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VGD Website Feedback

Discussion in 'Very Good Days News' started by rsniteblaze, Aug 19, 2016.

  1. rsniteblaze

    rsniteblaze Administrator

    Hey guys,

    Long time no talk. Sorry I've been inactive for so long. It looks like much has changed with Draft King and AIMI in just the last couple months alone, so I'll be logging in more again occasionally to help out where I can.

    The first thing I'll be doing is updating Draft King's and AIMI's homepages on our main site. There's a lot of content that needs to be added, edited, and removed. My goal is to get them up to par to Stereopony's homepage. Click the links below.

    http://en.verygooddays.com/stereopony/
    http://en.verygooddays.com/aimi/
    http://en.verygooddays.com/draftking/

    Updating the pages won't be enough though. I'm also thinking about restructuring the layout of these homepages as well. So, this is where you come in. Please answer the following questions in as much detail as possible.

    1. What content is missing from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    2. What content is outdated or needs to be removed from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    3. Do you like the current layout of the Stereopony homepage? How can it be improved?
    4. How often do you visit the website every week? What content are you looking at? Blogs? Lyrics? Tabs? Interviews? List all that apply and how often you look at each content.
    5. Do you usually type in the URL or click on links from our social media more often when you visit our website?
    6. Do you ever visit the artist homepages? What about the VGD homepage?
    7. What do you think the most important part of the website is? Are we doing a good job? How can we improve?

    If you have any other comments, please let me know as well.

    I expect to begin working on changes either Friday or Saturday GMT -7

    Thank you.


    EDIT: Let it be known that I've already started working on the artist landing pages.
     
    Last edited: Aug 19, 2016
  2. crimsonknight4

    crimsonknight4 Global Moderator Translator

    For the Home page I think more clearly defined borders between the news, blogs, etc would help but they are fine as they are. All-in-all the home page is good; I have no issues with it.


    On the “Artists” tab I think the distinction between solo artists and bands should be removed since we don’t have too many artists we can support at the moment so the division seems rather pointless. I think you should also remove “Hiddy” for now.


    Also I think a mini gallery on the artist homepage would help make the pages a bit more visually appealing. Like the slider, except like a bunch of small icons that would blow up when clicked on. Obviously in the interest of space it can’t be too much, I think a good 10 pictures would be fine. Maybe stick that near the featured video for a mini “Media” section


    Finally a big problem I have is when an artist makes an announcement but its not enough for a news post so I think like a small newsfeed on the side would be great to serve as a quick catch up on an artist’s activities, versus their big announcements.

    (Of course the “events” could serve this function but I think it’s a bit tedious to update for every artist)

    Maybe a plugin to VGD’s Twitter page on the homepage, that way I can focus on small news there.
     
  3. rsniteblaze

    rsniteblaze Administrator

    Alright,

    I've updated the AIMI, Draft King, and Stereopony homepages. I think I highlighted the most important stuff. So, if anyone has more suggestions, let me know.

    Taking CK's suggestion, I revamped the "Artists" tab:

    [​IMG]


    Test it out and tell me what you think. Check the mobile version of the site too, if you have a smart phone.


    As for the small announcements issue, I'll see what I can do. The problem with adding a feed in the sidebar is that I need to designate a post category, so I can't filter posts by artist if we wanted to also place the feed on the artist homepage sidebars too. It's possible to filter by artist on an Archive page, but not in a sidebar widget. I lack the technical knowledge.

    I'll work more on this on the weekend.
     
  4. nijibashi

    nijibashi Global Moderator Translator

    The artists tab looks fine in both computer and smartphone

    About the computer version, I think it would be good to highlight more the blogs section, but not as much as the big announcements.
    I was thinking in something like:

    BLOGS
    (Draft King) a visual of the last entry, as it is now, with the title and a little part of the entry, and at its side the latest entries.
    (AIMI) ^same
    (Stereopony) ^same

    Maybe under the big announcements, put a square for the blogs and at its side, two more smaller squares, one for the interviews and under this other for the features.

    About the mobile version, I think it just needs to give a bigger visual of everything which is in the homepage.
    Something for the big announcements as it is in the computer version. About the other sections, the last entry shown is perfect as it is now, maybe show the other latest entries at its side instead of under, just to make everything a little more visual.

    It's just my idea... And sorry for my lack of skills for explaining (T-T)

    But anyways, the page looks great as it is now!! :)
     
    Last edited: Aug 20, 2016
  5. DSteele

    DSteele Global Moderator

    1. What content is missing from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    a.) Perhaps run an AIMI Bio along the left side of the the page, same goes for Draft King. Make the bands/singer more apparent and not make people go digging for info on them.

    2. What content is outdated or needs to be removed from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    a.) I don't really see any content that really needs to be removed from either page. Removing content is not necessary, as leaving it there helps build the storyline of what was happening at the time.

    3. Do you like the current layout of the Stereopony homepage? How can it be improved?
    a.) The layout seems fine, very neat and not all over the place.

    4. How often do you visit the website every week? What content are you looking at? Blogs? Lyrics? Tabs? Interviews? List all that apply and how often you look at each content.
    a.) I don't generally visit the home pages and what not, I generally have the chat box open all the time whether it's on my phone or my computer. Most of what I'm looking at is generally just the chat box and forum translations of Nohana's blog.

    5. Do you usually type in the URL or click on links from our social media more often when you visit our website?
    a.) I usually just type in the forum.verygooddays.com link

    6. Do you ever visit the artist homepages? What about the VGD homepage?
    a.) Not really, most of the time I'm sitting on the chat box or looking through maybe a forum post I generally skip the homepage every time to get to the chat box and the forums.

    7. What do you think the most important part of the website is? Are we doing a good job? How can we improve?
    a.) The most important part of the website is definitely the forums where people come to interact with each other, everyone's doing a phenomenal job, the issue is we're a very niche group especially when most of us are from non Asian centric countries so the improvement can only come when it comes unless we spend a lot more resources than any of us are really capable of putting into it.


    I apologize if any of the answers seem lacking, I just honestly can't think of anything that is being done that could be improved without putting a lot of resources into it.
     
  6. Arcluna

    Arcluna Administrator

    1. What content is missing from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    Is there a way to incorporate instagram feeds?

    2. What content is outdated or needs to be removed from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    -Nothing
    3. Do you like the current layout of the Stereopony homepage? How can it be improved?
    Seems fine to me.

    4. How often do you visit the website every week? What content are you looking at? Blogs? Lyrics? Tabs?

    Interviews? List all that apply and how often you look at each content.
    Every day- forum, blogs, and chat.
    I check out the interviews when first posted.


    5. Do you usually type in the URL or click on links from our social media more often when you visit our website?
    Type URL
    6. Do you ever visit the artist homepages? What about the VGD homepage?
    Rarely. I'm usually going straight to forum.verygooddays.com
    7. What do you think the most important part of the website is? Are we doing a good job? How can we improve?
    Translations and latest news. I think we can improve on main site content (my fault!).
     
  7. rsniteblaze

    rsniteblaze Administrator

    I've done a similar layout on the artist homepage as the VGD homepage. Blogs are right below News. And if the option is there, Interviews are below blogs. The features aren't usually artist specific and there's no way for me to filter them, so I left those out.

    Unfortunately, the sliders are disabled for portrait mobile view. But it returns when it's in landscape view.

    Well, this at least confirmed what I was thinking. Power users tend to skip the traditional landing pages and just head straight to where they want to go. In your case, it's the forum, which also has the same content as the website — but just not as pretty.

    I agree that the forums are important since we rely on member contributions to keep the site going. But the problem I'm seeing is that we're unable to direct new website visitors to the forum. I have at least 2 ads for the forum on each page, but it seems they haven't been effective. So, I replaced them with new artwork, which will hopefully get more attention.

    We still run into people who never realized that the forums existed, so maybe we need to do a bit more forum promotion on social media and other outlets.

    We can do our own Instagram feed, but we can't do other people's without their API key and secret key. So no, we can't do AIMI's or NOHANA's Instagram.

    Site content is definitely something we need more of to generate more traffic. Obviously, it's hard to do it with just a few people who have other priorities like work and school, but it's possible if we have a content schedule. The content schedule looks like something CK is currently working on, so what we need are volunteers to help with content creation.
     
  8. Arcluna

    Arcluna Administrator

    I did start a VGD instagram... primarily using the repost app...so that could work still
     
  9. rsniteblaze

    rsniteblaze Administrator

    The only problem is that we won't be able to filter individual artists, so the feed would have to go on the VGD homepage's sidebar or in the website footer.

    Also, it doesn't really add much value if people could just use the Instagram app to look at Instagram photos.

    It sounds like what you want is a photo gallery of some sort. On the main navigation you'll see Features > Media > Photos and it'll take you to an archive of all the posts I categorized as a photo gallery. Right now, there's only one post since I never got around to building more. I was just trying to figure out a template before I did the rest. http://en.verygooddays.com/2009/06/17/stereopony-hydrangea-ga-saiteiru-gallery/

    So, does that sound like what you were thinking? Adding photo galleries?
     
  10. nijibashi

    nijibashi Global Moderator Translator

    The new look of the homepage is great!
    Now that I have more time, I'll answer the questions

    1. What content is missing from the AIMI and Draft King pages?

    I think it's perfect as it is right now

    2. What content is outdated or needs to be removed from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    None

    3. Do you like the current layout of the Stereopony homepage? How can it be improved?
    It's totally fine!

    4. How often do you visit the website every week? What content are you looking at? Blogs? Lyrics? Tabs? Interviews? List all that apply and how often you look at each content.
    I try to visit it every day, it's easier to be aware of DK and AIMI news from here since the content is translated and for example, at twitter, I can't be aware of all their news since I'm following more artists... what is more, the most important things are told in blog entries (which are fantastically translated here) and other interesting news... well, they're post in VGD news lol
    What I'm visiting more are blogs and lyrics sections from the forum, since I (try to) translate them from Englsih to Spanish (I'll have the lyrics translations done soon)
    Well, what I take a look at almost every day is the chat box lol but that's because I'm on vacation and I have more free time


    5. Do you usually type in the URL or click on links from our social media more often when you visit our website?
    I type in the URL

    6. Do you ever visit the artist homepages? What about the VGD homepage?
    Most of the time I'm in the forum... the chat box... lol but I sometimes look at VGD homepage to see if there's any news that aren't posted in the forum

    7. What do you think the most important part of the website is? Are we doing a good job? How can we improve?
    Blog translations, news... but I think interviews and VGD reviews are also very important since that's what makes this a fan community.

    From what I know, there's a big part of the international j-rock fans which are located in Spanish language countries but... well, I'm trying to do my best translating the blogs and lyrics to Spanish on the forum
    Maybe publishing the Spanish translations of the lyrics would help atraccting those stepo fans...
     
  11. J-Becker

    J-Becker Stereopony Fan

    1. What content is missing from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    Can't see any missing pages.
    2. What content is outdated or needs to be removed from the AIMI and Draft King pages?
    None.
    3. Do you like the current layout of the Stereopony homepage? How can it be improved?
    Yep.
    4. How often do you visit the website every week? What content are you looking at? Blogs? Lyrics? Tabs? Interviews? List all that apply and how often you look at each content.
    I visit interviews when i bored and look something to read lol. I read Blogs if AIMI or Draft King post one and transteld to English.
    5. Do you usually type in the URL or click on links from our social media more often when you visit our website?
    URL.
    6. Do you ever visit the artist homepages? What about the VGD homepage?
    Nope. Not much :/
    7. What do you think the most important part of the website is? Are we doing a good job? How can we improve?
    Chatbox and blog translates lol .If you have free time transleting the tweets would be good i think. But still you are doing very fine.
     

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