So, let me start by saying I love bga, and I mean this to be constructive criticism. I don't play here a ton, but I've been a subscriber for several years playing a little bit here and there. I think the game implementation is amazing. But I think the process for getting TO a game is super confusing, enough to be a real barrier for new players.
I've used bga for long distance family game nights a lot at this point, and it's consistently been a disaster onboarding any new (adult) person who is joining us. My mom joined and quit three different random tables before getting to the right game (sorry random people!). Even after using the site myself a fair amount, I still can't always figure out how to navigate them to where they need to go, and I'm still confused about some things myself.
Why are there two completely different pages to set up a game table? I am to end up in one interface if I decide to play the game and then invite people VS if I invite people and then click on the game to play? As far as I can tell, these both have the same functionality for adjusting game settings and modules. Why don't you go to an identical page for this, regardless of the way you get there? This really confusing for new people, and makes it really hard to coach them through what to click on, etc., because you don't know which interface they are looking at.
After everyone has joined the table and you click start, why is there a second page where everyone has to accept again the game a second time?
When you want to play again and click "rematch", WHY doesn't the rest of the table get an pop-up invite in the end of game screen? As new players, everyone tried clicking rematch, which meant when everyone stumbled back to the main site because nothing was happening, there were multiple different tables they could join...then trying to wrangle everyone back to the right table, omg. Now we have to designate who will select the rematch button, and instruct everyone else to return to main site to find the rematch invite. But if they don't get that pop-up for some reason? Holy cow, it took us forever to figure out where they need to click to find it.
I feel like these are the kinds of UX problem that might never get improved, because you inadvertently end up with only the users who aren't alienated by the initial experience, or who are invested enough to figure it all out. But it makes me really hesitate to invite new people to the site for our Zoom game night, because they inevitably feel confused by the interface and embarrassed/awkward that they need help and are holding up the game while we help figure it out, etc.
I've used bga for long distance family game nights a lot at this point, and it's consistently been a disaster onboarding any new (adult) person who is joining us. My mom joined and quit three different random tables before getting to the right game (sorry random people!). Even after using the site myself a fair amount, I still can't always figure out how to navigate them to where they need to go, and I'm still confused about some things myself.
Why are there two completely different pages to set up a game table? I am to end up in one interface if I decide to play the game and then invite people VS if I invite people and then click on the game to play? As far as I can tell, these both have the same functionality for adjusting game settings and modules. Why don't you go to an identical page for this, regardless of the way you get there? This really confusing for new people, and makes it really hard to coach them through what to click on, etc., because you don't know which interface they are looking at.
After everyone has joined the table and you click start, why is there a second page where everyone has to accept again the game a second time?
When you want to play again and click "rematch", WHY doesn't the rest of the table get an pop-up invite in the end of game screen? As new players, everyone tried clicking rematch, which meant when everyone stumbled back to the main site because nothing was happening, there were multiple different tables they could join...then trying to wrangle everyone back to the right table, omg. Now we have to designate who will select the rematch button, and instruct everyone else to return to main site to find the rematch invite. But if they don't get that pop-up for some reason? Holy cow, it took us forever to figure out where they need to click to find it.
I feel like these are the kinds of UX problem that might never get improved, because you inadvertently end up with only the users who aren't alienated by the initial experience, or who are invested enough to figure it all out. But it makes me really hesitate to invite new people to the site for our Zoom game night, because they inevitably feel confused by the interface and embarrassed/awkward that they need help and are holding up the game while we help figure it out, etc.
