[Suggestion] The Interface

from Elemental Forums

So the interface could do with a makeover, many players keep asking, how do I do this, or that, and how to see this thing?


I'm a hardcore minimalist, so for me less is more, and I like the KISS principle.
The interface needs to be as intuitive and informative as possible, without cluttering up with unnecessary graphical elements or information I do not need to know Right here, Right now.

I sat down last night and today and installed AoW 1 + AoW2: Wizards Throne, and had a look through their interface, there are several nice features there.

So I sat down with the Elemental interface, and tried to piece together what I believe is necessary to display, and how to display it.
Something my brother brought up when I showed off Elemental to him yesterday was, why aren't there context based menus? And I couldn't do anything other then whole heartily agree with him.
Tabs and context menus is interface "win".

So that said, I'd like some feedback on what others think of this mockup so far.
Feel free to rip it a new one, as long as you offer a logical reason for it.

I find this better explains and conveys the feeling and setup the UI should have, then a thousand word post.


Unit "Action/Info" bar

City building.

City info screen

Kingdom/¤Empire overview report

With new tab, for Enchantments. List enchantments by upkeep, who cast it and which unit is affected by it.

And city overview list, what each city is building and training, let player go directly to a city from here by clicking it's name.

Sovereign/Champion inventory management

I think rather then trying to fit both Info, Inventory, and a trading screen in to one window, it would be better when trading to resize the info window here, and put it side by side with the info screen of another unit, and allow item drag and drop between the two windows.

There could be arrows on both windows that allow you to jump to next unit in the stack's info window.

10,135 views 10 replies
Reply #1 from Elemental Forums Top

This is probably the best UI Suggestion change I've seen posted so far. I like that look better than current honestly. It gets rid of all that side screen clutter.

Reply #2 from Elemental Forums Top

Awesome! I love the inventory slot system too.

 

One thing that could improve that is having a sidebar for trading with other heroes, swappable with the buy/sell menu when in friendly territory. That way a currently clumsy system could be handled in one menu.

ObjectDock - Access shortcuts and frequently used applications from an animated dock.
Reply #3 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Raven, reply 1
This is probably the best UI Suggestion change I've seen posted so far. I like that look better than current honestly. It gets rid of all that side screen clutter.
End of Raven's quote

Really? It's one of the more thorough and complete set of suggestions I've seen, but that doesn't mean it's good. Some of the suggestions here are objectively bad, like the way it goes to great pains to hide things from the user behind clicks and menus that should be available instantly at a glance without any interaction whatsoever. I'd even go so far as to say that the suggestions for the main world screen and the info/action bars thereof would make the interface even worse than it is currently, which is quite an accomplishment. I mean, there is a reason why the only mod for Civ4 that is considered a "must have" is BUG mod. It's because it adds more information to the UI, not less. Note that it doesn't in any way increase the complexity of the UI, which is what minimalism is supposed to guard against. But minimalism isn't supposed to cripple the UI either.

I'm not sure what the big deal about right-click context menus is either. I mean, certainly, it wouldn't hurt to have them, for people that prefer them. But I literally cannot think of a single strategy game (whether turn-based or realtime, or anything else for that matter) that makes significant use of context menus in its control scheme. And there is a reason for this: Less clicks is generally better, and that one extra right-click to bring the menu open is one extra action that's getting between the user and their goal.

On the other hand, I love the city info screen, the kingdom report, and the champion equip screen. Specifically, I like the way that it brings all the information together on one screen, so that you can see everything you need to at a single glance. I do think that sticking with the heirgamenon format is pretty crippling, because it's such an inefficient way of presenting the information, but that is more of an implementation detail, rather than a problem with the idea behind the suggestion itself. If the current champion info screen and equip screen were combined into what you've got here, that would be fantastic. The two screens are so massively redundant in terms of the information that they display, it's utterly absurd for them to be separated like that. Especially since the equip screen has lovely tooltips telling you just how your stats add up, but the champion info screen, bizarrely, does not. Which brings me onto my next point.

I think the most vital suggestion presented here that should be implemented as a top priority when the UI overhaul comes is: Tooltips! Tooltips everywhere. Everywhere that could conceivably make use of tooltips should have them. It's an excellent way of having information that is available quickly, but without cluttering up the screen in its default state. It is a little silly to think that I currently have to make no less than three clicks to find out what the yield of a resource will be and the cost to build on it.

The most egregious UI error that is not addressed by these suggestions is the way you have to switch back and forth between different tabs in the action bar in order to accomplish different things. That has got to go.

Reply #4 from Elemental Forums Top

Well, I don't particularily dislike the main map interface, but yours isn't particularily bad either. I do agree we need more right click menus and whatnot.

I also love the unit/sovereign inventory screen.

Reply #5 from Elemental Forums Top

Honestly...just as I started thinking about this thread I realized Elemental would make a sweet mod for Civ V when it comes out.  Use the Civ system for all the units/tech/diplomacy/etc and just convert all the unit types/names and what have you.  Thinking as I type here...I guess you'd lose out on the tactical battles though...a downside. 

Reply #6 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Morlark, reply 3

I'm not sure what the big deal about right-click context menus is either. I mean, certainly, it wouldn't hurt to have them, for people that prefer them. But I literally cannot think of a single strategy game (whether turn-based or realtime, or anything else for that matter) that makes significant use of context menus in its control scheme. And there is a reason for this: Less clicks is generally better, and that one extra right-click to bring the menu open is one extra action that's getting between the user and their goal.
End of Morlark's quote

I disagree, you can't have everything showing on the screen, and if anything context menus cut down on time spent navigating the UI and more importantly on the amount of information that is visible at any given time. In my opinion there's too much redundant information on display in the default UI.

That said, you can't appease everyone, and I have no intention of striving for that because I know it's impossible. Everyone likes their interface in a certain way.

The best would be if Stardock allowed us to mod the interface via XML, then people could pick and choose their interface from available mods.


Quoting Morlark, reply 3
I do think that sticking with the heirgamenon format is pretty crippling, because it's such an inefficient way of presenting the information, but that is more of an implementation detail, rather than a problem with the idea behind the suggestion itself.
End of Morlark's quote

I tried to maintain the consistency SD already laid out, personally I'd much prefer a non-graphical UI with solid boxes and no art, but meh that's boring for most I reckon.

Quoting Morlark, reply 3

If the current champion info screen and equip screen were combined into what you've got here, that would be fantastic. The two screens are so massively redundant in terms of the information that they display, it's utterly absurd for them to be separated like that. Especially since the equip screen has lovely tooltips telling you just how your stats add up, but the champion info screen, bizarrely, does not. Which brings me onto my next point.

End of Morlark's quote

Updated the champion/sov info/inventory/trade screen. I tried to think of a way to encompass all three options within one single window, but find it a better idea to list two windows, at reduced size, side by side and allow Drag n Drop of items between the two. Then add Previous/Next buttons at the top of the pages to cycle between available Champions/Sovereign in said stack.

Quoting Morlark, reply 3

The most egregious UI error that is not addressed by these suggestions is the way you have to switch back and forth between different tabs in the action bar in order to accomplish different things. That has got to go.

End of Morlark's quote

Any particular example where that ain't addressed? Because I tried to minimize the necessity of using the action bar.

Reply #7 from Elemental Forums Top

Ten Usability Heuristics

by Jakob Nielsen

These are ten general principles for user interface design. They are called "heuristics" because they are more in the nature of rules of thumb than specific usability guidelines.

Visibility of system status
The system should always keep users informed about what is going on, through appropriate feedback within reasonable time.
Match between system and the real world
The system should speak the users' language, with words, phrases and concepts familiar to the user, rather than system-oriented terms. Follow real-world conventions, making information appear in a natural and logical order.
User control and freedom
Users often choose system functions by mistake and will need a clearly marked "emergency exit" to leave the unwanted state without having to go through an extended dialogue. Support undo and redo.
Consistency and standards
Users should not have to wonder whether different words, situations, or actions mean the same thing. Follow platform conventions.
Error prevention
Even better than good error messages is a careful design which prevents a problem from occurring in the first place. Either eliminate error-prone conditions or check for them and present users with a confirmation option before they commit to the action.
Recognition rather than recall
Minimize the user's memory load by making objects, actions, and options visible. The user should not have to remember information from one part of the dialogue to another. Instructions for use of the system should be visible or easily retrievable whenever appropriate.
Flexibility and efficiency of use
Accelerators -- unseen by the novice user -- may often speed up the interaction for the expert user such that the system can cater to both inexperienced and experienced users. Allow users to tailor frequent actions.
Aesthetic and minimalist design
Dialogues should not contain information which is irrelevant or rarely needed. Every extra unit of information in a dialogue competes with the relevant units of information and diminishes their relative visibility.
Help users recognize, diagnose, and recover from errors
Error messages should be expressed in plain language (no codes), precisely indicate the problem, and constructively suggest a solution.
Help and documentation
Even though it is better if the system can be used without documentation, it may be necessary to provide help and documentation. Any such information should be easy to search, focused on the user's task, list concrete steps to be carried out, and not be too large.

Taken from useit.com
Reply #8 from Elemental Forums Top

Keep in mind that Elemental's UI is basically made from SD's desktop customization tools (DesktopX specifically, I think?). As such, the limitations on the UI are similar to what you'd find there. Meaning, you can do reskins, different looks or organization, but there's no support for something like right-click context menus.

Reply #9 from Elemental Forums Top

Quoting Annatar11, reply 8
Keep in mind that Elemental's UI is basically made from SD's desktop customization tools (DesktopX specifically, I think?). As such, the limitations on the UI are similar to what you'd find there. Meaning, you can do reskins, different looks or organization, but there's no support for something like right-click context menus.
End of Annatar11's quote

 

Yah, I'm aware it's made with DesktopX. I had a look at it, and I'm not sure it's an ideal choice for a game UI platform, DesktopX is anything but intuitive, but *shrugs*.

Maybe SD can make an XML based UI instead that allows far easier mod access. It is after all how most of the modern MMOs have their UI setup as.

Reply #10 from Elemental Forums Top

I sat down last night and today and installed AoW 1 + AoW2: Wizards Throne, and had a look through their interface, there are several nice features there.
End of quote

I believe there were many suggestions from the community for Stardock to review the successful fantasy TBS games.  Based on the fantasy content I wonder how much time each Stardock developer spent reviewing the qualities, interface and features of the successful fantasy TBS games.  For example if my company usually was building jeeps(other software games) and I wanted to build a sportscar(fantasy software game) then intense research will be a primary key to success.