How would you make my (any) Ning site more intuitive?

[Jon Draper]

Good evening world.

My ning site www.totgb.comis around 3 weeks old (Started on the 8th of July 2012). It has actually done very well and I have high hopes for its future. The site is a networking site for fellow indie game developers to discuss, collaborate and enter contests.

The site reached its 50 members milestone yesterday and to mark this I've made a bonus page with free game developing stuff for members (only accessible to members), which I will add to as the site continues to grow.

This evening the site also acheived a new high and had 8 members online at the same time engaging in blog posting, commenting and live chat. Now I'm sure successful Ning sites achieve much greater numbers but I'm happy with how quickly an active community has grown who are blogging and creating tags which should only go on to help the site grow.

I've setup a contest which has prizes donated by game developers and 2 software makers and the total is now over $1600 which is simply amazing. The contest is driving people to the site and hopefully introducing them to a great place to hang out and share without any politics from using different game making software.

I asked for some feedback from users yesterday and some have asked for the addition of a simple forum which I will activate soon.

Another asked for the whole site to be more intuitive. Which I can appreciate as there are numerous places to comment share and click and it can be slightly overwhelming. I'd hope that users would be familiar with facebook and see the similarity.  I am however struggling to 'think outside the box' and work out what I can change, remove, simplify or add to to make the whole site experience more intuitive. Initially the site had less tabs but I've slowly been adding more as I arrange pages and bit n bobs.

Have you any tips for my site, or ning sites in general to make them more intuitive?

Have other sites achieved it?, tutorials, hidden features that are slowly discovered, clearer navigation...

I'd love to hear your thoughts.

Check out my site here: http://www.totgb.com

[Nor Cal Social Media]

Hi Jon! So I use functional descriptions to give my tabs intuitive web usability.

Welcome | Sign On | Meet People | Open Discussions | Share Media

Essentially, these kinds of descriptions tell people what to do, give a sufficient idea on what to expect, and are well delivered upon selection.

I actually like what you've done with some of your object oriented descriptions. Perhaps a combo approach would work for you. Also, you've got some vocabulary already proposed in your tagline.

So something like Network Now might be better than Indie Me. Also, you might fit in Share Skills, Build Teams, and Discuss Design for something like blogs, groups, and forum respectively.

The Ning Help Center is an interesting example of how you can take more subject related links, keep them simplified, yet compliment them with intro's on the landing page. http://www.ning.com/help/. So there you see a key in the use of slider that corresponds directly to the navigation and offers one liner hooks. These are also reiterated with summary descriptions within main body text which you could fit onto your site in between module feeds. In some cases, you can also point navigation to informative landing pages that transition to modules as opposed to direct linking.

Like what I see though. Nice job so far. Hope that helps!

Best, Anthony

[Jon Draper]

Thanks for the reply. its really helpful to have a 3rd party view from someone who can look at the project from a distance.

Many many thanks

Jon

[Nor Cal Social Media]

My pleasure!

-A

[talenttobediscovered]

Hello well I took a look at your website and I think is good and you have a great idea. Dont rush let it grow it will take form little by little. I have my website about 4 months www.TalenttobeDiscovered.com  and is taking time but is growing. Every time I add something new and learn something else. But I learn to let grow and just dont lost hope.

Good luck, David