Once you’ve started your franchise, the NHL.com interface is very nicely done. The franchise “home page” is basically a blown-up, videogame-ized version of the NHL.com website — and yes, videogame-ized is a word — with a snapshot on the left (an in-game screenshot related to the headline) and news headlines on the right. Scheduled games are scrolled in a horizontal bar (an alternate to the standard monthly calendar), and even the Team Select icons at the top, where you go to view each team’s headlines/box scores/stats, mimic NHL.com’s dark gray team logos which enlarge in color when selected. It’s a minor touch to be sure, but just enhances the “feel” of the interface.
The headlines basically serve as shortcuts to box scores, player cards, etc. But with the way it’s done, it makes it much more interesting and gives you a good idea what is going on around the league in your franchise. The headlines on the NHL.com Home page are fed in from every team, while each team’s Home page is filled with headlines specifically from that team. Some samples of ones I clicked on, just to see how they worked:
- Brodeur’s 36 saves carry Devils in win — This was overlayed on a generated in-game screenshot of Brodeur sprawling and making a save. (I don’t know if this can/will happen, but I’m anxious to see if my created player ever gets the homepage screenshot treatment). Anyway, I clicked on the picture and it took me to the box score from that game, where Brodeur had, as expected, saved 36 of 39 shots.
- Injury to sideline Sabres’ Connolly for a few days — Clicking this headline took me to the Injury Report, where Connolly was listed as day-to-day with a pulled hamstring.
- Flyers, Gagne dominant over Islanders — This linked to the box score showing shots at 45 to 17 in a 6-0 drubbing. Gagne had 2 G, 1 A, +2.
- Report: Chris Bourque practices with Capitals (and) Henrik Sedin: Ready to play — These little headlines link to player cards/stats.
- Sloane expected to return for game against SJ minors — This brought up a player card of a rookie in the Philadelphia minors (Adirondack). He had only played 15 of 26 games, appearing to confirm the headline that he had been out injured.
These headlines may just link to box scores, injury reports, stats and player cards, but they are a great way to integrate everything into a nice franchise home interface. They appear to be pretty accurate (in glancing through them I didn’t notice any gross misinformation or just plain wrong headlines; the stats and scores generally reflect exactly what the headlines declare), are varied enough to prevent too much repetition, and are worded in a way that feels like legit news headlines. The system makes it easy and interesting to get a sense of what’s going on around your league, even if you just peruse the headlines each week. And above all, it helps make your franchise feel “alive”.
We’ll have more coverage later today.
