What's In A Home Page?
What's in the home page? Too much, really.
There, I said it.
The home page of Mapraider.com is a mess.
Back in the beginning, I first envisioned that Mapraider would be some kind of hybrid between a portal and a catalog system focused on FPS maps. The home page was to feature "content modules" that users could turn off and on and even move around according to his or her desires (kind of like Google's personalized home page).
Obviously that never came to fruition and as it turns out, I'm actually glad it didn't.
Creating enough variety in "modules" for the home page to justify the functionality would really have stretched the site's purpose. And inevitably, I would be forced to create things like polls and random quotes of the day to keep the choice of modules from feeling limited and the idea of customizing your home page silly. These modules, while fun for some, would only distract visitor's attention from the maps on the site and since I maintain the site on my own, stale content would have been more of an issue that it is already.
Mapraider 2.0 will sport a streamlined home page and make it a better jumping off point for map discovery.
Instead of fifteen separate content areas ...
... what? ... Fifteen?!
Yes, fifteen. I had to recount it myself. A logged in user currently sees:
- featured map
- featured items
- their stats
- at a glance
- mapraider headlines
- mapraider news in detail
- member stats
- map stats
- recent map reviews
- latest maps
- downloads they haven't rated
- their recent ratings
- their recent submissions
- affiliates/links, and
- user's online
... Instead of fifteen content areas dueling for your attention, the new home page will consist of only FOUR well thought out and strategically positioned primary content areas.
It's a bit of a dramatic change, but it's not quite as minimalist as it may seem. Some of the other content has been moved to places where it still makes sense, so it'll still be easy to find and get to.
Unfortunately, I can't yet share a detailed view of the new home page, but even at this early prototype stage of the design process I can assure you that it's exciting to see that Mapraider will now have a very clear sense of purpose right from the home page — something it has been in desperate need of for some time.