Kado Senshi Pics

[JohnKane]

While I've been putting up my collection, I've also been taking pics for ZincPanic.com of the various toys. So far, I've nearly completed the Kado Senshi line. Those can be seen *here*.

I also have pics of my Clover combination set here and my Orion Mini-Gokin set here.

And as always, feel free to poke around the rest of the stie.

[jwm]

" I've also been taking pics for ZincPanic.com of the various toys. So far, I've nearly completed the Kado Senshi line. Those can be seen *here*."
JohnKane

JohnKane: Are you working on the ZincPanic site directly, or submitting your work to them?
I have heard several people say good things about ZP, but I find the site difficult to navigate, and many of the features are slow to load (even with DSL) Every time I have checked out ZP I get the feeling that I don't know exactly where I am, or how to get to where I want to go. It's obvious that a huge amount of work went into this site, and if I understand correctly, it is a great resource for identifying J-toys and such. But it gives me the feeling of walking in to the middle of a story, and not being able to figure out the plot. Is this just me, or has anyone else had this impression?
JWM

[JohnKane]

The slowness issue was apparently caused by work being done to the site. Are you still having the same problem now?

As far as navigation, I guess it depends on what you're looking for. It's a great encyclopaedic resource. The search function is quite useful for navigation also. You are, however, encouraged to just click around and see where that takes you.

The Radar! Radar! section is a great source of news.

I, in my limited fashion, contribute to the site directly.
As I'm out of school and out of work, I'm able to do a bit more now. Please feel free to pass along any comments, critiques, etc.

[JoshB]

I know the designers of ZP and I know that there may be a very zen - karma type of design going here... Like you may not find what you are looking for, but you will find something you needed.

Unfortunately, ZP relies on a lot of Jargon and buzz words, which while cool for design and those in the know, leave most everyone else clueless.

I agree with JWM, that sometimes jumping in blind leaves you very confused. For example, clicking on the GA-100 link brings you to that enty, but where one would expect main content to go, is a list of other articles that have no pertinence to the entry at hand.

As a fellow web designer, I find ZP to be a usability nightmare. But that's not their angle. it looks COOL, and it does the job, but I think that it could be made more accessible, with more intuitave navigation and plain language terminology. The search function is not a navigation element. It is a tool to use when using the navigation has failed.

No offence intended to the ZP crew - I know and love them all, but you are not alone in finding ZP difficult to get around in.

Still, once you figure it out, it is an impressive resource.

[JohnKane]

I guess I'm having trouble understanding how you both 'use' the site. Could you try to explain it to me?

Personally, *I* use it for the news in the Radar Radar section and to find specific information via the search function.

[JoshB]

Well. thats the thing about web sites - everyone uses them differently. A good web site is designed to be used in many different ways.

I love the Radar Radar section as well. Unfortunately, it is not immediately apparent what the hell Radar Radar means, unless you click on it to find out. I know what it is, from experience, but like i said, that is not good usability.

Imagine if Amazons categories were SHWAG, TRINKETS, and labels like that. That would suck.

What is wrong with labels like ABOUT US, ARTICLES and NEWS as opposed to ZINC DOGMA, DENSHA BLUES and RADAR RADAR? And the year navigation is cool, but its not clear immediately what is navigation and what is just fluff.

belive me, I could write an entire report about what is wrong with the navigation and usability of ZP. It's content saves it, but then its really only for those in the know.

I guess you have to ask "What is Zinc Panic's Target Audience?". If it is just the few of you, then fine. But if it is for a wider audience, it fails.

Can you imagine a foreign user using the site? How about running it through babelfish? How about with images or Javascript or stylesheets turned off? There are lots of things to consider...

So how do I use the site? well, I read the news, erm... RADAR, through my RSS reader. I check out the database when I need to look for a toy. I use the search function because there is no good usable index. a "Most popular" menu or something would be great. I love all the data provided on a particlular toy, but I find the layout of the individual entry pages difficult. The area that should be the main content area never has any content. It is always either "Rhetoric pending" (how about coming soon?) or a list of not -at-all related articles. It seems random as to which shows up where, and that annoys me. The thumbnails on the records pages are itrritatingly small, and in no particular order. You can't tell what the picture is going to be before you click it. When you do click on a window, it is at a small size, so you have to resize the thumbnail window yourself, and sometimes, (on RADAR), you cant resize them at all.

The i'm lost link helps a little, but youre still met with jargon, jargon, jargon. You wouldn't need all that if you just stuck to simple human language. I can be cool to use buzzwords and jargon to an extent, but not at the const of your readers.

Anyway, this is not really the place for this - if You, Ed, Eric or Darren want to discuss these issues with me, they know where to find me.

[JohnKane]

I don't think anyone other than me was looking to discuss these issues...just wondering how people were using it.