Please Review My Website

kendall13

Hey everyone, I wanted to jump right in and get some honest, professional opinions about my website.  My organization is a professional gaming team that I co-founded in 2005.  I`m going to assume that most community members on this site have very little knowledge of competitive gaming and its future outlook.  So I`ll explain some of the goals of the website, our audience, and my organization itself.
 

Team vBi

 
Our team name is vBi.  Again, I co-founded the organization/team in 2005 with a gentleman I had been gaming with for about 4 years.  The website was designed by several members of our team in 2006, so it`s just over a year old now.    Our community is comprised of 14-28 and reaches out to an international audience due to the nature of gaming.
 
We`re thinking about redesigning the site to attract more of a corporate audience for sponsors, however we don`t want to lose the appeal we already have.  So critique away, I have pretty thick skin just because we have so many designers/graphics people in our community.
 
 

oboy

I think your site is very well designed. You have overall three columns that are evenly filled, but on your homepage your larger left column is much longer. I think you like to keep it the same on each page, but I would try add the content of the middle column to the right column and make the left column wider.

 

The one think I found first a little distraction was that I have to click on the navigation one time to activate it and then a second time to follow the link. This is happening with IE7 but not with Firefox.

kendall13

It`s a little of both actually.  For instance Jonathan Wendel aka Fatal1ty (gaming alias) recently launched his own "brand" of gaming equipment, seeing as he endorses a number of PC hardware companies.   As far as advertising some teams may run their own media programs via podcasts/vidcasts at may throw in plugs for the company.  There is also "live event" types of promotion where teams can advertise companies using booths (depending on venue), competition (Team vBi on CBS Sports), or community events.  I think relating that type of promotion is very similar to NASCAR with the guys having 100 companies all over their uniforms.


 
This past season we used Tritton Technologies headphones, advertised them on our site while we tested their headphones at a few competitions.  Ultimately not too many of our guys liked them and we went to Sennheiser headphones.  That is pretty much the ROI for companies that sponsor teams of our nature.
kendall1312/12/2007 11:42 PM

kendall13

Wow you typed a response rather swiftly lol.  We`re beginning to dabble a bit more into getting gameplay / event action integrated into the site.  
Thanks for the advice, it`s good to hear from someone else.   

beachdi

Howdy from Florida..
I do not know anything about gaming, but I get the feeling it is treated like other `extreme sports`? yes?  If so, it has a nice edgy feel to it.   If you are trying to `draw` in non gamers, then I would need just a little more information like if you had a  `Why we are obsessed with and have fun gaming` section.  I`m probably not your target market.  From a usability standpoint, it is easy for me to navigate, I understand where I am going and get the required information.  
Just a thought for the future...maybe check out some of the really edgy, -draw you in type- surf and skate websites out there.    Some of these are amazing and actually make you want to hit the waves, or pull out your ol` skateboard and break some bones. Ha Ha. 
have a great Thursday.
Dianne

kendall13

Thanks I`ll be sure to check out some more extreme sports sites.
kendall1312/17/2007 1:17 AM