The current magic book is a bit disorganized and actually kinda hard to navigate. I know the number of spells right now is very limited but as a way to see what it would look like later and just because I can easily afford it I always get every spell book on my custom SOV. Already with the few spells recently added in 0.32 you can get up to 3 pages of spells to sort through.
I don't know how many the game plans on having but with the comparison too MoM it could become even more disorganized. It's been a while since I played MoM but as I recall it has 10 at each rarity level for each book type for a total of like 160 spells just in the books. If E:WoM ends up with that many it could end up being a real hassle sorting through them all. I've got a few ideas to help improve sorting.
Index Tabs: Much like an organized binder having tabs which divide the spells into sections such as by book type or spell type (combat, encahntment, and etc.). Having the option to do both would also help since you require specific shards to access spells. So the ability the sort the spells and see which ones would become available with access to curtain shards would be very helpful.
Smaller Icons: While it's nice to see the spell icon images on the page it only takes a few to fill up the page. it would be nice if the icons were a bit smaller so more spells fit on a single page and required less page turning. This would help cut down on the disorganizing feel of it as you don't need to flip through as many pages to find stuff.
Spells on Both Pages: The spell stats taking up the right page ends up wasting a lot of space which could be better served by having the page full of other spells. This would effectively double the number of spells on screen the player can look at and thus less need to flip through pages.
Spells Stats on Mouse Over: Instead of having the spell stats always showing for the current selected spell instead have them show for whichever spell is currently moused over like other tool tips. Also have the stats appear on the oppisite page this way if you have the spells on both pages like in the previous suggestion when you mouse over spells on the right page the stats will display on the left one similar to the way they are now. This way it keeps the detailed spell stat display while allowing twice as many spells on screen.
When it comes to casting spells I can see things becoming even more out of hand. Only displaying 5 spells at a time is fine at the start when you only have a few spells. Over time though when your spell book grows to have dozens of spells it could become a bit overwhelming. So here are some ideas on how to organize that.
Spells Cast Menu: Instead of using the current bar how about instead having a mini spell book pop-up similar to the build/train menus. The spell icons would of course be there and the stats would display as you mouse over them just as they do now.
Spell Menu by Book: Also since it would be changing to a menu system it would be interesting if you could pick which spell book to cast from. So the spell tab would have each book that you had access to and when you clicked on it would display the spells you could cast from that book. For easy reference a number in the corner would display the number of spells you can cast from that book, similar to the number of turns remaining on buildings. There would still be a "general" book at the front which displays all spells.
Spell Power Shown on Tooltip: Recently some spells have been added who's power is effected by how much INT the caster has. The problem with this is I can't seem to find where the INT stat is listed. I could of simply over looked but I only recall seeing it at the SOV customization screen. The stats of the SOV/Hero doesn't display it when you open up their "detailed" stats. And you can't increase it when you level up so it doesn't appear their either. This poses the question just how powerful are the spells they are casting? Even if the INT stat was easy to find most players don't wanna have to do the math in their heads and simply displaying how much it does instead of the formula would be much nicer.
Short of Mana Indication: Currently you can select a spell mouse over the spot to cast it and it shows green yet when you try to cast it a pop-up appears that says you don't have enough mana. This is rather annoying as you went through the effort of finding the spelling, selecting it, choosing a target in range and then trying to cast it. Now you have another item to click just to notify you that you weren't able to do it in the first place. If an option is not available from the start it shouldn't appear as if it is. Spells that you can't cast should be grayed out, crossed out, or etc. to show that you lack the ability to cast them.
