I received a link to this interactive gaming conference this morning, and while it actually looks quite interesting (and I may consider going), they’ve got one of the worst website designs I’ve seen in a while. Take a look at this (visit the website for the full-size version):

I realize that the audience for this conference probably doesn’t care about website design, but they WILL care when they realize that the information from last year still has not been replaced and they can’t find what they’re looking for. Game design is still design– there’s really no excuse for this website to look like this. So, in the interest of fairness, let’s analyze the good and the bad… maybe there’s some good stuff underneath the 2000-esque design.

The Good:
- Navigation-based breadcrumb trail– you always know which page you’re currently on, as the link in the navigation is bolded and has a ‘>>’ symbol behind it.

- Text-based, simple navigation

- White (or light) content background makes body text very readable

- Use of XHTML, jQuery.

- Modern, clean banner up top.

- Centred layout, fits 1024 x 768 resolution without horizontal scrolling

The Bad (partial list):
- Tables-based layout (use divs and CSS– tables are for tabular data, and are a huge pain anyway).

- Very inconsistent alignment (pick one and stick with it!).

- Inconsistent fonts/font colours/line spacing/etc. (same as above).

- Use of images for text headers (like the ‘Some of our great speakers…’ text. Use plain text– it’s more SEO-friendly).

- The big banner has the new dates of the conference, but the ‘Speakers’ and ‘Sessions’ links still show the old content from last year (take this down, and maybe put it in an ‘Archives’ section, otherwise it’s very confusing).

- Black background on the Twitter feed widget is very hard on the eyes… and what’s with that neon green text? (Use consistent colours across the website).

- EXTREMELY crowded and cluttered home page– there is no focal point, and the information in the middle is lost amid all of the surrounding logos/images/stuff (clean it up! Those logos do not need to be so big, and do not need to enclose the content like a sandwich).

- The email and print symbols look like they could have been pulled from an old DOS system… which works for some, but not for a gaming conference website. (And the alt text on the email symbol includes the word ‘eMail’… who still capitalizes the ‘m’ in email?! This is 2010, not 1999). Speaking of… why is there a link to email right next to the ‘Contact Us’ link? They don’t both need to be there.

- The image which links to the blog in the left column gives no indication it is the site’s blog, other than the Blogger symbol (a text link in the navigation would be better)

- And why is the DIG logo different colours in different places? And who can read the ‘Thanks to our 2009 speakers!’ header-image without getting a headache? And why is ‘Keynote’ capitalized in some places and not others? And what’s with all of the dashed lines separating the columns (and why are they all different colours)? And… and… and…

Sigh. Maybe I’ll use this website as a case study, and mockup a version of what I would like it to look like. Or maybe I won’t be able to stare at it that long. Either way, hopefully DIG cleans up their website before the conference this November… I might be more inclined to attend if they do.