Full Review by phio_chan
Scoring:
First Impressions & Appearance – (13 out of 20)
Game Geeks. Upon the name only, I could tell the website will cover various things about games, from news to probably reviews or even tips or tricks for specific, popular games. After my arrival to the blog, I was proven right. In general, for first impression, the blog looks like an interesting place to visit for avid gamers who follow series being talked about. There are various content, the design is quite appealing, and the website looks active. That is a positive first impression, congratulations for that!
Now we move deeper in to the design of the blog. From the top, the header/banner of the blog looks pretty good and strong. It reflects the idea of the blog appropriately. The text and color combination are easy for the eyes, although it may not work so well with other color and background combinations aside the default one from edit buttons at the bottom of the page. Possible suggestion I can say is to incorporate the favicon into the header/banner. The favicon has a unique "G" design for the blog which can be a symbol or identity, and it will be interesting to see it on the banner too.
The next most notable element is the background. I originally thought the default style's background compliments the blog very much by creating the atmosphere of gaming community. However, upon scrolling I saw that the background picture does not reach the bottom of the page, which is rather unfortunate. The other two backgrounds available from theme editor at the footer cover the whole page, but they are merely textures and cannot give effect as strong as the default background. If this point can be improved by somehow setting the background to be fixed (not moving when we scroll down to see more content of the page), I think it will be perfect.
The idea of customizing the appearance to each visitor's need is an interesting one. The downside to this system currently provided is that not all elements customizable are that much related to gaming. I can understand if there is an option of an empty, blank, simple background for those who dislikes having a background too merry, but preferably the other options are more in-topic.
Other theme elements, in general, do not have any serious problems. The top navigation bar and the one at the bottom which are almost identical to each other are not too apparent due to the color and text size. It does light up when a mouse is hovering the text. The color can be made whiter for better exposure, although it may be something minor.
Site Layout – (11 out of 20)
I have two points to discuss in relation to layout of the blog, which are space usage and repetition. They may be related to each other, though, so let's start right away!
I start with a picture which summarizes my points in this section.
As seen in that image, the blog has several spaces which can be modified to make the blog more compact and save visitors from scrolling too much. First, the white space under the gray box can be removed by modifying the text next to it by only showing 3 latest review articles instead of 4. The whole content below that will move up, reducing the space under "Top Sellers" box. That empty space can be further reduced by decreasing the number of articles shown under "Latest News". Last is the space at the very bottom of the page. It sure nice to have space around the page to give impression of not too crowded, but I feel that it can be reduced more to save readers from unnecessary scrolling.
There are some elements repeated in the page. Top and bottom navigation bars containing 4 identical pages and repeated latest news/recent posts display (as shown circled in the screenshot compilation above) are what I found. Repetition gives impression that the page actually does not have much to offer. If it is possible to be replaced with another menu or widget, that can be done. Otherwise they can just be removed to save space. It may also help to focus readers' attention to the content body of the blog, increasing the exposure and possibility of interaction and discussion.
The two points above made the front page of the blog quite long, and I cannot find a return-to-top button once I have scrolled down quite far. That beats the efficiency of browsing, especially with the repetitive content taking place instead of other useful links.
Other points of layout which are rather minor are for example, the need of adding "Opinions" to identify the lonely gray box in index page and making the "New Releases" scroll bar working. "Opinions" probably sound simple; "Editorials" can be used to replace the word to sound more professional. I feel that this title is necessary to explain the content of the gray box, especially because other links in the page has a category above them and because the content of the box cannot be guessed unless there is a category name to it. And the three small rectangular shapes next to "New Releases" category title gives the impression of a scrolling bar/slide show to me. So I was surprised when it didn't move after I waited for a while. I assume that was the original plan, and it also gives the impression of a professional website, so that can be an interesting situation to fix to improve quality of browsing.
Statistics and Activity – (11 out of 20)
I did not count the very exact number of posts and comments rate of the blog, but I can tell the situation of statistics and activity of the blog in general. It seems that articles are posted routinely, in a frequent basis, which is a good example. This, however, is mainly visible in the four main categories: console, PC, iOS, and Portable. There a total of few hundred articles there, which shows dedication to the project from the authors. It would be great if some of the time can also be used to give more reviews and opinions. I can understand that this kind of post is more complicated and needs more elaboration from authors, thus it may take more time to produce than news posts. There are only a total of five reviews posted in March and April 2014. There are seven articles of opinions from previous year; only one posted in May 2014. Reviews and opinions can be similar and overlapping at times. For efficiency you can consider merging these two categories and make one elaborated category of gaming insight or editorial in which authors talk about a specific game or supportive technology deeper than usual.
The comments rate are also not evenly distributed between posts. From the "Recent Comments" widget, it appears that only one person has been commenting lately. Understandable, yet I hope it can be improved one day. Several attempts to raise readers' attention will be mentioned over "Content" section, especially with the frequency of activity.
Content – (14 out of 20)
Two main points related to content which I want to explain a bit further are variation and elaboration.
- Variation. This has been mentioned in previous section related to number of articles posted for each category the blog provided. It becomes an identity to the blog, given the tagline: "Gaming news, opinions and reviews." It becomes a sad thing to see that the content provided so far is yet to cover all those three aspects properly. Especially because gaming news can be found at other websites of the niche, but reviews and opinions are subjective and can definitely differ from one website to another. This point can become the strength of the blog if being worked on diligently.
- Elaboration. The blog has a great rate of article release. Now, with such speed, there is usually a downside to the content provided not deep enough for readers to actually understand the situation of the news. That is what the authors probably need to look into at the moment. Speed is great, but quality is also important -- if not more important than the former one. I will start with reviews and opinions. Upon the first time I heard it, I thought the two were somehow confusing because reviews are basically opinions of the authors. The articles I read are also rather similar to each other. To avoid repetition, both categories can be merged and form a more solid structure to the review. Reviews are definitely more elaborated and constructive from what I read in some of the articles. Compared to this opinion article, which do not offer as much as reviews do. Now for the news, for example, this kind of article did make me interested. The content of the post itself could still be explored further. For example, more reasons as to why such thing happened, the effects, and possible solutions or another related finding. That should help to make the article more compact and rich in content.
Another thing I feel worthy to be mentioned is the categorization. Consoles, computer, and portable work as a category. iOS, however, is rather debatable in my opinion. For naming sake it can probably reflect more than just specific platform, but also covering other types of platform. "Mobile" is probably a more general term. Then again, it can be included under "Portable" since they are both similar. It is up to you how to maintain the categories.
Spelling/Grammar & Professionalism – (15 out of 20)
There is no serious problem with the professionalism and linguistic aspects of Game Geeks. While browsing through some of the posts I did found some mistakes in writing which mainly involves apostrophes and wrong diction. Related to the points mentioned in previous sections, it would be great if future articles can use less repetitive words. Do not hesitate to add videos or pictures to explain things which sometimes words cannot do.
Total Score - (64 out of 100)
Final Remarks:
Game Geeks is a potential gaming blog. It has many strong elements, with few weaknesses to improve on. Nowadays, since people keep on looking for unique things and more variations, that is most probably what we need to be able to stay around for a long time. Added with continuous effort which has been displayed, hopefully the points raised can give Game Geeks more chances to get bigger and more successful. Good luck!
Strengths:
- - Good appearance with matching atmosphere
- Steady releases of articles
Weaknesses:
- - Waste of space and repetition of theme elements/widgets
- Lack of content variation
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