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The boxes on the home page make the games very visible. Given that the core functionality of the site is to connect players with games that they would be interested in, this design decision makes sense. The parameters are laid out logically to enable good learnability. If we use javascript on the filter selections, then the user would be able to figure out the implications of each option with great immediacy. However, some efficiency is sacrificed with the design. Many games cannot be viewed at once when the games take up large screen area. It wouldn't make sense from a speed standpoint to load all available games at once so a button must be clicked to display additional games. An expert user might rather have a large list of games without the box interface to assimilate more information quickly. The drop downs on the time option and the slide bars on the skill range will help limit error prevention. If we can implement a standard list of valid locations we can also do some error prevention on the location criterion.
Design 3
This design uses simple lists to display all the information. This design mostly relies on text to convey the information. Lists are sortable, and the list of games is searchable through filters.
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