For 1 and 3 , some of the Live Chess parts are because Play > Play is the new interface and not all features of Play > Live Chess have been added to it. So, once everything that is going to be added to the new interface are added, the old one should go away.
Suggestions for Chess.com and Mobile App UI - Why Current Design Leads to Frustration for the User.
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Chess.com has many useful and fun features, but finding them on the website or the app can be non-intuitive and extremely frustrating for the user.
There are a number of things, but I would like to point out suggestions that can improve the experience and not confuse the user.
1. Play. There are too many ways to access play options and a lot of it is non-intuitive.
Accessing "Play", "Play->Play", and "Play->Live Chess" ALL eventually lead to different time control games. Only "Play" leads you to a menu where you can go into variants.
2. Variants. The variants interface is a mess. Every single time I try to play bughouse, it asks me to sign up. I want to play with a friend, but I don't even know how. In order to figure this out, I have to click the "Sign Up" button, which automatically starts a game, which I then have to abort, and then search the menu to figure how to invite my friend. I still have no clue how to find this option.
3. Analysis with a Friend. There is the personal analysis board, which is easy to find, but the finding the shared analysis board was very difficult. I have to go to Live Chess, specifically, and none of the other 5 ways to access play options. Then I have to create a Custom Challenge, choosing Analysis Board as the Type. Then I have to invite my friend on "Invite Students" field, which does not give suggestions for my friends. If my friend happens not to be on Live Chess, the invitation will not be sent AND it won't tell me why the invitation is not being sent. It SHOULD AT LEAST tell the user that the invitee is not on live chess. Instead, there is 0 feedback on what the user is missing in order to set this up.
These are just a few examples, but I think the website's extra features are disorganized, and the implementation of these features lack the attention to detail that make using them easy for the user. Instead, in my opinion, using them can be quite frustrating and makes me want to go somewhere else. Trying to figure out how to play a game with a friend should be easy to do. But instead, there is an overload "play" buttons I have to screen through, a non-intuitive interface prevents me from figuring out how to use these features properly, and the interface does not give the user good control over what he wants to achieve. After all, I have a membership here because I want to use these features. If I just want to play chess and nothing else, why should I purchase an account at all?