SITE REVIEW: Gamer Within

The top half of the website is very cool. But i think you need to tone down on the white at the bottom half.

its nice

Since this thread was last updated, I have made quite a number of changes to the site, resulting in the appearance and operation of the site of a higher standard than it was when it first launched.

I am now looking for further opinions, critiscisms and suggestions for improvements on the current state of Gamer Within. Could you please take a look at the site and let me know what your impressions are, paying particular attention to what you like and what you think needs to be improved.

The site is located at: http://www.gamerwithin.com

..

Overall I think you've got a great site, and you couldn't have appeared at a better time. Now that some of my favourite sites are getting so inundated with ads and bogged down with clutter-making content that they take eons to load, I've been looking for more ... indie? ... alternatives.

That said, it's time to nitpick... from a purely subjective standpoint, of course.

Let me preface the following "feature request" by saying that I'm brand new to PHP - as in, a couple of days new - so I'm not altogether certain whether this is feasible, but I would like for my sub-section selection to be persistent across section changes. Clear as mud? Let me clarify:

Your sections include: PS2, Xbox, GC, etc.
Your sub-sections include: Reviews, Previews, Screenshots, etc.

Currently, if I am looking at the Game Listing sub-section of the PSP section, and I click on Xbox, I am taken to the Xbox "homepage." However, if I am currently looking at your game listing, then that's what I want to see - your game listing. I found it a little disruptive to be visually assaulted (I mean that in the nicest way possible, mind you) by the homepage before I could click (again) to view the nice, clean, simple game listing.

Alternatively, it might be nice to have a few options that tie your content together. What I mean is that currently, the individual sections may as well be separate web sites. However, if you gave me the option of viewing *all* the games at once, all the screenshots, all the reviews, etc., it would sort of bring it all together nicely.

Oooooooh.... OK, so I just clicked around, and I see that this is already in place. Nifty! If I click on "Recent," I get everything across all platforms. Yay, that's awesome... but it wasn't very clear to me that that's what would happen. Additionally, I would like to be able to group the resulting list by the criterion in the column's header, i.e. by platform, by title, etc.

Moving along...

Yes, I know there's a "Home" link, but could you make the Gamer Within logo, as well as the "GamerWithin.com" bit of the navbar, link back to the homepage as well?

And now, for my "Yes, I know I'm anal" closer...

I love the purty coloured backgrounds. Contrary to someone's critique earlier, I love that each section uses that platform's colour (I loved that about IGN too, before their folks dropped out of usability 101 - grrr). What I don't love is that all the little/big black boxes, that contain graphics, screenshots, or content, don't line up. The four little boxes at top-right line up with each other, but not with the right margin of the main content area. The big graphic to their left is vertically centred, but would look better if it were the same height. Additionally, that left graphic doesn't line up with the left margin of the main content area.

No big deal, and probably just a personal, must-achieve-symmetry-nirvana thing, but nevertheless, there ya go.

Btw, I'm using Firefox 1.5b2 on XP.

Hth, and keep up the great work. I've added your site to my list of oft-checked gaming hubs.

- Gita.

u have really cool graphics on your site I bet alot of young people dig it.

Thank you for your informative post justG - a number of the subjects that you raised have certainly never been brought to my attention, and I will be looking into attempting to improve the site appropriately, as I have to agree with a number of your comments (namely feature image alignment).

Now, for some slight clarification...



I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but what I think you are referring to is being able to view all reviews, previews, news, games, etc. straight off the bat, without having to click on "Recent." If this is so, this is possible directly from the site's index page, simply by clicking on the sub-section links from the index page, as follows:
http://www.gamerwithin.com/index.php?vi ... ist&type=2
http://www.gamerwithin.com/index.php?vi ... ist&type=3
http://www.gamerwithin.com/index.php?view=games

They do take a while to load - I am currently working on decreasing the loading time. If this is not what you mean, please let me know.



Another good idea - I'll see what I can do.



Another good idea - I'll see if I can also get this fixed.

Also glad to hear that you like the site overall.





Good to hear you like the images. I've tried to keep them simple yet effective, which appears to be working nicely.

"I'm not sure if I understand you correctly, but what I think you are referring to is being able to view all reviews, previews, news, games, etc. straight off the bat, without having to click on "Recent." If this is so, this is possible directly from the site's index page..."

Ah ha, wonderful! So clicking on any sub-section from the homepage presents a comprehensive view of that item across all platforms, but selecting a platform first limits the view to just that one. That's actually quite intuitive, and I wouldn't suggest any changes there at all; it should've been immediately apparent to me.

So, all that remains then, is for me to reiterate a small feature request, in case it escaped your notice the first time. ;)

"Additionally, I would like to be able to group/sort the resulting list by the criterion in the column's header, i.e. by platform, by title, etc."

Your attention to forum responses is appreciated, as is your attention to detail on the site. Good luck with it, it's a rather tough niche to wedge yourself into these days!

Thanks. I'll definitely have a look into the grouping and sorting options and see what I can come up with.

It's a cool website !
Mind the remarks of the others and it 'll be even greater !!

ciao