Design Improvement - Menus

[portujules]

Currently, the menus on-site are a bit confusing and not very user friendly, especially for people that aren't as familiar with the site.

There are a few issues that I would like to address:

1. Rules Menu could potentially get confused with the site Rules

Those more familiar with the website know that when moderators refer to the 'rules' they mean ToU. However, for a newer audience, it could be easily confused.
There is no need to have 2 different menus that allure the idea of rules when the site rules (ToU) are what needs to receive more emphasis.

Solution suggestion: Combine Rules and How to play in one menu called "How to play" or anything that could convey the same idea whilst avoiding the term rules. These two pages have at its essence the same goal in teaching players how to play the game, both by teaching the game rules and also how to navigate the site for gameplay.

2. Stats page could use a design revamp

This is a very interesting page... but it honestly is eye gore. The pie charts are too bulky and in some cases unnecessary. I understand that there's not a lot of information and this is a way to fill up the page, but it just looks bad.

Solution Suggestion: Size down the pie charts! It would make a huge difference just if it was smaller. It would look really nice if the General Stats are a bit bigger and then the rest of the stats are smaller. Instead of doing it all list style, the game-specific stats could be done side by side underneath the General Stats. Adding more stats to the general section would be nice too, but might require more work. Total users would be nice to see. Maybe even a graph to see users by year or something.

3. Two different top bar menus is very confusing

The site currently has 2 different topbars: one on the homepage and one in the game lobby. It would be more visually pleasing and just add to the continuity in design to have them both be the same.
Nevertheless, the aesthetic aspect isn't the biggest issue. Most players would spend the majority of their time in Game Lobby, some barely even check the homepage for any longer than the time needed to login. Therefore, the topbar menu in Game Lobby should have all the menus available in the bar on the homepage.
It doesn't make sense that you'd need to go past ToU or Homepage to reach a page not included in the lobby bar such as Stats.

Solution suggestion: Just have the same options in both bars D:

4. Drop Down Menus in the top bars

Realising that one of the reasons why Game Lobby topbar doesn't have as many options could be to avoid clutter I would like to suggest Drop down menus. I'm unsure how difficult this would be, but I'm sure it would make the site feel less cluttery while still very easy to use and also make it seem a bit more modern.
Grouping options together such as:

• Contacts: Discord, Github, Coz site, etc
• Site Info: Stats, About, any other UI Guides similar to "how to play"
• How to play: Game rules, How to play
• The ToU could even have the drop down menus separate the ToU by section for an easier way to navigate, with a main page where ToU would be in its entirety.
• Potential place for past seasons where you could have leaderboards etc

None of this is really urgent, although point 3 is truly annoying. I'm not a nerd but if I can help lmk 😄

[Spyro9955]

If these changes are wanted, I could try to tackle some of this. I think stats page idea and drop downs are good but outside my skillset. Monotonous rewording however that's my specialty :) thanks for sharing these cool ideas for some stylistic enhancement. @Vigasaurus @cozuya are these changes from @portujules worth implementing?

[Vigasaurus]

I mean sure, I'm not sure how much of an impact just rewording without any of the other stylistic or UX changes would have, but as long as the changes make sense and some benefit, nbd.