Just went to www.nextisland.com and noticed it has been revamped. On the home page its hard to read the information because of the arrows in the way that transfers each screen. The above seems like they are talking about 2 different ppl, later I see that its the same person. One the media page none of the pictures come up as a full picture as is assumed with the magnifying glass on them.......edit, I noticed that the is an expand button at the bottom of the screen, which freezes my screen, when it comes back the picture you click on is all the way at the bottom of the page. :palm: On the Media page it talks about the Avatarette show.............has anything ever happened with is?? According to the page it was suppose to be in production in March ?? Also on that same page about the Avatarette is .... I would think that info would be on the front page so ppl can find the info. Seems it wasn't checked before making it live.
The update is mentioned in David Post's latest blog entry (Friday 29th), but I haven't seen it mentioned anywhere else. If you mouseover the banners on the front page, there is a pause button in the middle, not obvious, and when you move the mouse off the banner the arrows disappear. If you go to the middle banner you will see another example of the page not being checked before going live - The text for this banner has been stuck in the middle of a copy of the text for the first banner. I get the same as Softhart on the media page (using Firefox 5/Chrome). I'd previously just looked at the tumbnails. Also the concept art filter button seems to show a mixture of concept art and screenshots.
The slideshow on the homepage is not very helpful. People need to know what the site is about in first 10-15 seconds or they will most likely not continue on the website. People not familiar with the game won't understand what you are showing in the slideshow. I tried to sign up for the next island passport. It kept telling me I was entering the wrong verification code when I know I typed it correct. I tried matching the letters and numbers exactly and using both lower and upper case letters. Please take more care in what you put out live on your website. Nothing turns a visitor off like non-working links, and programming errors.
I didn't try the passport as I thought that was joining next island, as in creating an account, although it doesn't make that clear. Clicking 'download your next island passport' and 'join next island' do lead to the same form, so I think I was right, though I haven't tried to submit this. Non-working links. I've tried in Firefox5, Chrome and IE. The only link on this form that I get a consistant response to is 'regenerate code'. Sometimes, after clicking 'regenerate code' one or more times, I can get a response from the 'if you have a campign code click here' link. So far I cannot get any response from the 'terms of use' or 'age policy' links. This does not seem to be affected by whether I've ticked the boxes, or entered an email address or a password. I did notice just now, though, that the thumbnails on the media page are no longer showing a magnifying glass when moused over. Edit: Unchecking or re-checking the box to receive information about events and offers makes the 'if you have a campaign code click here' link accesible, sometimes.
Well looks like there were more errors then what I found. Here is a question: With all the people that come on the forum or on Facebook, would it be so hard for NI to say, Free proofreading, and error checking......simple
Honestly, all I can say about the new webpage in one word : UNPROFESSIONAL. Comeon, even a teenager geek can produce a better, MORE ATTRACTIVE and more PROFESSIONAL than this. I'm honestly dissappointed that NI failed that hard.
I have to say, I came across reference to Next Island while doing a google search through a Facebook friend's game list...and that NI page, while trying to be cool with this flash slide show, was completely opaque to me. I pretty much downloaded and registered for the game, just to see what the game actually was, because the avatar pictures and brief blurbs didn't really give a good sense of what turns out is a relatively complicated and diverse game. Everyone likes a little mystery in life, but I expect more people don't bother to download a mystery game to see what it's like, like I did. I'd trade all the flash wizardry for a static page with solid info about the game system and what to expect. And the Transformers t-shirts NPC...product placement? Completely out of place and immersion breaking. Hopefully they are getting some cash from putting them in, if it keeps the game up and running, awesome. But here's what I'm unlikely do to in a sci-fi game set on a distant planet: dress in an Autobot or Deceptocon shirt. Now if there was a Coke machine, I'd be all over that.
yeah. unfortunately, functionality and access to information is something that can be lost by "modern" web-page "designers". in my mind, the presence of too much glitz is always followed by and expectation of uselessness or deception. someone once told me that it was better to make it work first and dress it up later. the reverse was always a recipe for wasting too much time at the beauty salon.
