One of my jobs here at Playing Bingo is to review all of the online bingo sites available on the internet so as you can imagine, with over 350 brands, I am kept quite busy! What never fails to amaze me about the design of many a brand online today is the complete disconnection with what an online bingo player is looking for. Of course I can only speak from personal preference but I’m not excited by a brand that appears to have put absolutely no effort or thought into the design of their landing page.
Ok, so the saying goes “Don’t judge a book by its cover” but there is also the saying “first impressions count” so why don’t many online bingo brands make theirs count? All too often it’s apparent that a brand has slapped something together rather than look at their target audience and try to think like them.
You only have to look at our bingo reviews section to see how many brands there are to choose from on the internet today and we haven’t reviewed all of them yet. Why do brands insist on putting some stupid woman on their home pages? The biggest demographic for bingo, both online and offline is women, why not give us a little eye candy? I for one don’t make a connection with a brand simply because they feature someone of the same gender as me on the home page but then again, some brands take the eye candy to extremes. Take Steamy Bingo for example when this site was open it was more like Sleazy Bingo, a design that would have best suited a men’s magazine rather than a bingo site.
Naughty Bingo features a scantily clad female cartoon character although they have recently added a cartoon chap in a similar state of undress. Whilst sex does sell, it doesn’t sell bingo to me.
Foxy Bingo have the right idea in my opinion; they’ve marketed their mascot so well that he is a household name and whilst he started life a little “lecherous” he has evolved into a cheeky chap. The home page gives you all the details you need and then some without being too busy; it’s colourful and informative without being patronising.
Brands need to step away from the whole bingo ball theme; for the most part they have ‘bingo’ in the site and domain name – we all know why we are there! Impress us without bingo balls and stupid women who for the most part look nothing like a ‘real’ woman who plays bingo because more often than not, sites like this have me reaching for the back button!
You are so right. I agree that so little thought goes into the look and feel of most sites. They seem to think their mere presences and the use of the word bingo in the title is a dead cert for sign ups.
I have been lucky enough to get a sneak preview of the new m8ts bingo site as part of a focus group and I think you will like their approach.
Great write up.
Bingoista