Monday, May 24, 2010

Playing with the layout

Haha, you guys are quick! I only had the new layout on for half a day, and it's only being shown to half of my visitors (I'm doing A/B testing to see which layout performs better).

Didn't anybody notice the main thing: there are no ads? I removed all the ads. I thought people hated ads?

I've also had people asking how they can play the in-progress games, so I moved them to the side where I hoped they wouldn't confuse people.

Also, I had a poll on the deviantArt account asking which way my games should be organized and the #1 result, by far, was by category.

(those are the reasons behind the changes)

According to the statistics, the new page is working: only 40% of people leave from that page, and 60% leave from the old page. Clearly though, according to you guys it's not working, haha.

Sooo... what if I put the games by category, but doll divine categories first, then the other dolls? Wouldn't that be more cluttered? Talk to me!
Posted by at 12:57 PM

20 comments:

  1. i didn't get the ad-less layout :(
    but i bet i'd like it way better!
    i think you should organize first with DD "classic games" then have the rest. but within those two have it alphabetical
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  2. Personally I like the new layout, it's nice to have them in categories, and then sorted by classic games and games you've found. I also like showing the progress of multiple games. And no adds!!! I love this, my computer is pretty old (an old ibook g4 my dad bought from a coworker) and the adds make it slow, so no adds is very nice! Also, I might not be on as often, my computer is sort of broken-ish, it's either the logic board failing or the hard drive is fried (it recently overheated... a lot) but hopefully my parents will let me continue using their laptops!
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  4. At first I was not fond of the new layout, probably because it was new and I don't like new things generally when I first see them. But after using a different computer and seeing the old one, it just looks more polished with the new one, makes me want to explore more :)
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  5. I love the status bar. :) It makes me excited when I see that color going up!
    As for ads, do you mean the ones when you click on a game? 'Cause otherwise, I still have them. ^_^
    Keep it up! :) One of the best dress up sites!
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  6. I like the new layout. I don't have to scroll all the way down to get to the games and the game progress bar that show the games your working on is nice
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  7. I totally love the new layout.
    But I'm a bit confused about some games, in some categories: Why does Korean warrior count to fan-art, and adventurer maker and warrior, to fashion?
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  8. Yeah there's still ads on the game pages. Remember now, I got laid off, so the ads are my only source of income.

    The Korean Warrior game is based on the Queen Seondeok TV show. Adventurer has some vintage but also modern clothing. I'm not really sure about the Warrior.. it's not modern I guess, but there's nothing technically magical about it so I wasn't sure if it was appropriate for just the fantasy section? Same with the Pirate.
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  9. I think it's kinda weird you have a fashion category: the games in it aren't realy fashiongames, except for one or two...
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  10. I like how this new lay out draws focus to the games you've already made instead of the ones that are still in progress (not that I don't check that regularly too).

    The thing about the sections that I don't like though is that some of the games are under multiple categories. It just makes someone do a bit of a double take when they're just browsing the games. Otherwise, I'm liking the layout (and anxiously awaiting the anthro maker).
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  11. i really liked the new layout. plus you can see all the progress on the other games. i vote yes( if we are voting lol) on the new layout. very nice.
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  12. i don't like the new layout. it's just too confusing, the old one was better... change it back to the original!
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  13. I think that fasion has to do with things like styles and others of that nature. I think the layout is pretty cool. It gives us more status on more than one game, which I have been wondering about. I think that the elven fashion dress up will be very awesome, and the anthro.
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  14. Ah, I wish I could see the new layout! At what point will it be visible to all visitors?

    I completely missed the DeviantArt poll, but my two cents on the matter of categories would definitely be to keep the DollDivine games somehow seperate from the off-site games. One of the reasons I personally visit so few dressup sites is because it's difficult to find the good-looking games amongst the ones of more... varied quality. The quality of the DollDivine games is generally very high in comparison to others, and I think it would be discouraging to have to dig around in order to find the games we love. I'd rather have the layout a little bit cluttered than miss something nice because I'm busy skimming over things like 'Dreamland Creature' and 'Iceland Adventure'. This will probably only be an issue once the site has more games, but still.

    Sorry for the long comment, and I look forward to seeing the new site changes!
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  15. Ugh. That wasn't clear at all. Alright. My actual, constructive suggestion for categories.
    I think it would be best to sort them by type, as in: DollDivine games by you, Collaborations, Commissions, then off-site games, etc.
    I am such a bad commentor. :p
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  16. I sort of like the new layout. Especially the no ads part! But I think you should separate the people-like dress-ups into Doll Divine, Collaborations, and offsite because I mostly do Doll Divine and Collaborations. The animal category is great though! Maybe you could post the offsite games as links instead of post-posting them on the site? I hope you consider the separation idea! Thanks for the great games!!!
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  17. I got the new one, and it's more confusing (to me at least) than the old one. I liked how the games by other people were in their own section on the old layout.

    Also, I'm hoping you haven't abandoned the Star Trek maker that was mentioned. That looked like the best upcoming project to me, and it isn't in the list of works in progress on the new layout.
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  18. I like the new one more, though the fact that some games are in more than one category is kinda weird. But other than that, the new layout is really good.
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  19. Awwww, I can't get the new layout! How can you see it, exactly? I'm cool with the old layout, I'm just curious to see this new one! ;)
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  20. Wait so my understanding is that we could access the in-progress games and play them, but I tried and it didn't work. Did I just misunderstand you?
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