List of GUI improvement suggestions

mTk-Away · Joined: 02 Apr 2005 Posts: 76

I'm adding some answers to Jorbe's comments with blue color.

OK, I'm trying this one more time. Once again, I'm not doing this to be mean or for the sake of bitching, but to help the project.

Here's a list of things not working too well from the GUI perspective. Go v.0.87.

ghehe, 0.87 seems ages ago

0 Customization
0.1 While it's great you can customize the program pretty much as you please, never make something in bad fashion just "because it can be customized if you don't like it". It will take a long time for users to become advanced users and take full advantage of the customization features. Also, remember that first impression often counts in software world - if the first user experience is bad, the users will probably never give it another chance, going back to their "old programs".

1 Main screen

For compilation of GUI improvements, see this rough picture.

1.1 It is really hard to start playing! I think majority of beginners will just quit at this point. Ask yourself what is the purpose of this starting screen.
Here is my personal estimate (based on MWS and Apprentice) of what people do when they first open the program:
40% of time you will load a new deck (60% of the time you'll just use the one you used last time)
70% of time you will go to Internet for a game
20% of time you will go to deck editor
10% of time you will play a solitaire game
5% of time time you will change theme or customize the program in some way
0% of time you will for untap a permanent, say "OK?" or something similar

So, if 3/4 of the time you just want to play the game, why it takes about 10 clicks to get there? Make it faster and easier to do basic actions in order to get started with the program. Create a quick menu with icons, perhaps?

1.2 Commands that are not used in the main screen (like untapping a permanent) should simply not be there in the program's main menu. Either disable commands that can't be used (or more like have no use) or hide them. If you want to use this same menu all the time, use disabling rather than hiding.

1.3 Program's main menu is a bit too complicated - you have 11 commands sets to choose from... a good amount would be something beetween 3 and 7. Themes menu you could just example just put inside Extra in a sub-menu of its own. Server and Game menus could also be combined.

1.4 In program's main menu, use line seperators to seperate different kind of actions. For example, in Permanent menu, you could seperate counter actions from the other actions with a seperator line.
GUI

1.4 Shortcut keys. Use existing user knowledge here. That is mostly MWS and Apprentice. It could be smart to use the same shortcuts as in those two programs as much as possible. Using Windows "default" shortcuts keys is also a bad idea (Ctrl+Z does what? Undoes or gives a +1 counter?).

2 Game screen

2.1 The main problem here is that there is no user metaphor for two different views - pre-game and game. Users will probably divide their actions into those they take while they play and to those they do for setting up a game or configuring. So, change the title bar, show some "preparing game" animation, use two different exes... anything to make the users create a mental mode of two different views. It can be really ugly if the user doesn't know whether he's playing or not, and some "bahaviour" issues can emerge as well.
It could also be nice that when you close the program, while in game screen, it would go back to the main screen.

2.1 Like in 1.2 hide the commands that are not used for this screen (Server, Deck, Lobby). Even if it is possible to load a new deck while you play, the one and only time you do that is when you start a new game.

2.2 Merging the phase bar into current player's turn worked like a charm in MWS - it is a great visual cue that immediatelly tells who's turn it is. Steal it! Smile

got a screenshot?
You already seem to have implemented it in 0.94b and tho it still looks a bit ugly, you got the right idea. Good job.

Yep ugly, but there is another problem: where to put the indicator when you're in free for all multiplayer with 4 or 6 people?

2.3 Dragging cards into graveyard and RFG should be possible. Once again, it works great in MWS and it's very logical as well.

Done

2.4 Icon order in the "player info box" could be changed so that the zones are logically in order of their "life cycle". That is: First Library, then hand, then grave and finally RFG. Seperate the life icon clearly from the others.

done, life icon graphic can be editted to suit your "seperation needs"

2.5 Why is the scrollbar of the text buffer on left side? Breaking common knowledge UI elements isn't a good idea. Also, make it look more of a scroll bar by adding those "up" and "down" arrows.

Done, arrows still not high priority Wink

2.6 In general, add more right-click menus. The most important ones are life counter

2.7 Why are the card so huge on table? I don't know if you can customize this (the customization screen is quite a jungle), but they could be around 25% smaller while on table.

The size is being calculated the same way as in mws, max size for 3 rows (5 in mws i believe), we might make this an option later (ctrl+e, zones, bottom panel)

Resizing works nicely and 75% size seems to be somewhat OK, for me at least. I'd suggest using smaller default size, tho, as a lot of people really don't want to (or can't) mess with the Customization jungle.

75% does seem nice indeed

2.8 Card text (by default) is also a little too big.

ctrl+e, zones, bottom panel
Same thing here - pay attention to defaults, since players will use them for a long time before they become power users.

2.9 "Draw X cards" should remember last option given to it (since it most cases it is 7).

Fixed

2.10 Add tooltip descriptions also for cards that are in graveveyard or RFG.

you mean like a popup box showing some info about the card?
Sorry, reall bad wording there. I meant that cards could be shown the same way in that preview area (that is on right side of the window by default) as those cards on table and hand are shown, so that when you hover mouse over the card, it would display the card (with image) in that preview area.

Fixed

2.11 Is it possible to put card anywhere from graveyard? I can't drag them or right-click them.

right click should have worked, even in that version, but i might be mistaken, will fix it and add drag & drop functionality
Works well, in new version. Now, if we could only get a visible border to show where the card is going to, like how it happens when you drag a card that is in play...

Put on top of todo list

2.12 Add an option to view lists of cards arranged. It makes many things much easier.

can you clarify? sorting a graveyard or rfg is against the rules, even just temporary
I mean sorting the list of cards, not the actual cards. Pretty much the same way you can sort forum threads without actually changing their id. This option is very useful when you have some 20+ cards in grave and have to all the time have some information of its status... say, you want to know how many Lightning Bolts your opponent has already played.

Done

2.13 "SWD" checkbox is a bit confusing when placed inside the window title bar. Please, respect the universal GUI elements and put only title and close(/maximize/minimize) in the title and the rest inside the window. I believe a lot of people will have less trouble understanding the program logic, if you use GUI metaphors they already know.

Done

2.14 Right-dragging for targetting is really god in MWS. Steal it without hesitation! I don't think too many people will use the "Choose target" action from main menu.

Done

2.15 Menuss that have a sub-menu (like right-clicking on a card and going over "Library") should have a small arrow on right to indicate they have a sub-menu.

Done

2.16 Things that are not buttons (like the life and hand icons in player info box) should not have an mouseover effect. Make only buttons feel like buttons, so you can easily know what can be clicked and what not. Also, a mouse pressed (as in button down, the one that shows when mouse button is pressed but not released) effect would also be good.

Fixed

2.17 For those of us having dual screen, it would be great if you could drag extra windows (like graveyards) in there...

Can't be done

2.18 Even tho it sounds groovy using "GO" in button texts, please use OK instead.

The "GO" button should be used to end the turn, like you do irl, but has become obsolete with the new phase bar.. will look into that later

2.19 "Pass priority" box is a good idea, but the buttons in it can be confusing (Pass and Go). Why not just have the "Pass" button when you have priority and a text that says who has the priority when you don't have priority?

see previous comment

2.20 In text buffer, try to keep texts short. Aim to keep it in one line. "You want to pass the priority to the next player" could just said "Priority passed to [Opponent name]".

game text will become "modifyable" to suit your mtg-lingo
It might be best to not make game text customizable, as they may be used in lots of things such as judging. It's not nice trying to figure out what "Gittin' down Lhurgoyd in da Library maan!" means... not even to mention what might happen if two (or more) players both have their own customizations in such styles.

Any modifications a users makes only apply to that user, like, there is info that is equal to all, just how it's shown is user specific, like card sizes

2.21 Sideboard could be viewed in the same fastion as library and graveyard. Otherwise it doesn't fit on screen and it might take some time to figure out how to close it (as the close button is off screen).

Fixed?

2.22 In mana symbols, holding left mouse button down could start increasing the mana pool (the same for right mouse button, of course). It can be a pain adding 30 colorless mana to pool.

Click with Shift or Control to add more

btw, that new mana pool system is great! Now, also add tooltips to tell what those buttons do. Smile

Once a user figures out what they do, the tooltips can be annoying, but i'll add a way to turn them off

3 Other stuff

3.1 Drawing a selection rectangle (in game view) is rather sluggish.

DirectX FTW, sorry Mac Users Wink

3.1 Why not use reqular Windows tooltips for tooltips?

we dont use any MS windows controls on the play field, so that would be pretty hard to do, we try to mimic them as good as possible

Good job with the program! The functional parts in most cases are working very well and doing things like they should.
Tho, I'm sorry to say this, but what I told you about a year ago has become true: If you don't have a good plan for the GUI in the start, you'll never be able to change the GUI after you have done some good amount of coding. Right now there is no real "theme" there and all panels sort of work as their own individual component without that general thing that glues this all together into one single system. I know it's very hard to change many of the "big picture" GUI things now without huge amount of work, which is why I'd suggest making a decent plan for the GUI in your next project, or if you ever plan to make v2 of GO.
Good work with the project in general. I wish you could somehow get something other than just warm thoughts for all your efforts.

We'll get there, slowly

loran16 · Joined: 12 Nov 2004 Posts: 10

You seem to have hit most issues right on the head (i agree with them all).

Some things i think you missed:

when looking at a hidden zone (library, grave, sb etc) you should be able to drag from these zones to your hand/board. Currently you need to right click the card you want and hit the correct button to get the card in the zone you want.

Added more drag and drop functionality

Make it possible to right click a card and hit a button to view the card. Some cards you can't see in your hand and its annoying to wait for the description of the card to pop up by hovering over it.

OK Smile

--------------
Two other issues which im not sure are there:
A. Why is the deck editor seperate from the actual program?

B. Why can't i seem to view the description of any card in the editor, but instead all i can do is view the card names? Right now it seems id rather use the apprentice deck editor than use the one provided.

ElvishGod · Joined: 12 May 2005 Posts: 2924

i agree with the text issue...... on the example card to the right, it would be much better if all text of the card was shown...

EDIT: there also seems to be no way to give a creature +X/+0 or +0/+X or the opposite (-)

EDITEDIT: okay, you can change P/T to give them the stat boosts, but there should be a quicker way -- ie: MWS lets you cntrl and + gives +1/+0, cntrl and - gives -1/-0, and holding alt and -/+ changes toughness... this also makes it easy to give +1/+1 and -1/-1 by just holding cntrl, alt, and +/-

I've added 1/0 and 0/1 counters to the list,
use leftclick for +, rightclick for -

CMA-Flippi · Posted: Sun Feb 18, 2007 6:53 pm Post subject:

Until i read

Shepherd · Joined: 18 Jan 2005 Posts: 387

Not exactly a GUI suggestion, but more of an implementation issue...

Last I checked, if you wanted to change the colors of most of the graphics interface, you need to type it in as a RGB hexadecimal number. While this isn't a very big problem as you'll probably edit it once, it might be easier for most people if it could be edited via a 256-color palette, or at least include the most common hex color codes in a help file...

I'll see if i can find a neat palette component

Jorbes · Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 277 Location: Netherland

OK, enough to do this weekend Smile

Thanks to all for the input!

Note: I'm gonna edit posts to show the response to a suggestion, this to keep the thread nice and short.

mTk-Away · Joined: 02 Apr 2005 Posts: 76

Replies to another replies posted with blue.

Jorbes · Joined: 14 Feb 2006 Posts: 277 Location: Netherland