Front page
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So while I understand that there may not be any licensing news for various business reasons, the main website front page is really lacking in love and might give visitors the false impression that the company is dead. Some suggestions:
- Reformat the announcements section to at least support 2 news items at once instead of just 1. Optimally, it should show a bunch, either 5-10 per page or automatically load more when you scroll, maybe there's a technical reason it's currently restricted? Either way, showing more articles accomplishes a few things:
- Makes the front page look busier, so visitors are less likely to skim and leave.
- Helps regulars see all news without having to manually look for it if they haven't visited in a while or if JNC happens to do a lot of things in a short time period. This might be irrelevant at the moment, but it's futureproofing.
- Consider having someone curate a blog. You could delve more into the light novel scene in Japan, for example, with new series, new books in popular series, news about authors or illustrators, etc. You could also discuss localization/translation topics or oddities that come up at JNC, new e-releases for finished books, and polls to collect data from people who don't use forums.
- Do something with the banner. I'm not sure what it's there for... it doesn't automatically scroll, the banners don't really link to anything interesting that you can't already get to from somewhere else (at least take out the word "Announcement" since it doesn't link to an announcement, it just links to the summary page), and my cursor doesn't change when I hover over it so I didn't even know it linked somewhere until I randomly tried clicking (clicking on the words does nothing, which is also odd).
- Maybe instead of having 7 banners, 4 which are eternally hidden unless a bored soul happens to be curious enough to click on the tabs, just have 1 banner showing, and load a random banner whenever the page loads.
- Also, the banner appears to break when loading in Internet Explorer, so that might need to be fixed :O
- Reformat the announcements section to at least support 2 news items at once instead of just 1. Optimally, it should show a bunch, either 5-10 per page or automatically load more when you scroll, maybe there's a technical reason it's currently restricted? Either way, showing more articles accomplishes a few things:
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Totally agree it's really lacking. I'm amazed they didn't change the front page to the new series clues they gave out. Wish they would at least state the e-releases of the finalized volumes for the month if they don't want to make a post for each individual release.
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Ok. I'm seeing what you mean about the main page looking a bit static. While the releases area updates constantly, the top banner area doesn't. This does make it look less active than it actually is. Just having the banners automatically rotate would be an improvement. I don't think speculations or in progress negotiations should be there though.
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@paul-nebeling I was mainly referring to the most recent article being from June 1, actually. That's 4 months with nothing new posted. If the plan all along was to just quietly put out books, then the way the front page is set up is completely
wrong(EDIT: wasteful). Think about it:- The top third of the page is the navigation bar and the banners. The banners ostensibly display news articles ("Announcement: Clockwork Planet"), except that they don't actually link to news articles. The banners are one of the biggest objects on the page.
- The bottom quarter of the page is the usual sitemap, which is fine.
- Of the main content area, 70% is used to show a news article from 4 months ago. This area is the other largest object on the page.
- 30% of the main content is the feed showing new and upcoming chapter releases. The pictures are small, the text is purely informative, and none of it is available to non-members.
So, as a new visitor who heard about JNC from somewhere and wants to explore around, what are the options? Some banners that don't link to news, one news post from 4 months ago and is actually a blurb/tweet and not even an article, and a RSS feed to releases for books you haven't heard of.
The way the main page is currently set up, I would think the idea was to post news and interest articles, so it's just odd that that's not how it's being used. Basically, there should be a reason to have a main page. Without a reason, the home page link should directly load a more interesting page like Titles, About, or How It Works or something.
Whoever said nothing's impossible never tried slamming a revolving door.
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Hi, I am a person that's sort of related to this (don't mind the lack of forum tag on my account). Do know that we are in fact working on a new component for the front page at the moment, so that will help somewhat with making it more dynamic. Thank you for your constructive suggestions, we will certainly take them into consideration!
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@myskaros
Well, I'm horrible at web page design, so take my comments as suggestions with a sufficient addition of salt. I've realized that this company is fairly new, but has accomplished a great deal in that short time. I would think that having the announcements on the top of the page link to more in depth articles would be nice, and I will repeat the thought that having them auto-rotate would be good. I'm wondering what the proper balance should be between appealing to new visitors and supporting existing members. Both are important. -
@jaon Thanks for the acknowledgement and confirmation that improvements are coming!
@Paul-Nebeling Sorry, I didn't mean to downplay your insight/suggestion at all, I kind of got carried away in my reply. I agree with you on all fronts!
