at you and assault the optic nerve :) One of the better ones around.
Content: I’m just reading to keep up on what’s out there. I don’t play a lot of games (don’t have much time with 2 littleies to look after), and other blogs/web sites go way over the top with too much content (for me).
You both have a great writing style and inject some humour into the whole thing as well. That’s the main reason I keep returning - if I found the style boring I would just move on.
Keep up the good work.
Matt
Nov 28, 2005 at 8:04 pm
Craptacular job from either of you trying to win my favor in the “Who’s cooler, Erin or Ingrid?” poll.
I think I already voiced my main thoughts with Ingrid a while back, but I guess my biggest thought is that I come to the site and I don’t get the feeling that it’s blogged by girls. This is supposedly your big selling point and you’re not taking advantage of it. Plus the site feels a little plain. I wouldn’t know it was a gaming blog until I read the title of the page. I’m not saying you should cram a ton of stuff onto the site or whatever(I can see it now, from having not enough to too much) just voicing my opinions. Though I think my thoughts might be in the minority as I’m not the intended demographic :)
Jonic
Nov 28, 2005 at 9:34 pm
Hello, my name’s Jonic and I’m about to sound like a total asshole.
I emailed you when I voted in the poll, but seeing as though this is the right place to be commenting on such things I want to say something about the site itself. Not the design, I’m not a graphic designer, so I’m not qualified to be handing out design tips. My bugbear is the layout. Some people would class this as part of the design, and to some extent it is, but I think the layout of the content is more important than the way that layout is styled. Remember, “content is king”!
For example the blue column on the right could use some work. I know that b5 is a relatively new network, and I do think links to other b5media blogs should appear on here (if only for the pagerank love), but I’m not sure they should be the first thing in that column.
Of course you want your sponsors to get a great place in the column so keep them at the top, but I definitely think that the categories should appear “above the fold” (http://www.marketingterms.com/dictionary/above_the_fold/). It would make your content (which I won’t be commenting on except to say it’s great) much easier to look through. Seeing as though most blogs lack a traditional navigation system, the categories list is essential for navigating your content. That should definitely be at the top.
With regards to the subscribe buttons, keeping those the top would be fine, but you wouldn’t lose to many subscribers by placing them beneath the categories. It’s where they’re kept on most blogs and so would be a logical place to look. Keeping them at the top is fine, but lowering them to make way for the categories wouldn’t hurt I don’t think.
I would also consider removing the “meta” section altogether. It might be useful for you, but it doesn’t really have a place (and WordPress get a link at the bottom of each page too).
The yellow column is fine enough, but I think it should be a bit wider. Your site doesn’t fit in an 800×600 browser anyway, so you can afford to stretch the design a bit for 1024×768 so the post and comment titles don’t spill over. Alternatively a smaller text size might do it, but then you degrade the accessibilty of the blog. Tricky to solve, but making both columns a little wider (and perhaps of equal width) would make a big difference.
The polls look a little out of place too. They look too much like an ad, so if there’s a way to skin them to look like an actual part of the site (or have someone write a bespoke polling system for you) then I think you’d get more voters per poll.
Don’t worry, there are only a couple more things :o) This isn’t meant to sound so blunt, but it’s half four in the morning where I am!
I’m not sure I see a place for the “recent posts” list. The entries on the front page actually go back into your archive further than the list does, so your blog’s index is like a recent posts list with articles attached. I’m also not sure I’m keen on the recent comments list, but I can see a use for it. The point of this blog after all is to talk about, and get people takling about games.
Just two more things! Alright, three.
Switch the content in the blue and yellow columns completely. That way you have, in left to right order: Content - Navigation (categories) - Other Information. It would give the page a more logical arrangement.
Second to last: Information on how to contact you needs to be a little clearer. Your “send the girls tips” section is /just/ above the fold (there’s that phrase again) in my window, and I’m in 1280×1024 resolution. Try to move it up a little and make the link to your email address bold.
Third, I just don’t like how yellow looks on monitors. That one’s my problem, not yours. I did say that I wasn’t commenting on the design :o)
I’m really sorry this has been so long, I probably sound like the total asshole my disclaimer spoke of, but I’m just trying to help. I really like this blog and I want to see it do well. Remember that some unscrupulous types would have charged a ton of money for the above info!
Sorry sorry sorry!!!!!!!
Jonic.
Tor
Nov 28, 2005 at 11:52 pm
Hehe, should string you up like the vulture you are :P Nah, wasn’t half too bad (for me reading anyway, a lot of work for the girls *grins*) Just want to say this is the *only* gaming blog I’ve found that I bother to read, all the others are filled with fancy flashing CS ads and god knows what other stuff that burns my eyes :) So play Girlz are the best ;) Just one thing… Play-Girlz has been commented on by a whole lot of mates lately, it seems the site name reminds them of some porn site -_-’ dunno how you feel about that :P anyways, keep up the best work ^^
Tor
Nov 28, 2005 at 11:53 pm
Doh, and can you possibly manage to make the pictures clickable? like Matt said in some post, he used more time trying to read what the kids was saying :)
Ingrid
Nov 29, 2005 at 12:52 am
Cal: Thanks for your design comments. I’m very glad you keep coming back. :)
Matt: We’ve talked about this before, and I told Erin your thoughts about it not being “girly” enough. In its initial conception, Play Girlz was pink. Erin and I saw it and we said, “Noooo!!!” Partly because we both hate pink…well, mostly because we both hate pink.
I don’t think that we have an ‘intended demographic’ really. We’re not trying to cater to females alone, or to males alone. We’re trying to cater to gamers in general. If the site isn’t ‘girly’ enough, that’s fine by me. I’d feel really dumb preaching about gamer equality with rosy pink sidebars. I twitch at the thought. ;)
However, that you don’t feel it’s GAMEY enough, that’s an issue. We certainly want people to know they’ve stumbled upon a video games blog. :)
Jonic: Thanks! And no reason to be sorry. We love the input. :)
Tor: Haha, if you saw the search strings we get for our site, you’d laugh hysterically. Some are quite disturbing! But hey, if they get here looking for porn, and they stay anyway, all the better. Games … porn … what’s the difference these days? ;)
Ingrid
Nov 29, 2005 at 1:06 am
Psssst, Matt and Tor, the Parentals Control image is now clickable ;)
Matt
Nov 29, 2005 at 6:10 am
Ingrid: The site doesn’t have to be pink to show girl influence. I’m sure there are many other things you can do to make that apparent. But whatever.
Have an opinion? Leave a comment: