Review Request: UltraGaming.com

I don't normally critique gaming sites because I don't use them and I think that they all look the same. Most are black with hideous images that only clutter up the page. However, I think this is one of the best ones that I have seen here in this critique section. Kudos!

The only thing that really jumps out at me are the 4 columns. I think the page is too cluttered at the top and with too much white space (or your case gray space) near the bottom.

Put some text links (secondary navigation) at the bottom.

Nice work so far.

Nice colors! It's always pleasing to see a site that's not mostly white.

I agree about having some sort of navigation at the bottom . . . if nothing else, a "Back to Top" link since the page is fairly long.

I don't know if it's the same on computer screens, but on MSNtv (with a 25" TV screen, btw) the text in the 5 little red navigation links at the top and the white text around the gray areas of the graphic are so small that I can't read them.

Otherwise, it's a great-looking and fairly well-balanced site even though there's a lot of information on the home page (and thank goodness the whites and blacks are minimized). It is definitely more pleasing to the eyes to see 4 columns with different widths than 4 with the same widths. Good luck!

P.S.: As much as I hate to mention br's lately (LoL), adding a blank line space between each of the red links on the top half of the page (last 2 columns) should help fix the clutter Sonia mentioned (hi Sonia!) and should bring the content in these 2 colums much further down the page so there's not so much gray space at the bottom.

I'm averse to the grey background because it's too dull. Too dull for a gaming site. You don't have to go with black or dark shades, but plain #cccccc just doesn't fit. I usually have that colour as my default browser background, so at first I thought you'd either not defined a colour, or had a background image that took a while to load. Grey is functional, but it has no form. Why don't you try a nice maroon, or even a beige if you want a light colour...?

Overall, the site was generally quick-loading (the various background images took a little time). The layout is nice and intuitive. Good balance of content and images. Good content, good design. Nice work.

I agree with what the others have said, but I think that the grey background is fine, I really don't see what colour you could use instead. I would loose a bit of the space above the header area though as it looks a bit odd being empty like that.

Very nice indeed but minimised to 800*600 I get a small horizontal scrollbar.

Hi

Good job on the site, but I'm not partically fond of the entire grey background. All your sections seem a little loose because of nothing to seperate them if you know what I mean. Also your header image could be moved up a little to make more space for content.

Steve

Thanks all who reviewed it so far.

That spacing of the header is where a banner add will go. I have a future plan to extend the header to wrap the ad, and ad a system selecter up there so the page will only show the selected system content and color....but that is only once I get this done and the site back on track.

For those that DONT like the grey, I used it for a few reason, the main being the ease on the eyes. I have been working with Black for years as the background and it just hurts. I recently made a CMS and used grey and they mild color made it really easy to do work for long periods of time. I am hoping this color will make visitors more willing to "READ" things, verus skimming because of eye strain. The other reason the design is a red-grey pallet, so I had to stick with that.

I notice a few of you pointing out how things are loose, do you mean like they look the same, and there is no real division between the content? Once I get the site completed, I am going to use DIVs, and CSS to try and layers a thin black line around the the areas like the cheats, articles etc.

The space down the bottom was something I never paid much attention to, I will have to check to see what I did to cause that.

Again thanks a bunch!

A banner above the header will totally spoil the look!

If the banner is going above the header then what is going in the space beside the logo? It looks like an ideal spot for a banner. OH! the graphic isn't showing up in Opera, that's the problem! The site looks way better with that in there. The menu seems to be fine though.

I agree with others about the grey background. Maybe try to lighten that up just a little, even in some sections. Actually, it's not so bad when I can see your header graphic.

Overall this layout looks very cluttered (although it isn't the worse I've seen in that regard). you need to do some layout editing here. Do all those boxes really need to be there? Cold some maybe be moved to the bottom? Do the images in the articles column need to be there? That's the kind of questions you should be asking. Four columns is a lot of information for the user to digest at once.

There are a lot of fonts on here that I'm having a really hard time reading. The red navigation bar is completely illegible to me, the articles headings are barely readable, and the small red text is a litlte on the small side as well. Oh, and white text on medium grey background is a problem too.

Overall it's not bad but, as in most cases, needs a little refinement.

Megan and Others, can you give me browser/resolution details, and if possible screen shots of some of these problems. I want to try and resolve all these issues as best as possible.

I think I will alter the header image to use a repeating background and insert normal game art.

Also think I will make red the hover, and maroon the base link color.

How about maroon with underlines? Might help to make it more clear that those are links.

Here's a screen shot:

http://www.meganjack.com/ultra_gaming.jpg

This is Opera 7 on Win. 2000 pro, 1152 x 768 (resized). Might want to grab that screen shot because it might not be up there for very long.

Thanks Megan! it still looks readable to me, is it the navigational button with the black that doesn't seem clear? Im seeing it crystal clear even on your screen shot, but then again im only 1.3 feet from my monitor.

That's funny, because I can't read those red buttons at all. I've got a bit of a problem with fuzziness on my monitor, so that's probably a factor. Even so, I think it's important for navigation buttons to be as clear as possible.

Nice header!

I've been to just about every big games site on the net, but there is only one I go back to again and again. http://www.the-magicbox.com/

I've actually got their news page bookmarked. News is what most games sites live and die by. I love the magic box because its no fuss straight news. On your site I see a lot of ads and 1 news item about your own site (another ad).

My harsh advice is to either go full news and ditch everything else, or go full gaming community and try to do something different. At the moment it seems like your trying to be a one stop gaming site filling all needs, but have you the resources to match say ign?

Good luck with the project, hope you can pull it off.

Great site, I can tell you put a lot of work into it! I love how the menu pops up when you click on the links at the top, that was very cool.

I am a big fan of PC Games and I will be sure to visit your site often! Keep up the good work!
Ryan