67 replies to this topic

[sabujo]

Hey everyone,

I would like to contribute with a simple quick made mockup regarding the warehouse part of the Mechlab. I find it very cluttered and hard to read, so I now present here some suggestions in 3 approach levels, each one with increasing developer effort:



Please note I am only concentrating my attention on the weapon/equipment list - nothing more. Even tough there are many things that should be fixed besides this, we need to focus one issue at a time.

Screen A

• As it is now in the PTS
  
• Weapons all mixed up
  
• Filters we will never need filling up space

Screen B

• Color coding for general weapon type
  
• Remove the Switch yellow indicators (why was that implemented, anyway)
  
• Remove the Unavailable red indicators and replace that with a darker row (see AC/20, LRM20, PPC)

Screen C

• Removed the filters above
  
• Group the weapons in collapsible panels and restricting to the major 4 groups (on modules, restrict to 3)
  
• The sorting of weapons now make sense, grouping up all Lasers, all Pulse lasers, etc..
  
• Added mini icons to all weapons in order to turn scanning easier (since now things are not in alphabetic order anymore)
  
• Quirks are represented by an icon after the name of the weapon (green arrow for positive, red for negative)

Screen D

• This one only reflects the Energy part, but imagine it as an upgrade to Screen C
  
• Slot information is gone and now each item occupies the number of slots in height making it more natural to manage and to perceive what fits where
  
• Alternate style for icon/color indicator
  
• Quirks are not more descriptive and each type has it's own icon (for instance, on PPCs we have velocity, cooldown, range and heat gen - all positive)

Please excuse for lack of a pixel perfect solution or by not using anti-aliasing for the icons (quicker this way). But I think this would be far better solution, especially for new players.

[Tarogato]

YES! Very good mock up and very good design.

I much prefer option C. I'm not a big fan of option D, it just doesn't look as aesthetically clean to me.

The little icons you made are amazing and they are the perfect example of what I think should be done with that space. They're very easy to read, intuitive, and they look good. The organisation/sorting aspect with the three coloured sections is paramount - it really cleans things up and makes it look much friendlier.

[sabujo]

Tarogato, on 08 May 2015 - 06:57 AM, said:

I much prefer option C. I'm not a big fan of option D, it just doesn't look as aesthetically clean to me.

Thank you!
Option D needs a bit more tuning, however consider that my intent was to remove the slots column (reducing explicit information) and replacing it with a spacial notion regarding the same slots. This, of course, forces the list to be longer.

[Dire Wolfie]

D and C are both good options... PGI should try to implement them right now. I rather prefer D option, as is an approach too to old mechwarrior games (letting you see the amount of space it requires)

Also, I would make a roll-over information on the blue icons for the quirks, so if u put your mouse over there it tells you how this weapon is quirked. As per the color coding in C design you can clearly see that ballistics have a purplish background color. Lasers and missiles have them too, but they lack a bit of contrast and are "difficult" to appreciate.

Anyway, as I said, very good job.

Edit: just noticed why rhe slot system on D isnt a goo option... If u do an ac20/lrm20/gauss half the list has gone to hell

Edited by Dire Wolfie, 08 May 2015 - 07:07 AM.

[MonkeyCheese]

C gets my vote

[PrometheusTNO]

C++

[sabujo]

I also need to add on Why should the filters be removed:

• Some filters only apply to 1 specific item (it's an overkill in UI design)
  
• Natural ordering of weapons (in option C) totally eliminates the need for Weapon Family Filters (once you spot one PPC, the ER PPC is right below it)
  
• Grouping removes the need for Weapon Type filters (the icons), as it assembles everything in one place and the act of show/hide is right next to the group and not outside of the list itself

And to clarify, I did not presented B as an option, but as a step into the more sophisticated proposals. Also as a proof of how messed up the list can be.

[SpiralFace]

C looks fantastic. PGI any chance we can shoot for that layout?

[Dracol]

C or D plz!

[cleghorn6]

I like the quirk indicator as well. Very nice idea. Perhaps a bold icon for a specifically quirked weapon, shaded icon for a general quirk? i.e. a mech with:

Energy cooldown 10%
Med Pulse cooldown 10%

would have a bold icon on the MPL and a darker one on all energy weapons. Thoughts?

[sabujo]

cleghorn6, on 08 May 2015 - 07:40 AM, said:

I like the quirk indicator as well. Very nice idea. Perhaps a bold icon for a specifically quirked weapon, shaded icon for a general quirk? i.e. a mech with:

Energy cooldown 10%
Med Pulse cooldown 10%

would have a bold icon on the MPL and a darker one on all energy weapons. Thoughts?

Yes, that could be an option if it doesn't draw too much attention that makes the basic operations more difficult - we need to try to establish a consistent information hierarchy and that's one item where the current UI fails.

Now, regarding your suggestion, consider the following: teal bright icons for weapon specific quirks, teal dark icons for weapon family quirks. That could work.

[Domenoth]

Looks like I'm the only one, but I'm not sure I'd want to go as far as C or D. I think I'd prefer B for the following reasons.

I don't always want to see weapons by group. Sometimes I want to sort by something like crits or tons (that's assuming we can sort by the column headers like Name, Slots, Ton(s), etc.).

Also, if the rest of the UI uses toggles, it makes sense to me to stick with toggles here. Why make this one list section different from the entire rest of the UI. Consistency is what I'm getting at I guess.

[DoctorDetroit]

Option C!

[Kalam Mehkar]

Yes.

I really like D with the spatial intuitiveness displaying how much room items will take - useful for beginning mechwarriors. Though C would be 100% adequate as well.

I do like the idea floated above regarding a mouse-over on the quirk icons displaying the quirks affecting that item.

Well done on the UI mock-up mate.

Edited by Kalam Mehkar, 08 May 2015 - 08:19 AM.

[vetal l]

Guys, notice one thing - both C or D variants have one important thing - SORTING!

Can you describe - which criteria used for this sorting? This is intuitive sorting - but, imagine if it would be sorting by name? will it still be useful?

Other side of medal - we can (potentially) sort by any column (notice small triangle on the first unnamed column).

[R D Stunna]

C looks great to me!

[Dyhalto]

If we coould get something close to C it would be amazing.

[Septi]

I prefer option C.

[unwary]

Option C ftw.

The colors help guide your eyes.

[Tahribator]

C master race.