Hi, We have just launched a new site called Games Dash. It's a free online games site that also has a funny videos and pictures section. Could you please comment on what you think of the site and it's design. The url is: http://www.gamesdash.com Thanks!
I really like the layout of the site how it takes up the whole screen. The ad placements are good and just right in terms of quantity. Some sites like this load up too much on ads. Overall, it's a clean design.
There's over 500 games. I'm not going to give exact figures because of competition. The games should hopefully be increasing soon though.
Honestly I really have no complaints but typically I do prefer a fixed width website. Primarily because I use a large resolution, on this site, it isn't really all that noticeable, but I do have some large white boxes that text only fills about halfway or less it seems (wasted space I guess you could say). But it doesn't appear to be buggy and it still looks nice. Overall, A+.
The layout just doesn't interest me at all. It just doesn't look like something I'd visit daily! Sorry
That's alright bfblackjack. No matter how rich someone is or how good they are at designing anything on this planet, no one in this world will ever be able to build one thing that is for everyones taste. Everyone has different tastes and the main aim I'm going for is to hopefully get more people that will like the sites design and usability than what will not like it, which is so far going in my favour via this forums review and a few others. Still looking for more comments/reviews.
I've seen some homepages where they just have around 100+ links to all of their games and that's it. Anyway, thanks and still looking for more comments.
I like the idea of a wide layout however as phpgator mentioned above, on large resolutions you get a lot of wasted space - i'm viewing the site on 1280x800 and most of the descriptions don't come close to filling the boxes, so theres a lot of whitespace. I like the fact you have the icons and descriptions for each game, however, and definitely prefer this to a simple list of game links. Color scheme is good, nice and clean - ad placement is done well - the logo could do with a little sprucing up - a more professional design could completely change the appeal of the site. Perhaps instead of having the two boxes of random games on the side, use one of them for the most popular games, featured games or recently added games? Just to add a little variety.
OK, here goes (I'll give you 3 things): The site is nice and fresh looking however: You have a liquid template (ie the template will fill the resolution of the monitor) - It would be a great idea to have a script that gives 3 columns to higher res users - this will enable you to show more and it won't look so spread out. You've plastered ads all over your site - you won't make money by users clicking on them until you actually have people visiting your site (there are hundreds if not thousands of sites out there just like this, with hardly any visitors). Concentrate on having quality and unique content (games, articles, words, words oh did I say words...) Search engines love words. If you have the ads off your front page for now, it will load much faster and stand out - keep the ads on your second pages or games pages - everyone will expect them. Spend time each night/day reviewing the games you have - Make the descriptions a bit more than "this is a nice game" - I see you are listed in Google with "See how many keep ups you can manage to do. Click the ball to make it bounce. If the ball ..." - this is good - try to keep it up. Most games sites tend to be really dark - I like your blue scheme! I would maybe invest in a better logo (the one you have is OK, but maybe a bit washed out/blurry) - make the words stand out a bit more. Onward and upwards Steve Dorrington (AKA CarpetDog)
Thanks for the long review. Why's everyone suddenly changing to larger res screens. The most commonly used on is the one I'm using. Rather than doing 3 different sizes for different res screens, I would prefer to just do a default size and then have the site centered as there would be less work there. Not sure what you have missed out on the games descriptions, but 95% or more of the games are already reviewed which has taken a lot of time to do. There should be around 75 - 100 words for each game where none of the descriptions can be found anywhere else on the web. They have also been copyrighted due to the time and cost writing them. About the plastering of ads, 3 ads on the homepage is not nothing much and I would prefer to leave them there. I prefer for my visitors to know what to expect when they get to the site rather than them get use to it without the ads and then suddenly have the ads after a while of using it. Compared to GamesDash, I feel that the site doesn't have many ads compared to some of the arcade sites on the web. Hopefully the ads on the homepage will not turn to many people away.
Hiya I was complementing you on the fact that you have unique content. I tend to write reviews with tips to improve them - when I find something that a site owner has done that I like or approve of - I tend to complement then point out what you did that was good (I even showed that you have a listing in Google with an example ). Onward and upwards Steve Dorrington (AKA CarpetDog)