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Idiot-Proofing a Website

Blogs > Killerhands
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Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
October 28 2010 14:23 GMT
#1
Anyone have any insight of making a website idiot-proof while at the same time making it look clean and organized? This problem has been giving me trouble for a while now. One more specific instance of this is when I make a tournament on my website. When I start a tournament it is open to all registered users and in order to join the tournament there initially a hyperlinked text below the tournament description that said "Join Tournament". I thought this was kind of hard to find, especially since the default way links were displayed in the style sheet was with no text decoration (not underlined, bolded, or any of that stuff), so I edited the template and made the text into a push button (like the "Post message" button) thinking, well, now that it's a button it should be really obvious to users on where to click to join the tournament. Apparently it wasn't obvious enough as I got a decent amount of complaints about "there is no button" and "I don't see anything other than being able to comment." It was, as you can imagine, quite aggravating.

This problem has kind of brought up the whole issue of how to make a website "idiot-proof." Does anyone have any experience or suggestions on this topic? I would NOT like to go the route of making a big ass image in paint saying "CLICK HERE DUMBASS TO JOIN THE TOURNAMENT!" or anything along the lines of that because I'm trying to make the website appealing to others, not something that looks ran by a 3 year-old.

Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Kwidowmaker
Profile Blog Joined October 2007
Canada978 Posts
October 28 2010 14:35 GMT
#2
I saw something about a study being done to figure out how people look at webpages. The human eye focuses on an extremely small field of vision and the eye darts around subconsciously in a seemingly random way.

PS I remember where I saw it, in a documentary about fractals and their practical uses. It's called hidden dimensions and it's in the docs thread in general
Kk.
meeple
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
Canada10211 Posts
October 28 2010 14:36 GMT
#3
Eh... just make the website for normal people and ridicule the idiots. You don't want them in your tournaments anyways. No matter what you do, there will always be a certain about of unavoidable confusion. Having things flashing and moving in headings like what TL does for their organized tourneys is a good idea.
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19221 Posts
October 28 2010 15:26 GMT
#4
As a web developer I can tell you this: no matter how awesome your site is, there will always be a bunch of people so incredibly dumb that they don't know how to use a computer, despite using a computer.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
spinesheath
Profile Blog Joined June 2009
Germany8679 Posts
October 28 2010 15:33 GMT
#5
On October 28 2010 23:23 Killerhands wrote:
Anyone have any insight of making a website idiot-proof while at the same time making it look clean and organized?


Are you suggesting that those goals are conflicting in some way? Because they really should not.
Idiot-proof should require you to avoid all unnecessary clutter so people don't get distracted by stuff they don't need. This should pretty much always lead to a clean interface. You can't create a messy interface without stuff to act as the mess.
If everything is organized well, it is easy to find what you are looking for. One step closer to idiot-proof-ness.


Ask yourself:
"what am I looking for if I come to this website" (after being told what the site is for)
"where do I expect to find it" (sidebar to the left?)
"how can this website be described in short for people that randomly come across it" (put that in the top banner or the center of the welcome page?)
If you have a good reason to disagree with the above, please tell me. Thank you.
aike
Profile Blog Joined July 2010
United States1629 Posts
October 28 2010 15:42 GMT
#6
Make sure your site looks fine in multiple browsers. Maybe the reason a lot of people complained is because in their browser there was actually no button?
Wahaha
King K. Rool
Profile Blog Joined May 2009
Canada4408 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-28 17:18:04
October 28 2010 17:16 GMT
#7
There's always idiots who'll complain (anything UI related, not necessarily to web).

Just make sure you have a range of people look at it first, including idiots. Or read up on HCI, though I can't remember anything specific from my class.

Though if it's just about the "Join button", maybe make it bigger, or contrast the color with the background, or put it at the top.
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
October 28 2010 18:11 GMT
#8
@kwidowmaker That's pretty interesting and makes sense. It's kind of hard to someone to focus on a lot things at the same time.

@tofucake Yeah, it's pretty aggravating. I've met plenty of people where I question their ability to know where the start button is.

@spineshealth I'm not saying they're completely independent entities. Hell I can make a website idiot proof by them entering in the URL and having it ask the user a series of questions via alert messages to point them in the correct direction without any sense of them knowing what's going on. They can conflict in a way that you can have a website look very "clean" and still be confused as how to get around because of the page hierarchy. I guess "clean" is a bit too subjective for me to have used it in the sense I did. I agree with you in the respect of if everything is organized well it is easy to find, that's pretty much a no brainer, it's just getting to that point is somewhat difficult, especially when you're website has a lot of information on it.

@aike Yeah, that's a very big problem I'd had to face. It will look fine in Firefox and Chrome, but in IE it looks like a pile of stacked images and broken links. That is the most aggravating thing in the world.

@King K. Rool Yeah, there's usually always someone to complain about something, I'm currently doing a mass survey of the members to see what the general census is and going from there. As far as the "Join Button" is concerned I'm going to try to put it in multiple places. Right now it's directly under the Tournament Information on the tournament page, which I thought would've been completely fine, but apparently not. I'm probably going to put one on the right hand side that has a block of "Tournament Details" (like amount of players, start date, free slots, etc...) and hopefully that will be a bit more obvious to the users going on the page. It's just so hard to cater to everyone's needs and pick out which is best for the community.


Thanks everyone for the replies, I really appreciate it!
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
unbal3
Profile Joined September 2010
Korea (South)131 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-28 18:34:56
October 28 2010 18:31 GMT
#9
Here is a simple and elegant answer, if you can pull it off. I hope I'm not jumping on too late...

[image loading]

lol. Link:http://xkcd.com/810/
Follow the link and look at the alt-text (aka mouse-over text) to see how this applies your problem..

well, i guess it doesn't apply to your situation in particular that much, but as for idiot-proofing websites, it's pretty genius.

sorry for off topic
T.O.P. *
Profile Blog Joined January 2009
Hong Kong4685 Posts
October 28 2010 18:58 GMT
#10
It's impossible, there are a certain amount of dumb people in this world. You can tell them that this tournament starts at 23:00 (Local Time). Next thing they'll ask is whether 23:00 is am or pm. I got that question asked once a month.
Oracle comes in, Scvs go down, never a miscommunication.
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
October 28 2010 19:27 GMT
#11
Lol, I love xkcd.

Yeah, It's baffling how dumb people are...
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
TossFloss *
Profile Blog Joined February 2010
Canada606 Posts
October 28 2010 22:30 GMT
#12
Here's what I notice about your website:

I really don't like the high-contrast glossy black/white headings. My eyes uncontrollably focus on them, diminishing my ability to read the content. Now I really think the headings look 'cool' and I like that style for an iPhone app or a program, but not for this webpage.

The navigation bar (Home, Forum, StarCraft 2, Application, ...) is not easily visible. The average user spends only a few seconds appraising a page. Normally, I wouldn't even have known it was there.

It's hard to determine what your website is about. When someone visits your site for the first time, you've got only a few seconds to "make a sale". I can figure out that you're a clan, but why should I care? What why would I want to join your clan? Do you have a large membership, host weekly tournaments, boast all-star members, etc..? Essentially, your landing page needs to answer the question "Why do I care?" in 10 seconds or less.

http://www.useit.com/alertbox/timeframes.html
TL Android App Open Source http://www.teamliquid.net/forum/viewmessage.php?topic_id=265090
BottleAbuser
Profile Blog Joined December 2007
Korea (South)1888 Posts
October 28 2010 23:14 GMT
#13
I love the Google home page. I just love it.

Compare to Yahoo. Naver. (Fuck it, add every single Korean website.)

99.9% of the visits are for searching, so they give you the search interface. The .1% can click on the tiny buttons at the top.

Now, I can't find your page link, so I can't see what it looks like. But can't you have a big image with a graphic and the text "Tournament Name Here!" with big buttons below it (Join Tourney, Tourney Rules, etc)? That would be hard to not figure out in 2 seconds.
Compilers are like boyfriends, you miss a period and they go crazy on you.
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
October 29 2010 16:07 GMT
#14
@BottleAbuser I could have a big ass image on the front page, but the user still have to physically find the button on the tournament page and click "Join tournament" They way the brackets are done, they're done automatically with everyone who signs up for the tournament (user override if you want to have a seeded tournament).

@TossFloss Thanks for the feedback. I'm not sure how to make the nav bar "pop" more, but as far as "making a sale" I guess I could find some sort of way to incorporate that kind of stuff on the page. I mean, I already have the banner ad advertising our "eP Monthly"site update which has all the information on upcoming tournaments, site changes, newest members, etc.. but I guess that's not obvious enough to users.

I started making mini banners for the news posts I do. If I post a game night I use the "Game Night" banner. Tournament, I post the tournament one, eP Monthly, etc... you get the idea.

I just don't want to have it turn into a bunch of "pop-out-at-you" images advertising something different because it's hard to make that look good and be able to display all the information you want without some sort of user overload.
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Emperor_Earth
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States824 Posts
October 29 2010 17:16 GMT
#15
As an amateur in WebDesign, I can tell you that you should pore over the lessons of 2005-2008, the Flash phase where every webdev decided that splitting the user's attention twenty different ways was a fantastic idea.

If there are twenty people in a room and nineteen of them think that something is hard to find, and the one that disagrees is the one that placed it... the damn thing is probably hard to find.
@Emperor_Earth ------- "Amat Victoria Curam."
Wolf
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)3290 Posts
October 29 2010 17:43 GMT
#16
My sponsor thought it was pretty funny to make an image guide for Open Wolf Cup signups. http://ggsna.com/tournaments/sign-upapply-for-tournament
Commentatorhttp://twitter.com/proxywolf
TL+ Member
Emperor_Earth
Profile Blog Joined April 2009
United States824 Posts
October 29 2010 19:49 GMT
#17
On October 30 2010 02:43 Wolf wrote:
My sponsor thought it was pretty funny to make an image guide for Open Wolf Cup signups. http://ggsna.com/tournaments/sign-upapply-for-tournament


Yeah. No... Do we really have to give our email address all sorts of identifying credentials just to satiate our curiosity?
@Emperor_Earth ------- "Amat Victoria Curam."
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-10-30 01:04:01
October 30 2010 01:03 GMT
#18
Can you direct link to the image Wolf? I really don't feel like having to sign-up. :-\
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Wolf
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)3290 Posts
October 30 2010 03:07 GMT
#19
On October 30 2010 10:03 Killerhands wrote:
Can you direct link to the image Wolf? I really don't feel like having to sign-up. :-\

http://ggsna.com/images/stories/warn.png

Here you go
Commentatorhttp://twitter.com/proxywolf
TL+ Member
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
October 30 2010 04:26 GMT
#20
Haha, nice! Yeah, actually a little while back we were thinking about making a video PSA type thing for the website and how to use it. XD

I'll look into make a "Tournaments/Ladders for Dummies" type image, thanks for the info Wolf!
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Wolf
Profile Blog Joined April 2010
Korea (South)3290 Posts
October 30 2010 13:35 GMT
#21
On October 30 2010 13:26 Killerhands wrote:
Haha, nice! Yeah, actually a little while back we were thinking about making a video PSA type thing for the website and how to use it. XD

I'll look into make a "Tournaments/Ladders for Dummies" type image, thanks for the info Wolf!


No problem!
Commentatorhttp://twitter.com/proxywolf
TL+ Member
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
November 05 2010 19:21 GMT
#22
Over the past few days I developed a new theme for my website and think I did a pretty okay job at it. Tell me what you guys think: http://clanep.org/hyperion/index.php
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
tofucake
Profile Blog Joined October 2009
Hyrule19221 Posts
November 05 2010 20:59 GMT
#23
http://clanep.org/hyperion/showroster.php

Forcing registration to view pages which should be public angers me.

I disapprove.
Liquipediaasante sana squash banana
rabidch
Profile Joined January 2010
United States20289 Posts
November 05 2010 21:06 GMT
#24
less buttons = more idiot proof

simplicity is the best method

although if you're using forum software it's always going to be obvious theres a bunch of people who never bother to use the search option
LiquidDota StaffOnly a true king can play the King.
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
Last Edited: 2010-11-06 06:28:26
November 06 2010 03:38 GMT
#25
On November 06 2010 05:59 tofucake wrote:
http://clanep.org/hyperion/showroster.php

Forcing registration to view pages which should be public angers me.

I disapprove.


The reason I don't show the Clan Roster page is because it holds everyone's emails there.

If you must know, we're at 124 members right now...
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Spartan
Profile Blog Joined July 2005
United States2030 Posts
November 06 2010 21:03 GMT
#26
The obvious remedy to that is to just remove the emails so the roster page can be publicly viewable. I think we can all agree that everyone being able to see a clan's roster is more important than protecting emails.
# http://nkspartan.com (web engineer)
# TL member since July 2005; CEO of Vile Gaming; President of Team Vile
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
November 06 2010 22:14 GMT
#27
I'll look into making a script that only makes the emails visible if you're in the clan and not just a guest to the website.
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
Killerhands
Profile Blog Joined May 2010
United States269 Posts
November 06 2010 22:26 GMT
#28
Here, I fixed it now. Everyone can view the Clan Roster but cannot see the emails unless they're in the clan.


lazylink: http://clanep.org/hyperion/showroster.php
Winter, the realm of eternal ice. >> http://www.teamepi.com <<
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