Posted March 28, 2014
First off, let me say that I think the design of GOG.com is gorgeous. It is, however, not without its faults. The most glaring issue is the fact that on my 1080p monitor, is uses just under 45% of the available screen width. This mostly isn't an issue when browsing the site - nothing more than a slight annoyance.
But on the library page, this issue becomes much more apparent, and there are other issues as well. With 135 games, no ability to group games together, no genre sorting, no ability to adjust cover size, and the gross underuse of screen real estate, it's extremely difficult to efficiently locate games in my library. The list view is worse, as it uses even less space. Just around 28% of my screen width to be precise. I've given up on trying to manually sort my games a long time ago. It's just extremely tedious to micromanage my collection in this way.
I believe that the site could really benefit from a complete redesign of the library page, and with it perhaps some improvements of the design of the site in general. Use responsive design practices to make the site adapt to the users setup, and introduce more options for the user to control his/her library. With a big library such as mine, the ability to create groups and locate items by genre is essential. The lack of these basic features is mindblowing to be honest.
This is an honest criticism, that I really hope will be taken to heart. The library page is arguably the most important page on the site, so it deserves to have a high focus on usability. A well-designed library page should be able to keep me coming back, just to admire my collection. As it is, I will rarely even enter the page, unless I need to download something, and oftentimes I will even forget what titles I already own.
But on the library page, this issue becomes much more apparent, and there are other issues as well. With 135 games, no ability to group games together, no genre sorting, no ability to adjust cover size, and the gross underuse of screen real estate, it's extremely difficult to efficiently locate games in my library. The list view is worse, as it uses even less space. Just around 28% of my screen width to be precise. I've given up on trying to manually sort my games a long time ago. It's just extremely tedious to micromanage my collection in this way.
I believe that the site could really benefit from a complete redesign of the library page, and with it perhaps some improvements of the design of the site in general. Use responsive design practices to make the site adapt to the users setup, and introduce more options for the user to control his/her library. With a big library such as mine, the ability to create groups and locate items by genre is essential. The lack of these basic features is mindblowing to be honest.
This is an honest criticism, that I really hope will be taken to heart. The library page is arguably the most important page on the site, so it deserves to have a high focus on usability. A well-designed library page should be able to keep me coming back, just to admire my collection. As it is, I will rarely even enter the page, unless I need to download something, and oftentimes I will even forget what titles I already own.