More often than I'd like I encounter a bit of the internet that either isn't clear, isn't useful, or isn't working properly. Occasionally I get frustrated enough to write about it.
Star Citizen looks amazing. It's also exactly the sort of game I enjoy playing. But I'm not playing it. Why not? Because of their website.
I'd heard that Star Citizen was doing a free trial in November, so in a quiet moment I got out my phone and had a quick search. I spotted a link that looked promising, so I followed it. Here's what happened next.
(if you'd like to skip past the detail, basically I couldn't find what I was looking for and gave up in frustration)
- the site loaded with a cookie banner completely obscuring the entire screen and the options for continuing (accept/reject) were unreachable, off the top of my viewport (see below for screenshots)
- it wouldn't let me scroll
- after a bit of experimentation I discovered that if I scrolled up, my browser toolbar would disappear leaving me just enough space to select 'allow all cookies'
- that left a hero image with a 'fly for free' link and a banner along the top also talking about flying for free, with a click for more info link
- clicked the hero 'fly for free' button and it opened another page in a new tab, with the same banner along the top (fly free, more info). This time the hero image was a video and the text 'Welcome, About the Expo'
- not being familiar with any of this or knowing what the expo was, I went back to the banner at the top and chose 'more info'
- that took me to another page, again with the banner at the top, again with a hero video, this time with the title of 'Nov 20-21 Origin Jumpworks'
- scrolled down hoping to find more information but found only pictures of spaceships. One had a 'fly today for free' icon but it wasn't clickable, there was another link underneath but it led to a page with a price
- went back to the banner at the top again, tried 'more info' again, but it just reloaded the page
- bumbled around in confusion just trying to find something to click and ended up opening a third tab containing the first website again with the 'fly free' button
- clicked 'fly free' again, it opened a fourth tab containing the second website
- gave up in frustration
What didn't help throughout the process was that everything seemed to be written in-universe - as if the spaceship manufacturers and the ships they produced were real companies with genuine products. I've not played Star Citizen yet, so I was instantly adrift. What I was looking for was a simple page that explained whether or not there was a free trial, what that meant, and how I could play - not a catalogue of fictional products and events.
I'm not writing about this specifically to gripe about the Star Citizen website. I'm writing to highlight something that many owners of websites simply don't seem to be aware of - if your website is difficult to use, people won't use it.
Think about the the last time you had a problem using a website or an app. I'd bet that it wasn't because the site was broken or unavailable - it was because it was hard to understand, hard to navigate, or simply frustrating because of the effort required to complete what should have been a simple task.
Why does this happen? There are many reasons, but the main one is probably a lack of user testing. While you're building a website, you should put it in front of real people to see how they use it. Not people who work at your company, not necessarily even people who fit a certain demographic. Don't assume you know what they're going to do - I've been building websites for decades and I'm still surprised by how users can struggle to use what I think is a simple interface.
The point I'm getting to is that the creators of Star Citizen have lost a customer, even though I was really interested to try their game. All because I couldn't navigate their website. I wonder if there's anyone else like me with the same problem?