Project 2 - Preliminary Critique

[ryansegal]

Hello everybody! Here are my roughs for project two! For this project I chose the website http://www.capngames.com/. Cap'n Games is a great local video game store off of Pyramid in Sparks that carries games ranging from old school Atari systems up to current generations of console. Their website, while not completely horrible, is not entirely user-friendly or particularly nice to look at. Not many games have their own images, it's very hard to find specific prices, and the whole thing just feels pretty archaic. What I attempted to do in my roughs was to bring the site itself into a more modern setting, while still retaining a feel of retro gaming, hence the pixel-based logo.

For my first rough, I had the idea to add color into the design in a way that changes based on the page you're on. For example, a page that pertains to Nintendo-related games or consoles will have the red that you see in the rough. But if an Xbox game or accessory or console is selected, the bar and accent colors will change to green. I'm still unsure what to use for the home page, other than gray, because it seems too plain.

For the second, I decided on using one color for the background to tie each page together. I also went with a card-like page layout to help group similar things while keeping others separate. What I was planning to differentiate each game is a small colored circle in the bottom left corner of the game to symbolize which console the game is for.

I know my uploads are a little late, so I appreciate you guys taking the time to critique them. Thanks!

[mlauc]

Hi Ryan,

I like how you have cleaned-up the site and made it much more user-friendly. (I disagree with you, their current website is horrible!) I also appreciate the irony in the retro treatment of the logo.

I imagine that the product images on the bottom will move left to right. Maybe adding a left/right arrow navigation would be clearer to the customer.

Good job!

[Sierragirlnv]

Hi Ryan,

I think you are off to a great start, however trying to map out a vendor website is a daunting task with all the inventory they list on the site. Capngames is a terrible website and you are off to a great start with your color choices. I would go with the red layout because it creates more excitement and video games for a lot of people are all about the excitement of a game. People are passionate about that. Good luck.

Sierragirlnv

[rrodriguez]

Ryan, I like the layout with changing colors for a particular game console. The layout is clean and easy to see exactly what your looking at or buying. The pixel logo is a nice old school touch. And the added images below that say related is a nice touch as well. The price of the games stays out and really pops, which is helpful to the buyer. I don't usually like search bars on websites, but for this particular site, it needs a search bar. Overall great start

[paula_b]

Hi Ryan!
Great start on your roughs! I like the concept of rough 1. I think the changing of color for each game system is an awesome idea, just more clarity for the client. I'm not crazy about the gradient to white, it's a bit distracting. The composition is right on and navigation is very clear. Nice job!

[aslychsm]

I like these a lot! Specifically, I like your little details to the roughs, such as the login/register options, and the little search bar. As far as the design goes, I think you've created a nice foundation for all the other elements. Despite them being fairly simple, you've included all these small accents that really boost the quality, like your rounded edges and chunky title. Very smooth and organized. Because there is just one solid color, your idea to have an alternating background would work wonderfully. Overall you're off to a great start. I'm definitely a fan of your first layout, it just has nice asymmetrical balance. I think it would be neat if you kept the dark gray background, but just gave it some really subtle texture, maybe similar to how you did your title - that pixally/blocky sorta style.

[dboudinot]

Hi Ryan,

I visited your website and actually felt physical pain. It hurt my eyes. Both your redesigns are world's better, but I would go with the changing color scheme; I think that would be really cool and effective because I immediately thought of Nintendo when I saw the page, and if you continued that trend, I think it would really add consistency and clarity to people visiting each page. They would instantly know what kind of game they were buying. Maybe, for the home page, you could make it look like a console interface of some kind with the power button, reset button, and game insert space. Not the most original idea I know, but I think you could design a really cool one. A controller interface could also serve the same purpose. Good Luck with whatever you decide, you have a really good idea working for you, and I think I am going to have to bust out the Nintendo and play some Super Mario 3 now!

[Instructor]

Of the two, I like the first design better, even if I'm not sold on the listings fading off to the side like that. I think some scroll indicator arrows would work just fine for the purposes of your design. I also think you should use the variant of the logo from your second design on the first as I think it looks much better than the stacked logo on the first design.

I really like the sectional color changing idea. Maybe even incorporate it into the rollovers (i.e. xBox rolls over green, PlayStation rolls over blue, etc.) Typographically, I think it's very strong. The navigation is easily found and easy to use. And the secondary nav doesn't disappear.

I also like the very strong contrast on the whole design. Letting the images and the colorscheme do the talking.

All in all, you're coming along nicely, sir. I look forward to seeing it for real.

[wendy_boddy]

I like both layouts, but ofvcourse i'd bring some elements from rough layout 1 to rough layout 2 just to be a pain. For example the red navigation bar. I'd put that in rough 2 as well. do do do doddododdooddododod. that's the mario song playing in my head.

good job

wendy

[georgia_novotny]

Hi Ryan,
I really like your designs and think either one will work for your redesign.
So much better than their cluttered website!
I am leaning towards the rough 2 designs without the red.

I really like the XL photo that would showcase the games better.
I like the top navigation bar over the left.
I really like how the “cap n games” looks elongated in the banner.
I like the arrangement of photos.
I like your idea of doing color schemes like red for nintendo and green for xbox, blue for wii etc.

I would add red/colors to this design composition to make it come to life.
I would increase the fonts in the navigation bar, as they could be a lot bigger.
The top right nav bar is way to small and needs to be a lot bigger as you cant really read it.
Maybe play around with the typeface and change the fonts for each link.
Like make the nintendo link look different than the xbox link. use their font styles etc.

Looks like a good start.
Nice job!
Georgia