Ryzom

I've reported these things a few times already, and they have been passed to the webteam according to the CSR team. But, nothing has changed, wich is the reason for this topic.
Beeing a bit in webdevelopment myself, I once created a list with do's and don'ts. The list was well tought over and was made up and changed over the years. I try to apply it to every website I make, making sure the website has the technical potential to become big (and I do have a few big ones under my belt).

Looking at the Ryzom.com website I see a few major things re-occuring every single time the website is updated. I'll clarify:

Its hard to attract traffic to a website, so once you got the visitor you wanne keep it. If it's an e-commerce website, you want to direct them to the point where you want them (applied to ryzom.com its to the download section and/or the purchase section).
In order to do this, a few rules apply:
- There is not a single reason to direct a visitor away from the main website. You have earned the visitor so let it stick! Don't make them leave, there isn't a single reason why you should.
- A visitor always has to have an option to return from where he came from, without having to use the back button.
- The most important information has to be on top, you have to be able to see it without scrolling down!

Now here is what goes wrong with ryzom.com:
- Any link to a different website has to open IN A NEW WINDOW, the same apllies to the forum since it doesn't contain the navigation menu of the main website and doesn't have a single option to return to the main website without pressing the back button or without retyping the adress. I have seen links (mostly in the news) to websites not belonging to Nevrax open in the same window ==> bye, bye new customer, I hope you rembember the websites name!.
- You want a new customer wanting to try & buy the game, from the singe second he/she views the main page, so why is the download section all at the bottem? The things that are at the top of the menu are the registration options. So, he/she is more likely to visit that section first ... where the visitor immidiatly is able to see that it will cost him/her over €170 for the first year playing this game ... the thing that needs to be shown in on the main page is "FREE TRIAL" and "DOWNLOAD NOW" ...
- The biggest thing that was announced since launch was Ryzom ring, but still there isn't anyting about it on the main page, there isn't a direct link on the main page directing you to the R2 website and not the other way around either ... why???

Nevrax is loosing customers this way, I hope this cry will be heard this time buy the right people ..

For those interested (Nevrax webteam? ) the 101 rules to make a good userfriendly website:

1. Make sure the homepage is the first page wich a visitor sees.
2. Make sure a visitor only has to make a language choice once.
3. Avoid starting pages with a double function.
For example a language selection screen wich already contains a navigation menu in one of the languages.
4. Avoid multiple homepages.
Some websites have sevral homepages, sometimes when a user clicks home, he is redirected to the hompage of that section, not of the main website.
5. Compatibility with most common browsers.
6. Don't tell visitors your website is best viewed with a specific browser.
7. Compatibility with the most common operating systems.
8. Avoid the use of flash animations.
About 30% of the surfers don't have a flash plugin installed.
9. Avoid using Java-applets.
- They don't get indexed by most webcrawlers.
- A lot of configurations don't have the correct plug-ins installed by default (Windows xp systems and netscape based browsers for example).
10. Don't automaticly play video's on your website.
- You don't want to let a visitor watch a movie they didn't ask for.
- There could be plug-in problems.
11. Avoid pages in pdf, Excel, Word, ...
45% of the users doesn't have Acrobat reader installed ...
30% doesn't have the correct version of office, half of those just don't have it installed.
12. Always announce non-standard documents.
When you do use pdf for example, announce it upfront!
13. Always open non-standard documents in a new window.
Most of the time its difficult to get back from that document to the page you came from.
14. Avoid pages over 100kb, don't let a visitor wait.
15. Make sure you are on a fast server, people don't like to wait, not even for half a second.
16. Use a link checker to track dead links.
17. Make sure a link directs you to the right page.
18. Make sure a user can click a navigation item.
If a section of the website isn't finished yet, don't put a dead or disabled link anyware.
19. Avoid "under construction", nothing is more frustrating if a visitor doesn't get wat he/she was promiced.
20. Avoid empty pages.
21. Make sure every page is bug-free.
22. Don't EVER use frames!!
For every good thing about frames there are like 10 bad things, I'll give a few:
- The human brain can't handle frames, frames break up the expected unity of a page.
- When you use frames the the URL of a page isn't consistent with the visited page, wich makes it harder to retrieve the page later or to bookmark or link to it.
- Printing a framed page is a mess.
- When a link or a webcrawler points to a page in the frame and not to the frameset, you basicly have a ****ed up website.
23. Don't use adress masking, make sure the url changes when a new page is visited.
24. Don't ever use popups, a lot of them are blocked and they are pretty much annoying.
25. Don't use a new window for internal links.
26. Be very cautious with external links OPEN THEM IN A NEW WINDOW!!!
27. Make sure you have a clickable logo on the top left corner wich directs you to the homepage.
28. Put the navigation elements in one zone, don't make a visitor look in different places.
29. Make sure the navigation works the same way all over the whole website.
30. Make html navigation.
Webcrawlers don't read other types of navigation, the navigation could be broken if it's in flash or java.
31. Make your navigation as simple as possible.
32. Put your navigation on each page.
33. Make use of the standards you find on each page.
"Home", "Contact", ...
34. Make use of carfuly choosen words in the navigation, so the user ends up where he/she would expect to end up.
35. Avoid using product names for the main navigation.
36. Don't use only icons for navigation.
37. Put the navigation items in a logical order.
38. Limit the number of items in your navigation area.
39. Underline links.
40. Give links a different colour.
41. Mark visited links in a differen colour.
42. Use the same colours trough the whole website.
43. Only underline links, not anything else.
44. The mousecursor should only change to a hand when hoovered over a link.
45. Put the logo of your company on each page.
46. Track the path the user takes trough your website, show it to the visitor (eg: home > contact) so the visitor can navigate back easely.
47. Give each page a clear title.
48. Use clear title tags in your html code.
49. Try to make clear, understandable urls.
50. Use a clear, easy to read font.
Reading at a distance goes faster.
51. Use a big enough text size, should be readable from 70cm distance.
52. The most easy to read text is on a light background with black letters.
53. Make sure the text colour, font, size, .. are all the same on the whole website.
54. Avoid using only captions, even for titles.
55. Avoid text in pictures.
56. Avoid animations, users associate them with advertising.
57. Avoid moving text.
58. Avoid zones where the content constantly changes, they draw to much of the attention of the visitor.
59. Avoid using animated buttons, most visitors tend to ignore them.
60. Make sure the user can always rely on its browser, don't mess with it.
61. Don't mess with the back button.
62. Don't create a website inside a website, don't try to act as a browser yourself.
63. Use standard scrollbars, don't mess with them.
64. Don't use drop-down menu's without a submit button.
65. Use logical buttons.
66. Don't add more then one function to a single button.
67. Don't optimise for one specific resolution, make sure your website looks ok on each one.
68. Avoid horizonal scrollbars on 800 x 600
69. Don't tell a visitor a wabsite is optimised for a specific resolution.
70. Make sure your page mirror is good.
A good website uses about 50% upto 75% of its space on a maximised window for content.
71. Avoid to long pages, don't let a user scroll to much.
72. Make sure the text size can be adapted for visitors with bad sight (ctrl+mouse weel or via the window menu on IE)
73. Make sure the website is readable to without a stylesheet.
A lot of people with bad sight disable stylesheets to read everyting in high contrast. Webcrawlers don't process stylesheets, make sure google displays your page info correct.
74. Some people are colour blind, so keep them in mind.
8% of the white males can't see the difference between red and green.
75. Make sure you have a good statement on your homepage.
76. Make sure a visitor imidiatly is able to see what your website is about.
77. Put real content on your homepage, don't sum up what you can find on the other pages.
78. Avoid scrolling for important info.
79. Make sure the contact info is easy accesible.
80. Make sure you clearly point to the contact page, don't make them look for it.
81. Put all contact info on one page.
82. Make sure you provide all contact info, preferably different ways to get in touch.
83. Put old info into archives, don't keep them on the main pages.
84. Don't put dates on items of wich the time is irrelevant.
85. Put dates and/or times on the items that are time relevant.
86. Make sure your copyright date is updated every year.
87. Don't hide search behind a link, search is a textbox not a link.
88. Put a search box on each page.
89. Make the full site search a standard, not a section.
90. Put the search box on a good viewable spot, don't hide it.
91. Don't put advanced search on a prominent spot, advanced search will only be needed in rare cases.
92. Make sure the search result page has a good, clear structure.
93. Give a clear feedback if there aren't any results, don't show an empty page.
94. Give clear instrutions when handling forms.
95. Use the same type of buttons with the exact same caption on the whole website.
96. Give a detailed feedback when a user makes errors filling in a form.
97. Save as much as possible of the data the user already has entered, don't clear the whole form after a single error.
98. Use the same language as the language the user has chosen when you display errors.
99. Translate error messages into human language.
100. Watch your language, don't use chat, leet, .. language when displaying content.
101. Use the same language on every detail on your website, even on the alt of an image for example.



Edit: Saeri made me complete the list.

Dont you think thier webmaster knows this information? what a f*&king ego you must have.

complete muppet.

saeri wrote:My god, your a muppet

Dont you think thier webmaster knows this information? what a f*&king ego you must have.

complete muppet.

Well, looking for 5 seconds at the ryzom.com website, they don't

mrozzy wrote:Well, looking for 5 seconds at the ryzom.com website, they don't

Well, ****. you must be right.

everyone at nevrax, stop what your doing...Uberwebmaster mrozzy would like to teach you amatuers a thing or too here.

Listen up, it could be invaluable.

sorry to say, but you're just needlessly flaming, when those two are absolutely right, just be happy you don't have to put up with the german website...

Well, to give you a good example: a news article posted on May 19, 2005: Convention : The E3 has started !

This news item contains a link to a redirect page on mmorpg.com. It doesn't open in a new window and even pressing the back button doesn't get you back. Not a smart thing to do, don't you think?

Saeri, to be honest, can't you see the irony of the thing I posted. I'll learn you a new word: "RELATIVATION".

mrozzy wrote:Well, to give you a good example: a news article posted on May 19, 2005: Convention : The E3 has started !

This news item contains a link to a redirect page on mmorpg.com. It doesn't open in a new window and even pressing the back button doesn't get you back. Not a smart thing to do, don't you think?

Saeri, to be honest, can't you see the irony of the thing I posted. I'll learn you a new word: "RELATIVATION".

Erm, I have no idea what that word means, tried looking in the Dictionary but its not there, would you like a lesson in Spelling 101?

Oh well, not everyone is a native English speaker.

A dreadful language?

ps: didn't I say I would teach you a "new" word?

You seem to know a lot about websites. That is good. Wish I knew that much...