Who hired the 6th Grader?

[BradleyT]

I'm sorry but that's the worst looking graphic I've seen on such a large site.


And also, I've noticed the smaller green banner on other pages. You should have someone write you a 3 line php script that checks a users country and doesn't display the banner to USA customers.

[Mason Malmuth]

The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[BradleyT]

[ QUOTE ]
The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[/ QUOTE ]

I was more concerned about the aweful white jaggy lines around the text. Tell your 6th grader to use the same background color for the text as the banner it's going to show up in. Using a white or transparent background results in the white jaggies as shown above.

And you can use a green background to get attention - it just doesn't have to be neon green. Go copy the green color used for Dell's add to cart button. Any company that does $20,000,000 in sales per day off their website probably does some usability color studies.

[ZeTurd]

[ QUOTE ]
The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey, trainwrecks get attention, but somehow they don't make me want to jump on the next train.

The fact is, the 2+2 brand on the net is something like out of the 90's when things like the <blink> tag was considered cool (well, by some at least), and effective styling and usability were basically unknown quantities.

Take the green sidebar for instance. For one, it's butt ugly, but that would be OK, or at least forgivable, if it scored high in usability. Sadly, it don't. The orange on green color of the links is hard to read, the way menu-items over two lines have their second line start at the same margin as the menu-headings makes it difficult to seperate between categories, and while the logical placement of the different subforums has been improved somewhat, it's still a mess, especially links for your products (books), authors, etc. should be seperated and highlighted. You DO want to sell your products, right?

Further, there doesn't seem to be put much thought in your advertising scheme. The ads are generally ugly, again something that could be forgivable if their placement was logical and their message clear, but that's just not the case, at least to my eyes. For instance, it would be a trivial matter to make ads for limit hold'em books for users visiting the limit forums. To take it a step further, you could track what forums users visit regularly, and throw ads based on their preferences. Someone who exclusively visits the MTT forums should get ads from your affiliate advertisers focusing on MTT's. Users browsing the sports forum, could get ads for sporting goods. Those most active in sports betting could get ads from bookies. I'm sure you catch my drift by now.

In my opinion, 2+2 need to hire a third party to do a complete overhaul of the site. A half-assed upgrade to the latest UBB-forums just doesn't cut it. You need to change forum software, possibly upgrade your server park, and make a clearer seperation between your products, the magazine, and the forums themselves, with plenty of visible "doors" to navigate between each. And you need a concise and thought-out advertising scheme, as well as put some serious thought into other ways of monetizing 2+2 (the earlier El Diablo thread had some excellent suggestions). All just my humble opinion of course.

[TylerD]

[ QUOTE ]
[ QUOTE ]
The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[/ QUOTE ]
Hey, trainwrecks get attention, but somehow they don't make me want to jump on the next train.

The fact is, the 2+2 brand on the net is something like out of the 90's when things like the <blink> tag was considered cool (well, by some at least), and effective styling and usability were basically unknown quantities.

Take the green sidebar for instance. For one, it's butt ugly, but that would be OK, or at least forgivable, if it scored high in usability. Sadly, it don't. The orange on green color of the links is hard to read, the way menu-items over two lines have their second line start at the same margin as the menu-headings makes it difficult to seperate between categories, and while the logical placement of the different subforums has been improved somewhat, it's still a mess, especially links for your products (books), authors, etc. should be seperated and highlighted. You DO want to sell your products, right?

Further, there doesn't seem to be put much thought in your advertising scheme. The ads are generally ugly, again something that could be forgivable if their placement was logical and their message clear, but that's just not the case, at least to my eyes. For instance, it would be a trivial matter to make ads for limit hold'em books for users visiting the limit forums. To take it a step further, you could track what forums users visit regularly, and throw ads based on their preferences. Someone who exclusively visits the MTT forums should get ads from your affiliate advertisers focusing on MTT's. Users browsing the sports forum, could get ads for sporting goods. Those most active in sports betting could get ads from bookies. I'm sure you catch my drift by now.

In my opinion, 2+2 need to hire a third party to do a complete overhaul of the site. A half-assed upgrade to the latest UBB-forums just doesn't cut it. You need to change forum software, possibly upgrade your server park, and make a clearer seperation between your products, the magazine, and the forums themselves, with plenty of visible "doors" to navigate between each. And you need a concise and thought-out advertising scheme, as well as put some serious thought into other ways of monetizing 2+2 (the earlier El Diablo thread had some excellent suggestions). All just my humble opinion of course.

[/ QUOTE ]

Good post.

[kickabuck]

[ QUOTE ]
The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[/ QUOTE ]

Mission accomplished. I noticed and read the banner, something I do infrequently.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
The purpose of the graphic isn't to look good but to get your attention. So I guess our sixth grader just made it to junior high.

MM

[/ QUOTE ]
Mason, there are many people that are much LESS likely to click on or even read ads that are so visually abusive. There are a couple of posts on this topic in Jurollo's thread in the mod forum that are probably worth reading if you're interested in people's opinions.

[Neil S]

It's funny how many people, who probably have no way of knowing how successful the 2+2 website is as-is, are so eager for 2+2 to spend money to 'fix' it.

[Evan]

[ QUOTE ]
It's funny how many people, who probably have no way of knowing how successful the 2+2 website is as-is, are so eager for 2+2 to spend money to 'fix' it.

[/ QUOTE ]
Not sure if this is actually directed at me or just replied to me via quick reply, but I didn't actually say anything about money. I'm not talking about any real technical changes.

On a related note, when the page loaded for me to type this post of the 9 right sidebar ads I got (still one blank and one unreadable) 5 were for party poker.

[Neil S]

Yeah Evan, I didn't mean you, sorry if it came across that way. I'm just commenting on the thread in general.

It's just that every time these threads come up, there's always a push for 2+2 to go hire somebody to rewrite the site. But if I had something working I wouldn't go pay to change it just because some people think it's not necessarily pretty enough or doesn't copy some other site.