Introduction to Game Informer
Introduction to Game Informer
The website I’ve decided to evaluate is Game Informer and my goal is to explain my experience browsing the site and how well if functions when trying to complete different task. Game Informer, like its’ name implies, is a gaming website designed to give gamers a place to get information on all things’ games and gaming related. Whether it’s an insider review on the biggest game soon to be released, a podcast on the current state of the gaming industry, or even a demo of the newest God of War installment, this website is made with a specific user group in mind and tries to cater to their needs.
Task Scenarios
My analysis consisted of about 3 different scenarios to see how user friendly this website is and if finding specific topics or reviews prompted any issues. The first scenario had to do with finding news on the highly anticipated Call of Duty (COD). My task was to see if I could either find out any Beta information or any PlayStation exclusive insights. The next scenario involved locating what games were due to be released this year, their platform and launch day. The goal here is to see if a user wants to know when a new game will be released, can they find that game and its information. Lastly, as a final task I wanted to see if a specific game had any new gameplay, demos, or features similar to the new Madden Sense feature that was recently announced.
Website Analysis
At first glance the website has a straightforward layout with a simple design that most users could get behind. Scrolling through the website, there are several news panels that randomly show you upcoming titles and events involving gaming. But taking a closer look, I noticed specific titles didn’t have which platforms the news was referring to. This can cause confusion as unsuspecting users might look at a post and expect it to apply to all systems. This violates rules 1 and 10 of Nielsen’s 10 heuristics which are “Visibility of system status” and “Help and documentation”. Because these articles don’t contain any information on the specific platform, this violates rule 10 due to the need for more context and explanation of the relevant game. This also walks on the toes of rule 1 because while these news clippings are informative, they are only giving the end users a partial picture of what’s supported. Going further into the site I tried looking for COD news under the “News” section but surprisingly it was nowhere to be seen. It wasn’t until I clicked on “Previews” that I finally found what I was looking for which also brought up another problem. Unless you look at the URL, assuming the end user knows how to read it, there’s no way to track what page you’re actually on. This violates rule 6, “Recognition rather than recall”, due to the user required to remember where they are on the site and increasing their memory load. My next task came in the form of locating what games were to be released this year and the game details such as the launch date and supported platforms. Fortunately for me, Game Informer has a really solid navigation system, so I was able to use the Menu bar to locate the 2022 release list for this task. Now taking into account that this is a list for all of the 1st and 3rd party games, this list is really massive and luckily for the end user, they’ve ordered it by month. Unfortunately, since the list is really large it is really a hassle when you want to find a specific game. There is no navigation to find specific titles and the end user could potentially get put off from scrolling continuously without finding anything that interests him/her.
This is a direct violation of rule 7 “Flexibility and efficiency of use” because if I wasn’t already familiar with a title’s specific release date or the Ctrl + F command, I’d have no idea how to look up specific games. My last task involved searching for the actual meat and potatoes of a specific title. Due to my previous experience on the Release List, I’ve decided to use the search feature and look up my game. This task actually required more digging than expected for what I thought was a easy assignment. By typing in a title’s name, the site only brings up news articles of that game and makes the user click through random articles before you run into the main game page.
From here, everything else is a smooth experience and it’s simple to find the core components of the given game. This violates rule 10 and rule 8 “Aesthetic and minimalist design” because when an end users tries to look for a game, irrelevant information shouldn’t be returned which causes them to go down the rabbit hole.
Final Recommendations
My first recommendation with this site would be a way to separate specific news or games by platform. In the gaming world there are multiple platforms in which users can play videogames and for some games, they’re often console specific. This would bring more relevance to the website for users looking for specific titles and news. This would also lower the chances of misinformation spreading and give the site a more reliable reputation. Whether they go to the Release List, reviews, or previews this little aspect can cause a major impact. My next recommendation would be fine tuning the search function to bring out more relevant results. If a user searches for the God of War title, there should be a result that brings them to that titles page and not just irrelevant news articles. Also, including a search option on specific pages would be really convenient when navigating core pages. I mentioned earlier that if I went to the Release page and wanted to know the release of Call of Duty, I had to already know the month and also, enter Ctrl + f to find that title. Giving the user an option to look up a title on that page and automatically returning that game would really save the end user time when browsing the page and lessens the chances of them using another gaming site or search engine. Finally, a title section for each page would help the user know where they are at all times. It doesn’t even have to be a huge header; it could be one of the navigation bars highlighted a darker shade to give the end user an idea of where they left off.