Too many questions on the page and too less information about the game
Source(s):
www.alpha.hubdub.com

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Here are my quick observations, by the way, I've been in online marketing for 7 years so they're pretty straight forward.

1. Loving the predict feature on the homepage, it's really catchy and should result in a good call to action

2. The right hand side looks a little overcrowded I tend to scan through the left hand links.

3. I almost missed the popular now links. They need a little more focus.

4. Overall if I were you I would try to keep the content on the homepage a little less cluttered, review to see what you should keep, what you can move and what you should toss...

Great service btw.
Source(s):
I run http://www.hypick.com

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I've never heard of the site before, but on looking at it I like the design.

I have no marketing expertise, so my comments are purely from a "man in the street" perspective.

I did think that it wasn't immediately obvious that the site was dealing with "play money". At first I was concerned that you have to use real money. I think that needs to be a lot clearer. I had to look at several pages before I found that out. If I hadn't been responding to this question, I probably would have left the site thinking it was a betting site.

Also, as a UK user why do I need to stake virtual dollars? Surely this should be Virtual pounds?

All in all though, I like the site and probably will visit it again.
Source(s):
Personal thoughts.

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This is the very first time I've seen the site. I wrote down my thoughts as I went through the site.

First impression:
As I come upon the site, my first thought is "What is this? Digg spinoff?" so I look up to the top left and see "Predict the news".

At this point I'm kind of confused, leaning towards just pushing the site as another "Digg spinoff" based on the looks.

Being a curious person I look around, reading a few of the headlines I'm still not entirely sure what this site is, I try looking for an 'about' link or something similar.

I look around the screen, and in the top right I find one. Took a little bit to find it.

What I think so far:
If a friend linked me to this, I'd give it two looks before saying screw it.

Moving on.

So I click the 'about' link. I read the huge bold headline "News has never been so exciting!"

Still confused, thinking to myself... this is gimmicky? What is the point? What do I get from 'staking virutal dollar on the outcomes of real running news stories' what does that REALLY mean, and why should I bother?

Frankly, I'm lost. The index is confusing. The about page is hardly helpful if any at all.

As a random user, who just likes to 'surf the net' I wouldn't be bothered to search that far nor would I be bothered to register.

a) I'd like more eyecandy. The page is simple, which is a good thing, but I think it's TOO simple.
I do like the 'Featured Question' thing. It was the first thing that gave me a clue of what to do. If the options and percentages could be added to all the questions on the index.
It would serve two purposes:
1. Give people an idea of what the website is about.
2. Make people want to give their suggestions to certain topics on
impulse(requiring them to register)

b) I wouldn't. Plain and simple.
The site is confusing, gimmicky, and not the kind of site I normally use.
Only suggestion would be what I said in a)
Source(s):
Personal thoughts.


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Having answered the question a month ago I'm no longer a first time visitor, but I love the changes that you've made. I particularly like the big 'join' box which says 'Hubdub lets you stake virtual dollars on the outcomes of real news stories'.

I agree with those who say the page is still quite busy, and I think 3 featured questions from different categories would suffice for the home page. Otherwise, as one respondent above says, it ends up looking like a copy of Digg.

A brilliant start to improving user experience on hubdub. I'm looking forward to seeing future changes.

David
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I know (from experience) that it can be very difficult to hear "tell people what the site is about" - when you, it seems glaringly obvious. You should design with this in mind:

- You have seven seconds to "grab" someone.
- People don't "read" - they "can". At most, they will read a few bullet points.

I will give you a methodology as well as some specific design suggestions.

Method

- Print your web site out
- Show it to someone (new) for *7 seconds*.
- Ask them:
- What is this site about?
- Do you think this site offers something unique?
- Were you intrigued enough to want to know more?

If you can't get affirmative answers to these questions, you are losing people before they are getting engaged with your content.

Suggestions

The most compelling page I found on your site was:

http://alpha.hubdub.com/m27402/Who_will_win_the_Crunchies_2008_for_Best_Overall

- I see something visually compelling - a history of your forecast for the outcome of an event over time. THAT's cool.
- There are a couple of ways for me to interact immediately (predict, challenge friends).

This should be the experience on your home/landing page. You need to show people there is more depth to your site than simple voting.

Other Problems

- Why are you randomly rotating the "featured question" on your home page? You would be more effective to pick the "best performing" (recent) question.
- I think your use of $ is confusing/gimicky. Why am I able to vote H$100 when I don't have anything to lose (as an anonymous user). You don't have a real economy here (nothing risked). Note Mahalo has a real economy of points. Better to seed people with points and then make them ration them.
- I would FLIP your navigation around. You would do better to make people feel they were at "HubDub Sports" (or HubDub Technology, ...) with independent Leaderboards and Forums for each. Your first goal is to engage people - they care about the content, not your site structure.
- Would be better to show expanded history chart and voting buttons for the top-three questions in each category, above the fold rather than the exhaustive list of current predictions
- Right column is too busy - I don't even look at it. You'd be better served by expanding the Join Now box with more explanation of what the site value is (stuff from your about page is good):
-- Make predictions on the outcome of news stories
-- See how predicted outcomes change over time
-- Compete for points/$ to see who has the best crystal ball.
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This is my first time observing your website and I think its current form is pretty good. I like the concept behind the site.

I'm not that experienced of a web designer, but I do spend a lot of time reading technology blogs and visiting web sites. I quickly put together some of my suggested changes in Photoshop. You can see the image below.

1. The "predict the news" tagline is hard to see. The grey text doesn't really stand out. I changed it to orange text and gave it a light yellow background.

2. The Guardian Testimonial was hard to read and didn't stand out. I moved it to the top of the page and added in the Guardian Logo.

3. The "stake virtual dollars..." line that explains the main idea of your business was hidden by being placed in join box. I changed the text and moved it above your join box. I also changed the word stake to bet because I thought it was easier to understand.

4. I added an additional Join Now at the top of the Join box to clearly identify it. I also moved the "it's free" line to the top of the box to make it more readable.

In addition to my advice, the one good way to determine what the change on your website is from usability testing. You can use an eye tracking service to see what your users are looking at and based on that you can make redesign decisions. Here's one company that does eye tracking: http://www.etre.com/usability/eyetracking/showme/

You can also perform your own usability test. In it, you instruct volunteers to perform various activities on your website and observe them. Here's an explanation of how to do that: http://www.ojr.org/ojr/stories/070802ruel/

You should also look at your analytics data and determine things to change about your website based on how users interact with it.

Another suggestion: you might want to try integrating your website with Facebook connect. It might get you a few more users that are too lazy to register for your website. See here for more info: http://developers.facebook.com/connect.php
Citysearch is a good example of a site that uses Facebook Connect integration: http://beta.citysearch.com/

Overall, good site and good luck updating it.
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