I have to ask; if you’ve been to Neopets lately, surely you’ve seen the newly rolled out “mobile beta” that’s live everywhere. Could you share your honest unbiased opinion on it?
snarkie
Not a robot... probably.
I assume you’re good people, PS, so I’m sorry to use you as an example but I really want to address something done in the asking of this question that is usually very off-putting and uncomfortable for people I know who do this kind of answering-of-the-questions thing (myself included). And on the flip side, if people are rarely getting their questions answered, I want to help explain that this might be why so they can change their approach and get their info!
Except I didn’t want to make this a chonker of a novel to read for folks looking for this answer, so I’ll do it in a separate post with a link when I get a chance. ? In the meantime, like I said, I assume this was inadvertent and asked with no ill intentions! And it looks like some upvoters are also curious about this answer regardless. So, jumping to the actual question now…
…
YO! A few people have asked me this now and I actually went to take a peek a few days ago. (And gave a brief answer for someone who asked on Twitter. Boo character count.)
I haven’t really used the design since I don’t actually play so I can’t really comment on functionality. Although even if I did, it’s unfinished so it’d be hard to say anyway!
From what I’ve seen of a few pages design-wise, though, it looks pretty well-executed graphically but I’d say a bit young flavour-wise for the brand I knew…. yikes, 6 years ago now. Random thought: The logged-out homepage is actually kind of close to a layout we had in the works for a bit so that’s interesting. (It’s an obvious layout to arrive at so I don’t think they grabbed it in an old file or anything. I just think it’s interesting they kinda came to the same conclusion 7+ years later!)
So, young. A few quick reasons why it feels that way to me:
– The background(s) is quite simple without much detail (except some TCG art on login). The simpler the artwork in a cartoony style, the younger it reads. Including lots of details to absorb (hopefully with some visual storytelling included!) skews older.
– The fonts are large and very spaced out, which is usually reserved for kids or the very elderly. (I’m looking on a desktop, not on mobile where that would be fine. I get the feeling this is just the mobile site everywhere and it’s not actually super responsive outside of the nav? Yet?)
– They’re using Cafeteria typeface for nav and titles, noice, but also for standard content in some places. This is a very “cartoony” font, which is good for kids content to draw them in, but to skew older you’d use a less overwhelming, more readable font for content.
– I saw an awful lot of naked Neopets in difference places! That always skews younger/kid because of the simplicity. Plus no clothes reads as babies or “cutesy animals”. Again, you’d want more detail to skew older. Interesting outfits to read more like “hey, there’s a deep, rich world for you to absorb”.
– Many bubblyness. Lots and lots of super rounded corners. Subtle rounding is a nice design touch. Super roundy is safe for kids because no sharp corners so it skews young.
– Many primary colours, which is a surefire way to skew young. That’s tricky in cartoons, for sure! You have to use the Neopets yellow, obviously (although our last design was going to switch to Neopets Blue FOR THIS REASON *gasp*), but a lot of the big colour blocks on the page are also the primary shades. You could move away from being so primary in those design elements surrounding the already-saturated artwork to help skew older. The merch tout on the homepage does this a bit better.
I’m sure I missed other things since this was a pretty cursory look, and I’m not a graphic designer so I may not be explaining those points perfectly, but… yeah, it skews a bit too young, I think. The whole thing gave me Petpet Park vibes, actually, now that I think about it! We used some of those same techniques intentionally over there back in the day.
So hmm, to help illustrate my points, a good counter example might be… Battledome? We went with pretty vivid primary colours (except blue… wait for it) on the main pages in that revamp because we were shooting for comic book-y, where that kind of colouring is a thing. So we intentionally went with hard angles and squares on buttons and containers to offset that (and also in keeping with a comic book panel aesthetic). We made sure to add detail where we were able in the graphics without making them too busy to be useful (and let the illustrations help add detail for us too). The comic book font is used very sparingly and we used a nice, clean, ultra-readable font everywhere else. We also toned down the blue from super-saturated-primary-blue because, as the main colour, that just made everything TOO preschool in the end. Anyway, that BD design is definitely not perfect! But it’s a decent example of how there are ways to use normally-young-skewing things without actually skewing young. You just have to make sure you offset it properly. (I hope that made sense!)
We used to have a problem with licensees who didn’t know the difference between “family friendly” and “for kids” and it was the bane of our existence. Those are VERY different things. This looks more “for kids” whereas Neopets has always been “family friendly”. So if they’re making a conscious choice to take the brand in a “for kids” direction, I think they a pretty good job so far. (Hard to tell definitively because so much is in progress but yeah, it skews young and looks well-done.) If they were trying to keep the family friendly vibe, I think they probably made that same mistake that the licensees used to and could address some things mentioned above for a start.
Which, erm… okay, so this whole eval is super loose because I’m just answering an AMA but it’s actually the kind of real consulting work and insight I provide to pay rent and eat food, and now it’s here for free. So just FYI, that’s also a reason why folks sometimes don’t answer questions that has nothing to do with the way it was asked. ? You may just be inadvertently asking for someone to work for you for free, is all.
I don’t really look at Neopets anymore so I haven’t dived in too deep. Curious to know what other people think from a design standpoint! I’ve heard “OMG RUINED” but that’s not very helpful or fun to discuss. Heh. If anyone has anything specific to call out, I’m always super interested in this sort of stuff.
Thanks for your question (aside from the thing ?)!
“Interesting outfits to read more like “hey, there’s a deep, rich world for you to absorb”.”
VINDICATIIIIIIOOOOOONNNNNNNNN
jk, I miss some of the splash images that used to appear on the front page that hinted at Lore and a wider world to enjoy. That was one of the things that drew me in as a tween/teen.
I’ll admit at the time of the original question posting I was definitely salty, but at this point, I’m over it. Apologies if the snark (ha!) was over the top on my end. It was kind of you to humor me and thus any other readers with such an in depth analysis and I thank you!
I’ve reached the conclusion — and based on your insights, it doesn’t seem I’m off base in my thoughts — that they have some serious mixed messages going on in their marketing of this site.
On one hand, you have them indulging the nostalgia of the 20-30’s crowd the site was built upon with $100+ jewelry, Hot Topic merch, and a lot of their social media posts. Then on the other, the entire new site design is absolutely focused on a 12(or less?) and under demographic.
[This is pretty curious considering the hard push on microtransactions, by the way. Children don’t have the kind of funds it takes to sustain a Neocash Mall addiction the way I’ve seen friends and acquaintances indulge in. The moral implications are interesting to say the least.]
I don’t have a particular end point aside from thanks for validating my frustration to a degree, and always appreciate your thoughts!
Oh, yeah, I could tell you were salty but I didn’t think you were taking it out on me or anything! ? There’s just a specific type of question asker that revels in drama and wants to pull you into it and blindside you with nothing but trouble. When you’ve done this for a while, you start to notice the RED FLAGS, trash the question, and move on. But like I said, I figured you weren’t one of those people and triggered my Spidey-sense inadvertently! I’ll explain what did it for folks interested in avoiding it in the future. I just have to actually… describe it properly so it makes coherent sense. Haha. I’ll do that eventually! Probably.
Back to Neo! If they’re intentionally steering the site toward a much younger demographic, I get the 2-front messaging to a degree. On one front, you hit older folks in the nostalgia and offer merch to their adult pockets, and then separately on the second front, rebrand for a new direction. But that’s assuming the two don’t cross. I would imagine a rather large chunk of people buying the nostalgia merch are also still active players, right? (Like, are there a ton of people who don’t play anymore buying Shoyru necklaces?!? That would definitely be an interesting data point in all this.) Since the site is the site and it’s the only way people have to experience Neopets, I can definitely see how it’d be really confusing and weird, you’re right. Like you’re suddenly being evicted from a house you’ve lived in for years. So I think ideally the new approach would be happening in a separate space (or at the VERY least, with some specific messaging for your loyal base because you should know how they’ll react). For one, it’s just an all-around cleaner separation that doesn’t alienate anyone and can be specifically targeted. But secondly… like, good luck getting kids to play a web game nowadays? ? (This is a very simplified thought of a much larger, nuanced opinion… because they definitely play stuff like Roblox, as an example, but that’s also mobile/console and is already entrenched and LOTS of other specific minutia we could spend hours dissecting. Heh.)
That said, we do have these changes in the midst of a) COVID and b) Flash dying. They definitely should have seen the Flash thing coming and been prepping as early as possible, but you never know what people have had to deal with and what plans may have had to change because of a global pandemic.
And this is all pure speculation anyway! If they have a grand plan, it may have a rocky start but turn out awesome. I’m all for transparency to a certain degree but I’ve been on that other side and there are just things you don’t want to and shouldn’t share for various reasons. Sometimes you choose right and sometimes you make a bad decision. On this side, we can only wait and see.
ANYWAY, I was gonna compare the nostalgia merch approach to something like Care Bears, to use another example from Hot Topic that works, but that’s not entirely fair. Care Bears hasn’t drastically changed target demos. They’ve only really added some edge for certain third-party offerings to play to the adults and hit the nostalgia. The core of the brand is still the same. Plus, people haven’t been watching the same cartoon for 35+ years, as opposed to people having played Neopets.com, and only Neopets.com, for two decades. So… I guess that comparison is a waste of time. ?
But regardless, I’ve held out the same hope for Neopets for like 10 years now: the site should be one of a few (or several by now!) unique, fully-realised Neopets offerings. The brand can be many things to many people while still staying true to its core, which is what’s great about it, both creatively and from a business standpoint. Different Neo offerings can have different demos, scopes, themes, and vibes so that, whether you’re 12 or 80, there can be a (family-friendly) space for you. So one dedicated to 12-year-olds sounds great to me (when it’s not the ONLY space). And then if one of those offerings died, say because 70% of its core meta disappeared because of obsolete technology, it would be the end of an era but not The End.
I think. ?♀️ I’m legitimately running on 3 hours of sleep right now so I may also be making sense in my head but typing out a weird manifesto on cheese and why everyone should be wearing shoes on their hands. Who knows?!