This is the website for the monthly magazine Games, as well as the website for World of Puzzles Magazine (although only barely). Games magazine is owned by Kappa Publishing Group, Inc., which is one of the main publishers of puzzle periodicals.
Intended Audience:
· People who are interested in puzzles or games and would like to subscribe to a magazine
· People who currently subscribe to Games or World of Puzzles and are looking for information about how to contact the magazine or publication information
· Those who wish to place advertisements in the magazine
Usefulness of Content:
The site does not provide much information. One could find out when new issues of each magazine are due to hit the newsstands, but most of the site contains general information about the magazine's purpose and their reviews of other people's games, and there are only a couple of puzzle examples, which are nothing like the real puzzles published in Games or World of Puzzles. Some parts of the site appear to be under construction still, such as the “Store” page, or do not include important items, such as the “Subscribe” page, which does not even mention World of Puzzles (World of Puzzles does not have its own site – the website the magazine directs users to is the Games website: gamesmagazine-online.com). The “Links” page is rather useful, though, as a collection of resources for puzzlers of any level to use.
Consistency of Design:
The colors are okay, if not very interesting. The font is easy to read, and the text is not difficult to understand or confusing. At times, links are denoted with blue text, other times with red (as on the “Resources” page) – there are other inconsistencies on the site. Some links are not marked as links at all – on the “Archives” page, the text in red is actually a link, but there are no clues (such as underlining) to convey this information to the user. The “Resources” page lists solving guides (only two), but further puzzle guides and resources are listed under “Links.” It seems that two pages have been set up where only one was needed. If the designer was concerned that different users might use a different vocabulary to find what they need, s/he should at least place some of the links in both places.
Ease of Navigation:
One problem I noticed almost immediately is that there is no way back to the home page of www.gamesmagazine-online.com without using the back button on the web browser. Even the main logo/heading of the website is not a link back to the homepage. If there were any other way to navigate back to home, this would not be such a problem, but the user is left with no means to start their visit over again. I find this very frustrating, since the home page is the only place on the site to learn the publication date of the next issue of each magazine. Several of the links in the side navigation bar take the user to another site, the site of Games’ parent company, Kappa Publishing Company, Inc., www.kappapublishing.com. When the user is navigated away from Games’ site, there is no option to return to www.gamesmagazine-online.com, except, again, the back button on the browser. Another problem I had with this site is that several of the links appear to be dead: both the “Store” and “Contact Us” page brought up 404 File Not Found messages. If the site is under construction, there should be a mock page up that will tell the user that the page is in progress.
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