Regarding the games database

Started by Snarky, Tue 29/05/2012 23:32:55

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Snarky

While the update is an improvement in almost every way, I have to agree that the current way to look through the games db is somewhat broken, usability-wise.

The A-Z list has a confusing name and is hidden away in the menus, it's non-obvious that you can sort by the different columns, you can only move to next/previous page in the list, not directly to a particular page, and you can't see any details about the games without going to a separate game details page. The advanced search functionality is called "browse" for some reason, has a completely different layout and features to the main games list, doesn't allow you to sort, and has each entry taking up a lot of space (much of it padding) so you can only see a few on screen at a time. Simple title search is separate from "browse", again for reasons I find unclear, and (as you'd expect, but somewhat annoyingly) only supports searching within the title.

I really think there should be one consistent design for games db listings, which should have the info and features (primarily sort) from the A-Z list, but also some of the info from the "browse" search results, like screenshot and maybe length/genre. An expand-in-place interaction might work to see more details. Things should be labeled more intuitively and accurately ("A-Z" might better be called "browse games" while "Browse" might be called "Advanced search"), and these should IMO be more prominent in the UI. That should also take care of having an easy way to see recent games.

Not that I'm demanding that this must be fixed right now or anything. It's just something I think should be considered as an arguable imperfection in the current site and noted for possible future improvement. Looking for games is a major use-case for the site, and I think rants like the first post in the thread follow from frustration with having difficulty achieving simple, common tasks.

Andail

Ok, I split this from the original thread, as the original thread was a Rumpus-quality thread, while Snarky has written a serious post.

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