Guild Wars 2

With respect to animations and smoothness, the new version does quite well. However, I feel like after looking and playing around with the interface for a little bit I would use the prior version were the choice available, overall.

- "Learn More" is probably not the best choice. "Show Me" would seem more fitting.
- The purchase buttons on mouse-over in the home screen view are annoying. It complicates what was a simple item+cost display for no real reason.
- There appears to be less on the screen at a time from what I remember, likely due to slightly larger display images for items. And larger purchase buttons.
- Text showing the normal price of an item appears to be overshadowed by the large purchase box with the current price right above it. (e.g. the Scruffy backpack currently on sale). Could use some more spacing.
- The mouse-over "preview" of the tabs seems redundant -- why try to use the relatively small area there to look at, say, promotions when I can use the whole BLTC window by clicking?

The roll-over to quickly access preview is nice, so I don’t have to use the style tab to see how anything might look on a character. The package details addition is nice, as well, for the very explicit breakdown of what’s included. Add these to the prior interface for a win, I’d say.

It’s an improvement, but the front page doesn’t need to showcase so few items in such a big block – more overall visibility of stock would be wonderful. Other than that, the UI is a lot cleaner now.

As for the sales side, please could we see lower prices on consumables/boosters and the removal of the artificial scarcity? Sales on the prior must be abysmal and a lot of people can’t buy the “limited new seven day only shiny sale” when it runs as far away from payday as possible. I don’t care what marketing says, it’s a bad idea to stop customers buying your product.

I liked the previous version better because everything flowed together whether you were on the first, second or third tab. Now the first tab has a big ugly blue text button that says “Buy Gems”. Only the first tab was updated where players spend real money in the store. Granted, being able to see what a glider or mini looks like without pressing “H” to see how it looks in your hero tabs is a plus. Should help sell more outfits and stuff in the store.

The second tab is completely unecessary. You can add a big ugly button on the first tab next to the big ugly blue one and call it “Gold Exchange” that opens the exchange rate information.

The third tab works just fine but would be even be better if it had a built in preview of visible items like armor, weapons and skins instead of right clicking and choosing preview that opens yet another window that gets lost in all the window layers on the screen. Attach a preview in the Trading Post where you can see how something looks on any of your account toons without having to log out and select different characters. A little drop down list with names of all your account toons in the featured preview menu with the toon that is logged in as the default preview.

Like most, I prefer the old one. If you could add a tab that shows how much Gold to Gems we have converted that would be awesome.

I rather like it, especially the functionality of the quick filter menu.

i would like to see “upgrades” to be split in two categories, service and upgrades.

service: stuff like bank expansions, name changers, character slots, total makeover kit, etc..

upgrades: LS episodes, HoT upgrade, digital deluxe upgrade, etc..

and please, put mail and glider skins in style, they are all cosmetic and nothing more.

sorudo.9054:

i would like to see “upgrades” to be split in two categories, service and upgrades.

service: stuff like bank expansions, name changers, character slots, total makeover kit, etc..

upgrades: LS episodes, HoT upgrade, digital deluxe upgrade, etc..

and please, put mail and glider skins in style, they are all cosmetic and nothing more.

Did you even look at the new Gem Shop? Upgrades are split into a number of sub categories (Account Upgrades, Character Upgrades, Living World, Mail Carriers and Upgrade Combos) with items appearing in multiple sub categories.

Also gliders have been moved to Style (Armor Skins, Outfits, Glider Skins, Weapon Skins, Style Combos and Seasonal Style Swap).

Honestly, if you want to criticize, at least explore it first.

In short, your “Call to Actions” are misplaced considering the information you have on the front.

It’s too hard to tell “what the specials are”. The top section should be the graphic of what is on special “and a quick action link”. Less is more here – too much info and it is jarring. The arrows on either side of the top half should be smaller spatial-wise (slim down the area between the main graphic and side bar). Also, make the arrows brighter ‘green? arrow’ with circle around graphic so it is a clear action button) to scroll through. Add 5 dots (or how many pages of specials you have) as an indicator on which page you are on nearby the top middle and allow that also as navigation instead of the arrows right/left. This is your front catalog adds, you need to be clear how many specials you have going.

The good is the top navigation bar and its loading time (these should be a bit more pronounced as action scroll items to get to them early). It still needs more clean color differences and space between categories (think formatting style and stick with it). The general shop is way too dark/depressing looking.

The missing to me is ‘consumer driven’ buying section behaviors. Off the top of my head, “This is a popular buy right now”, “This is on sale/special” (and actually pick the really low volume items), and “These items are leaving the store in the next 7 days” sections. (Or consider these as filters for buying)

EDIT: You all should be A/B Testing this store front non-stop. That way you don’t have to use a forum post to find the information. You actually KNOW what is working and what is garbage with real data.

Really smooth layout, enjoying the fluidity of it and I highly appreciate dual rows instead of the singular one before where it took forever to scroll down to the bottom.

I have one request though – is it possible to have the “redeem code” button touched up akin to the “Buy Gems” button? It seems a bit left out below it. Maybe a nice golden box or something. That is all.

Otherwise, excellent job!

Pros: Finally ability to preview gliders.
Cons: Overdesigned and clunky. Too much stuff going on at once. Hover menus with submenus are bad design choice. Does feel like cash shops in all those crappy asian f2p mmos. Still no ability to use dyes in the preview window without finding out dyes on TP and clicking preview on them.

Behellagh.1468:

sorudo.9054:

i would like to see “upgrades” to be split in two categories, service and upgrades.

service: stuff like bank expansions, name changers, character slots, total makeover kit, etc..

upgrades: LS episodes, HoT upgrade, digital deluxe upgrade, etc..

and please, put mail and glider skins in style, they are all cosmetic and nothing more.

Did you even look at the new Gem Shop? Upgrades are split into a number of sub categories (Account Upgrades, Character Upgrades, Living World, Mail Carriers and Upgrade Combos) with items appearing in multiple sub categories.

Also gliders have been moved to Style (Armor Skins, Outfits, Glider Skins, Weapon Skins, Style Combos and Seasonal Style Swap).

Honestly, if you want to criticize, at least explore it first.

i did explore it, the filter doesn’t excuse the lack of proper categorization.

While there are a few good changes, I prefer the old shop.
I did check it all out.
I don’t look at the shop every day, but I do use it.
Will this make me want to look more often? No.
Will this make me want to use the shop more? No.
It seems like more of a hard sell. That turns me away.

I think the popup box of items when hovering over a category is confusing to some and clutters the rest of the page. Clicking on a category and then selecting a subcategory is a lot less confusing.

And don’t forget the search bar. Type in outfit, you get all outfits.

New looks is good, the pop-up/flyovers are a little annoying, but other than that it came out well.

Would like to see the Trading Post get some love in this respect. Having to click on each item you have listed to then open a secondary window in order to see if the item is out-bid is annoying and unnecessary. It would be better to simply allow the users to refresh by clicking “my transactions”* and then have the outbid items highlighted somehow.

*: for those who do not know, if you are looking at your “current transactions”, you can click on “my transactions” to update quantities if you have bought/sold any items during the time you are looking at your list.