Opencritic.com is a video game review aggregator that compiles hundreds of critic scores to create a numeric score that users can use as the overall consensus for a game. OpenCritic's transparency in its scoring methods makes the website unique in its market niche.
I love video games, so the goal of this project is to redesign the content and elements of the website to make it more convenient to navigate for other gaming enthusiasts.
A PDF version of this project is available
The Header and Footer
Current Header
People who aren't logged in get a prompt to login/signup when they click on either one of these buttons.
Drop-down menu only appears for logged-in users. This is the easiest and quickest way to toggle night mode and it's locked behind a login screen.
Revised Header
Light switch for light mode and dark mode
Reworked calendar page and decided that releases fit the new page more appropriately.
An explanation of the scoring system will retain many users since OpenCritic's system satisfies both people who are looking for a universal consensus on a game and people who are looking for a variety of critic scores.
Removed "Your Lists" from the header and it to the user drop down menu to make the profile icon centered around the individual user.
Current Footer
"Activate Dark Theme" isn't a link.
The "Important Links" list is visually indistinct from the list of links next to it.
Revised Footer
Removed dark theme toggle since there is already one in the header.
Patreon moved to "Important Links" and added "Our Socials," to fit the tone of this section, as a hub link for Facebook, Twitter, and any other social media accounts.
The Home Page
Current Home Page
The "Upcoming Releases" section creates an inconsistent image on the home page because of the question marks and lack of game scores.
The "Mighty Man" explanation isn't visible from the first impression of the home page which may make users either confused on the meaning of some of the faces or ignore the faces and only focus on the numbers.
The "Industry Headlines" section towards the bottom of the home page only has review embargo dates. This section should either include links to articles from other websites or removed until OpenCritic has dedicated gaming journalists. However, many users are curious about these embargo dates, so a better location for these dates would be to put them on pages for individual games that haven't released yet.
Revised Home Page
The new designated Mighty Man button here would link to the new "Score System" page that's also in the header.
Swapped "Upcoming Releases" with "2022 Hall of Fame" since the header now has a link to a designated section for game releases. Swapping in the hall of fame scores also creates a consistency of game scores and Mighty Man imagery.
Individual Games
Current Side-by-Side
The length of the review summary is inconsistent between these games. Review summaries should have a character or word limit since many people use review aggregators as a quick and consistent resource.
Critic's consensus is already easily visible so there's no need to show two Mighty Mans so close to each other.
Revised Side-by-Side
"The Last of Us Part 1 is the definitive version of Naughty Dog's masterpiece. However, the aging gameplay and lack of additional content make the $70 price questionable when an already excellent $20 option is available."
The Reworked Calendar Page
Current Calendar Page
The current date doesn't match the calendar provided. In this example, it's unclear whether the site hasn't been updated since July or there are no releases until next July.
The iCalendar is a great idea and would be better if there were downloadable calendars for each month.
The calendar shows a slideshow of games released on each day which isn't as practical as showing all of the games released on the same days as each other. There is also an extraneous amount of blank spaces on the page since games generally don't release on Saturdays, Sundays, and Mondays.
New "Releases" Page
The new "Releases" page replaces the calendar form into a list form, starting with the current month. The list form also cuts the length of the page to around a quarter of the current "Calendar" page.
Adding different calendar options such as Google Calendar or Microsoft Outlook creates more flexibility for users. The addition of a downloadable calendar for each month instead the entire year also creates more options for the users.
The New "Score System" Page
Why should a score system be added?
OpenCritic's scoring system is what sets OpenCritic apart from the more popular review aggregator Metacritic. Metacritic weighs top critics more heavily while OpenCritic has a score for top critics and a separate score that weighs every critic equally. This distinction can be the biggest factor in drawing more users from Metacritic.
The questions and answers here, pulled from the "FAQ" page, can be used as the content for the new "Score System" page.
New "Score System" Page
The Mighty Man rubric is only used for top critics, but that isn't transparent to site visitors. Creating scannable headers with this information will aid in discoverability.
Users who follow top critics that don't use numeric reviews will naturally question how their favorite critics' review are used after seeing the average cutoffs. The added sentence here will answer that question.