The Bad Website: minecraft.net
Minecraft.net: https://www.minecraft.net/
Minecraft.net is a website made by Notch, the creator of the game Minecraft. The website is designed for gamers, more specifically people who play the game Minecraft. The website has a link to the forums which are hosted by Curse. Minecraft.net also has a free version of the game on it for people who want to get a quick feel for the game before buying it. There is also a store for people to buy clothes related to the game. The website itself is to get the product out but can also be used to navigate to the forums, developers twitter, or even the wikipedia page devoted to it. The website has a "How to play" page that teaches you the basics of playing Minecraft and a "About the game" page that tells you about origin of minecraft, and what the game is about. You can also access the forums to find out more about it, get texture packs, and talk about the game. The subheader has copyright information, and the header has links to the rest of the website, and the name of the site itself. The website tried to have multimedia aspects to it, like Facebook, and a youtube commercial for Minecraft, but both of those are broken at the moment, the videos on the how to play page are broken as well. Everything is related to the the purpose of the site, distributing Minecraft, and getting additional content out. There are supposed to be videos to watch, but those don't work, you can play a previous build of Minecraft, and you can also participate in the forums. The video, when it worked, was changed sometimes, and the only thing Notch adds updates through are his twitter, and tumblr, accounts, you can also find older content on his twitter and tumblr. The only things that keeps me coming back to the website are the forums, Notches twitter, and tumbler, and the fact that the website is the only way of accessing your profile once you have purchased the game, through your profile you can customize your character, and change all sorts of things. If it were not for those few things I would not visit the site as regularly, if at all.
The websites header with the dirt background and navigation menu.
The visual appeal for the target audience is that it takes textures from the game and used them as background for the header and the website, the header uses the dirt texture from Minecraft, and everything else is using the old stone texture. The overall design of the website is pretty simple, the header has the games name in it, and links to the different parts of the website. The text is a light beige or white colour, the background makes it look like an odd shade. The text is really easy to read on the background of the site. The font on the website looks like Verdana or a variation of that font. The overall site has a consistent feel and is easy to navigate, and the background and header stay the same throughout the website. The forums though are a whole new site, and because of that it has a different background so its not as consistent going from the main site to the forums. They use the same header, text style, and font colour throughout the main site. There is no need for scrolling on the main page and no side scrolling throughout the site, some parts of the website like the "How to play" section has some scrolling. The navigation system is located on the header at the top beside the title, and it has one drop down menu and is consistent throughout the site. The site has a log in system, to access your profile for the game. The website does lack a "Site Map" page. And there is no search feature on the website.
"Broken" Youtube video.
The URL is the name of the game the website was developed for. The names of the webpages are fitting for what the page is about (for an example https://www.minecraft.net/game/howtoplay). The source code is organized and doesn't look like lumps of gigantic code. Throughout the website there are a lot of broken graphics and multimedia boxes. All of the videos on the website are broken, and some of the pictures. The site is very easy to find, all you have to do is google search the games name, Minecraft, and you will be directed to this website. The graphics, are broken on both Safari, and Firefox. The website requires Flash 10, and without that you can not view any of the videos on the website which is why they appear broken. For the most part you can get most of the content from the website, but the "How to play" section uses videos from Youtube, and requires Flash 10. There are no links to obtain the required plug-ins for the website. The website works with both Firefox, and Safari, asides from the missing plug-ins there were no problems with the site.To improve the website I would work adding more text, so people without the plug-ins get the information.