Hattrick ima isti izgled već skoro deceniju. Trenutni izgled datira unazad do 2000. godine, kada je cijela igra ponovo morala biti napisana da bi se napravilo mjesta za više od 1700 korisnika iz Švedske, koji su tada igrali Hattrick. Taj cijeli projekat ponovnog pisanja su uradile dvije osobe u svoje slobodno vrijeme i čitav posao je urađen za jedno popodne, krajem ljeta 2000. Tokom godina, igra je znatno rasla, nove mogućnosti su dodavane i dosta novih liga i korisnika su se pridružile. Gotovo sve je ponovo urađeno jednom ili dva puta, osim izgleda. Zanemarimo li par šminkerskih detalja, izgled je ostao identičan.
Kao što je već spomenuto, ne radi se samo o starosti. No ne možemo zanemariti da je to svakako bio važan faktor u ovoj odluci. Kao korisnici interneta, imamo potpuno drugačije ponašanje na internetu i potpuno drugačije zahtjeve od onih koje smo imali davne 2000. Takođe, dosta toga se izdešavalo i sa tehničke strane. Neki od problema na koje smo naišli u našem izgledu su direktno povezane sa godinama i evolucijom interneta, ostali nisu. U svakom slučaju, mislimo da je važno reći vam zašto ćemo promijeniti izgled, tako da možete razumjeti razloge, kao i prednosti, kada Hattrick svijet promijeni svoj izgled.
Sadasnja stranica je napravljena u frejmovima. Neko će reći da je ta tehnika bila uobičajena daleke 2000. godine, ali se sada izuzetno rijetko koristi. Veliki problem frejmova je to da je teško napraviti favorite ili link do određene stranice. Ukoliko otvorite stranicu u novom "tabu" (ili novom prozoru preglednika) svi linkovi za navigaciju nestaju. Takođe frejmovi otežavaju posao pretraživačima.
Kad već pričamo o navigaciji, kako je igra rasla, tako su rasli i alternativni izbornici i opcije na svakoj stranici. Kao rezultat toga, danas imamo lijevi izbornik sa previše alternativa i stvarno morate biti iskusan korisnik da bi mogli slobodno navigirati stranicom. Za nove korisnike može biti veoma teško snaći se, te učenje sistemskog izbornika uzima mnogo vremena. Na primjer, postoji mnogo načina da dođete do transfera, ali ni jedan od njih nije ni dobar ni logičan. Vezano za ovo, mnogo stranice su bukvalno pretrpane različitim informacijama i opcijama (a mnogima nedostaju pomoćni tektovi!), dobar primjer je sa stranicom gdje imate detaljan pregled igrača. Ovakvo pretrpano stanje je djelimično uzrokovano dodacima u igri, zajedno sa činjenicom da u istro vrijeme nismo uklonili dosta informacija.
Another flaw is that the font size is too small. It should really be bigger and as a result easier to read. But making it bigger in today’s design would lead to that the menu would become too wide and other things on the sides would take up too much space. Actually, today’s site is designed for small screens, as that was what we had back in 2000. Since then our screens have just gotten bigger and bigger, and today it makes no sense to have a site designed for small screens. Especially when only very few percents of our users use lower screen resolutions, and they will have no problem to continue using that in the new design.
At last we also got to say that even if we’ve grown mature with this design and that it’s been a great companion for all these years, we have to admit it’s a bit of a 90s’ touch over it. Not that there’s anything in particular wrong with the 90s, but we would actually like to look a little bit more modern and fresher than that. It would also be nice to have a set of icons in the same style and from the same source (today’s icons are in different styles and from different sources), and we would like it to be easier to make different skins for Hattrick, something which is quite hard today.
When we’re now working on a new design we focus especially on all of these things. One huge benefit with doing everything from scratch is that we can really think through every single page on its own. We can better structure what belongs where and we can also prepare the pages for coming exciting features. Another benefit is that it will be a lot easier (and faster!) for us to work with the new design compared to the old one, it will be a real time saver once it’s ready.
Our new costume should have a modern look and it should fit well with people’s ordinary web behaviour. It should have a good structure with a logical navigation. It’s also important to keep the Hattrick feeling over it, so don’t expect anything extra ultra cool and flashy. That said, we know that retiring a design which so many of you are really used to may be hard in the beginning. But even if you will not fall in love with the new design at first sight, we are convinced that it will not take long before you do. We will show you some examples of the new design and listen to what you have to say about it during the way to the retirement day, to make the switch a little bit less sudden. And if you ever feel you need to see the old design again after the retirement, you can always visit the
museum where we will put it together with the original design from 97.