design proposal

This was my initial design proposal for PokerOso which I have followed almost to a tee up until this point and don’t intend to deviate from. I wanted to post the proposal to give people a better idea of exactly what I have going and why I think the site will be a benefit to those who play live poker.




Purpose: The purpose of PokerOso.com is to provide a comprehensive directory of live legal brick and mortar poker rooms throughout the United States and Canada.

Concept: When looking for a poker room to play whether it be in San Diego county where I am based or while traveling from home I have found it very difficult to come up with reliable, comprehensive information on poker rooms. Things like games spread (what games are played), rake ( the % of the pot the house takes), driving directions, parking availability, tournaments offered, contact information, etc. This list goes on at infinitum.


I’m not under the false assumption that this information does not exist on the internet, it does. The problem is that the information is scattered all over the web and I have had to wade through forums, blinking banner adds, blogs and the like to get bits and pieces of the information. Why not have all the information all in one location in an easy to navigate site full of current comprehensive content that can be referenced time and time again.


PokerOso.com content will be and will remain current and comprehensive by utilizing user generated content. The lions share of the card room reviews and card room content will be submitted by the user. Who wants to read a biased canned review of a card room written by the ownership when you can bypass the propaganda and go right to the source, the players who have played in these establishments night in and night out.


I like to use the example of Amazon.com. I would consider myself a casual customer but there isn’t a purchase over $50 that I make that I don’t first consult Amazon’s user reviews. Often times you will not only find a review of a product that someone has just purchased but also that same product reviewed by someone who has already owned it for a year or two. Some of the more popular items have literally hundreds of reviews so that as a potential buyer of the product I can have a really good idea of not just how it will look and feel when I get it but how it will perform the entire life of the product.

Okay, now imagine that you are going on a business trip with some associates to Southern California. You are going for three nights and four days and you are on a pretty tight schedule. You have heard there are a lot of places in So. California to play poker and you would love to get two or three hours of play in on this trip just to say you did it. With only a few hours to spare you don’t have much room for error. On pokeroso.com you’ll be able to see pictures of the card room, get mapped directions, hours of operation, games spread, parking availability, bonus info, etc. You will also be able to read those crucial reviews ensuring a positive experience and time well spent.



Content: PokerOso.com will featuring a combination of content provided by myself and to a much larger degree user generated content similar to that of Wikipedia.com. The content on the pages will be malleable in the sense that there will be just enough structure so that the users have a true sense that they are adding relevant content that will truly help like minded people with the same interests, B&M poker. For the most part users will not select from scripted A,B,C, options. There will be plenty of places for users to tell it how they see it, in their own words and in categories we have pre designated as well as categories that they themselves can create.

Users will create an account, creating a user name, password and entering some personal information such as a confirmable email address. Users will be able to opt in or out of email contact by PokerOso.com. At that point users will be able to publish room reviews and rate specific aspects of the rooms. Each addition will be manually reviewed by PokerOso.com staff before going live. Users will not be required to log in or create an account to surf the site. An account is only necessary to add content.

Users will have the ability to add content in categories such as games spread, parking, staff friendliness, tournaments offered, contact information, security, bonuses, operation hours, web addresses, rake, smoking policies, etc. The categories will be featured on each page as well as a user option to write a critique or simply rate the card room with a 5 star review on the room itself and the sub-categories similar to that of the product reviews on Amazon.com. Users will not be limited to written content alone as pictures and video will be welcomed as well. Coupled with the aforementioned content users will have the ability to map directions to and from their desired card room.

There should be no reason why a user would view a card room on the PokerOso.com and not have a really good idea of what that card room is like, from what kind of clientele the room attracts, to the cleanliness of the bathrooms.



Secondary Content:
A.) Link/feed to official PokerOso blog as well as the official PokerOso Facebook.
B.) Twitter updates from users and prominent display of current PokerOso tweets as well as direct links to PokerOso Twitter page
C.) Ability for users to use social media sites such as Facebook, Twitter, etc. to relay any and all information form PokerOso.com
D.) Advertisements, most likely the unobtrusive use of Google Adwords/Adsense.
E.) A comprehensive listing of internet poker sites including bonuses, reviews and links.
F.) A user generated poker terms page with definitions.
G.) Generic links page
H.) Contact Page
I.) A page dedicated for users to upload poker related pictures and video.
J.) Links to poker related articles.

All of the aforementioned secondary content is just that, secondary content. It should be unobtrusive and truly secondary to the B&M poker room listings.



Look and Feel: I’d like the site to be rich with content but sparse, almost minimalist in contrast with similar sites. Ease of use and an uncluttered look are very important. There will be a search bar on the home page where the user will be able to search card rooms by name, state, city and zip code. I also foresee an advanced search function where the user could search by such categories as legal age to play, the card room’s smoking policy, whether the room offers alcohol, the distance from and address or zip code etc.

While I would obviously like advertisements it’s very important that they be completely unobtrusive and secondary to content displayed on any given page. One of the most important aspects of the site is that it’s abundantly clear what the sites purpose is from the home page on. So many sites have so much clutter and so many options that it’s not clear what the sites purpose is. I want this sites look and feel to point in one direction and one direction only, to provide a truly comprehensive directory of live legal brick and mortar poker rooms throughout the United States and Canada. While there will be other content, that content will be secondary to the poker room listings.

Quicky

Really quick update but an update no less.

Video Blog Numero Uno