Main Menu

Phoenix Online Store

Started by Say, January 21, 2013, 04:31:57 AM

Previous topic - Next topic

Say

Hello everyone,

I bring to you a very special topic here, the postudios store.

Keep in mind this time around tweaks will be considered accordingly to your feedback. Episode 2 is around the corner and with the web small updates happening we want to include some time in the store redesign.

KEY QUESTIONS --

*Have you used the store? Y/N

*Do you like the store? Y/N - If answer is no, what don't you like about it?

*Are you satisfied with the store content? Y/N - If answer is no, what would you include/remove from the store?

From here, feel free to sugest anything you'd like.


Thank you!


Say Mistage
Phoenix Online Studios

#IndieSupport <3

stika

*Have you used the store? I have not, main reason being my unemployment, money's a bit tight right now :P

*Do you like the store? As far as aesthetics and design there's not much to complain about, so yes, I like it

*Are you satisfied with the store content? This is the one I'm not /too/ satisfied with, I would have loved for an option to purchase the games physically, similarly to what telltale does, where physical copies cost an extra 5-10 dollars + shipping


snabbott

For reference, you can find the link to the store at the top of the page or here.

*Have you used the store? No, but I browsed it to get a sense of what it's like.

*Do you like the store? Yes, what I've seen of it. I like that it's simple and easy to navigate. I can't comment on the purchasing and downloading experience, as I got the game by being a backer. :)

*Are you satisfied with the store content? Pretty much. It would be nice to put the demo on there for people who want to try it before buying. (For that matter, it would be nice to have TSL on there, but that might increase the cost of the shopping cart.)

From here, feel free to sugest anything you'd like.

One thing that might be helpful would be to add text to the images to make it easier to distinguish, e.g. the PC and Mac versions (and later, the different episodes)

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Kimmie

*Have you used the store? No.

*Do you like the store? Yes, looks nice. Easy to see what's on there, but I have no first hand experience using it so couldn't comment any further on usability.

*Are you satisfied with the store content? Umm not really, I'd like to see TSL in there too! (Or is this just specifically for Cognition?)
Shimmy to the Kimmie



I <3 Connor but he is beyond my reach!

Say

In general. Cognition and TSL and everything.


Say Mistage
Phoenix Online Studios

#IndieSupport <3

Delling

Quote from: snabbott on January 21, 2013, 06:09:35 AM
*Do you like the store? Yes, what I've seen of it. I like that it's simple and easy to navigate. I can't comment on the purchasing and downloading experience, as I got the game by being a backer. :)

Misread as hacker. Nearly died.

I am thinking I will make a purchase from the store before I answer this survey. :)
Noli me tangere! Nescio ubi fuisti!
Don't touch me! I don't know where you've been!

Marquess of Pembroke
Duke of Saxony in Her Majesty's Court
Knight of the Swan for Her Imperial Highness

...resistance was obviously useless against a family that could invent italics.

"Let the locative live."

http://my.ddo.com/referral/Delling87

snabbott

Quote from: Delling on January 21, 2013, 08:32:52 AM
Quote from: snabbott on January 21, 2013, 06:09:35 AM
*Do you like the store? Yes, what I've seen of it. I like that it's simple and easy to navigate. I can't comment on the purchasing and downloading experience, as I got the game by being a backer. :)

Misread as hacker. Nearly died.
Hahahahaha! :rofl: I'm nowhere near that good, and even if I were, I wouldn't want to steal from my friends at Phoenix Online!

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Oldbushie

I have not used the store, but looking at it now it looks rather... stark. O_O I think the layout could be much nicer. At the very least don't make *everything* black. ;) Also the images in Featured Items could be bigger.

I'd be happy if we moved TSL downloads to the store to make them easier to find, and cleaned up the layout to be friendlier on the eyes.

Also, we need Haven plushies in the store!!
.......... <3 Oldbushie <3 ..........
Forum Emoticon God
Master of Time and Space
Aerobush of the Jarada Knights
TSL Programmer
and...
The TSL Candyman




Hero Of The Queene!


snabbott

Aaron has a point about the color scheme. :) Also, I was browsing on my phone earlier. The mobile site is nice and clean and easy to navigate. The full site is ok, too, though the images are tiny. Now that I'm looking at it on a desktop, I see that there is some text on the images to distinguish Ep1 from the Season Pass. It doesn't stand out very well, though - maybe it could be brighter or placed differently.

For that matter, the link to the store doesn't stand out much, at least to me. I barely notice the navigation bar at the top. I'm not sure if this is an actual issue or if it's just that I come here so often that I don't pay attention to details like that anymore.

As a few people have mentioned now, it would be great if TSL could be in the store. It currently takes a lot of clicks to get to it, and a number of people have had login issues. :-\

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Rosella

Woah, I completely never noticed the very top navigation. It's very odd because everything in the top navigation corresponds with a link in the secondary navigation below the Phoenix logo (why do we have duplicated links for Home, News, Games, Community, and Jobs?). I see how it sticks to the top of the browser, so you still have navigation when you scroll, but honestly, it does such a great job of being unobtrusive that its use is sort of lost. And the only page where you do a lot of scrolling (News), the bar stays at the top of the page, not at the top of the screen.

Like Aaron said, the background is really dark and scary compared to the rest of the site. Why don't you guys use the semi-transparent overlay like on the About page, for instance?

Also, I get that it's a different website, but it does seem weird that it doesn't share the same navigation (the home page on the store goes to the store home, not the POStudios home). A consistent site feel will probably make it feel a bit more legit. It may just be me but it kinda looks like the kind of website I would second-guess putting my credit card into, especially with all the minor yet distinctly present differences between the main site and the store (The background image, for instance, looks zoomed in a bit, like Erica and John are leering at me to buy something already).

For another cleanliness issue, I think having both PC and Mac on the main screen is making it rather cluttered. I mean, 4 out of the 6 items have the same image, and that sort of seems some combination of confusing and unprofessional. It makes more sense to me for someone to choose "Cognition Season Pass" and then, from there, choose PC or Mac. That way, with only two images there, it's more clear what the difference is (especially with the price difference right there).

The add to cart functionality works really nicely with a respectable amount of clicks-per-action, but there seems to be a problem with the CSS regarding adding one or more items, because it alternates between white on black and white on a blindingly light grey. At least it does on Firefox. (The same thing happens on the checkout screen)

And despite the cart working great, it might be nice to have some sort of "Buy now" option. Maybe a brighter button next to the Add to Cart button. Just think it'd be nice for people who want to go straight to buying the season pass for Mac and want none of your shopping cart tomfoolery. The problem is that that would require letting them choose between using the site and using Paypal and 3 buttons would probably just clutter it up. This is such a minor issue, so it's probably not worth worrying about, but it did strike me as I went to the site, so I thought I'd point it out.

At this point, the featured items is entirely redundant and is just a worse way of navigating the store. I can probably see everything you'd want to feature more quickly by just looking at the page than I can scroll through that box on the left. Even with that, it's very tiny, so if you do reach a point where your library is so extensive you need to feature things, it doesn't catch the eye much. And what does the Our Products link do? As far as I can tell, it just links to the store, and it's not like you have other people's products for sale...I'm a bit confused. And as you can tell, I'm big on things not being cluttered. XD The rest of the site is very centered and I'm not sure there's a purpose to having those boxes on the side. Especially if getting rid of them would make the store items more easily visible.

In sum, more consistent CSS with the rest of the site, more obvious store link, combining PC and Mac versions on the front page, and the removal or repurposing of those boxes on the left. I know I give a lot of critical feedback, but most of it is just optimization and nitpicking. I'm really just trying to give you guys the most detailed feedback I can. :)

Also, yes, please add TSL. If we could get that download working intuitively, it'd be SO much more approachable to newcomers, which would create a better POStudios fanbase, who would buy more things. :P
I'm a princess even if my kingdom is pixelated.

Official Comfort Counselor of the TSL Asylum © ;D

It's funny how you find you enjoy your life when you're happy to be alive.

Lambonius

#10
I just took a cursory look since Say asked me to check this out.  It all seems perfectly functional, and fairly intuitive, as far as I can tell.

One thing I noticed is that you have apparently separate purchases for Mac and PC versions of the episodes/games.  This seems unusual, and somewhat outdated, as most digital downloads simply let you make one purchase, and then you can choose to download either the PC or Mac version (this is how Telltale does it.)  In any case, I would rethink having them be two separate purchases, as it seems somewhat unfair to the customer, particularly if they should want to put a copy on a separate PC or Mac machine.  And if you guys actually are doing it the way Telltale does, and it's just the one purchase, then the store layout needs to be changed to more accurately reflect this, as it clearly reads as though they are two separate items right now.

You might also consider including a banner near the top where you can advertise special offers.  That sort of thing could be promotable on the POS homepage, too, and might help draw more traffic.

Say

I'm super busy with other web updates, but do know I've been reading.

I believe most of this information is pretty important to keep in mind, I absolutely agree with TSL content, site look/connection to the main website (that's the main reason why I keep bugging about some tweaks there, too). I also place myself in that situation, and that's why feedback is so important.

In general, the idea would be to make it feel more like this one, but considering we're going there I want to ask everyone because just as Lambonious mentioned - there are tons of other things that we can redo (Mac/PC, Telltalte system, etc) and I want to evalute what we can do with our current web help.

We're currently with a very unforgiving system, in regards of design/templates. But in my opinion that doesn't excuse the fact we can still do a tad better, at least.

We do not have a web person at the time, I seriously know we need one. I've been working with two different tech persons so far, but I would be so happy if we could just get one full time to become part of the team. I can suggest the moon and run all these polls, but without the right person to put in the time it becomes on forever as some of these "tweaks" have been.



Say Mistage
Phoenix Online Studios

#IndieSupport <3

darthkiwi

*Have you used the store? No, since I saw this banner



which didn't mention the store, so I got it at Gamersgate.

*Do you like the store?
Things I like: I like how it looks pretty simple to buy stuff. Just a matter of locating the box which contains the thing you want and clicking. The "featured items" thing is not very useful right now, but will be once you get more stuff on there.
Things I don't like: while I like the simplicity of a just-click-this-thing-to-order interface, the actual layout and aesthetics are a bit odd. I'm not completely convinced by the 2x3 grid of products; it looks a bit like a table from MS Word? Also, the boxes on the left and the text at the top look a bit rushed.

Re. the PC/Mac thing, I like the way this site does it. You have the product image on the left, a little description on the right (I think the POS site might benefit from having some descriptive text) and some big, attractive-looking buttons on the right that make it very clear what you're getting. This way, you could have "Cognition game" as one row and "PC/Mac" as two buttons on that row. Ditto for the season pass.

*Are you satisfied with the store content?
I am, but I can imagine others might want physical copies of the game, posters, T-shirts, plushies, mugs etc.

Ooh, how about a way to get 30-second previews of the Cognition soundtrack? That might entice people into buying it.
Prince of the Aquitaine. Duke of York.

Knight errant and consort to Her Grace the Empress Deloria of the Holy Roman Empire, Queene of all Albion and Princess Palatine.

snabbott

I like the soundtrack previews idea! Have you noticed that the one thing that has always gotten high praise in both TSL and Cognition is Austin's music? Not that the rest isn't great, too, but I think we're really lucky to have him as our composer! :D

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

_Journeyman_

Excuse me, I've tried to reach you through email, but I've failed; I've bought the season pass through the "old" store (http://shop.cognitiongame.com), I've tried to download the second episode but my order page is inaccessible (as it says the store is closed).

How can i fix this situation?

snabbott

Hi, Journeyman. I'm sorry to hear you're having trouble. I don't know the answer, but I've contacted somebody who should. Hopefully you'll have an answer soon. :)

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

Oldbushie

Hi _Journeyman_! Do you have an email receipt of your purchase? If so, please forward that to my email address and I can get you hooked up. It's my username (see left) at gmail dot com.
.......... <3 Oldbushie <3 ..........
Forum Emoticon God
Master of Time and Space
Aerobush of the Jarada Knights
TSL Programmer
and...
The TSL Candyman




Hero Of The Queene!


snabbott

Hey, Journeyman. Could you let us know what e-mail address you used? We want to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again. Thanks!

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining

_Journeyman_

#18
Quote from: Oldbushie on March 22, 2013, 02:45:27 PM
Hi _Journeyman_! Do you have an email receipt of your purchase? If so, please forward that to my email address and I can get you hooked up. It's my username (see left) at gmail dot com.

Email just sent, thanks for your quick support.

Quote from: snabbott on March 22, 2013, 03:44:31 PM
Hey, Journeyman. Could you let us know what e-mail address you used? We want to make sure this sort of thing doesn't happen again. Thanks!

The mail address is my username without underscore at unknown-domain dot no-ip dot net

snabbott

Quote from: _Journeyman_ on March 23, 2013, 03:44:07 AM
The mail address is my username without underscore at unknown-domain dot no-ip dot net
Oh, sorry. I meant the e-mail address on POStudios' end.

Steve Abbott | Beta Tester | The Silver Lining