Blizzard, the company behind many video game titles that have likely stolen your childhood (and probably even your adulthood), has released a refreshed design for its online presence. It’s been many years coming, and it’s finally here, so let’s take a deeper look, shall we?

As you can see, the home page has taken on a new drastic look. Gone are the days of the mostly dark and ominous pages, and now they are laden with promotional material (namely, title work from upcoming and popular game franchises). The first thing you’ll see are the striking images that rotate on a regular basis to aim you toward the three primary portals (StarCraft, Diablo and WarCraft). This kind of focal strength is a fantastic way to push people in the proper direction.

The design actually takes on some similar attributes of the previous iteration in the form of an easy-to-follow navigation, which gets you to where you want to with little trouble. The colours work well together, even with the consideration of all the various title images which could be applied.

Blizzard continues their simplified ‘button’ design throughout. The Games page in particular allows for the easy identification of franchises and events to cut down on time spent browsing, which both increases interaction and reduces frustration.

Colours, layout and content all work together to create a cohesive environment which keeps visitors on the site, and more importantly keeps them coming back. The simplistic, yet imagery-driven design deserves a mention, as it’s one of the finer examples of how to use large scale images properly without the fear of driving visitors away.

Source: Blizzard Entertainment

Critique Agent: "Adam Moore"  -  http://www.exino.com

Adam is an award-winning web designer, with a deep interest in inspirational and conceptual design. This interest has manifested itself into a role as a Creative Designer at deviantART, Inc. as part of the Creative Team. More posts by this author.