67 replies to this topic

[Alistair Winter]

Fantastic job, I really hope PGI blatantly copies your idea. I prefer a combination of C and D. Basically option C with the quirk icons from D.

[Sereglach]

Huge YES! for the C version!

[Dean]

I like C and D reminds me of MechWarrior 4 Mercenaries mech lab

[Hawk819]

I like option D. Weapons are easy to read and find. Just add the Icons to it, and we got a winner

[Hawk819]

I'd like to see how Option C and D would look with the current in game icons, please.

[sabujo]

Hawk819, on 09 May 2015 - 06:29 AM, said:

I'd like to see how Option C and D would look with the current in game icons, please.

Currently, weapons do not have icons. They have those technical representations that due to hight detail and similarity between them are indistinguishable and unproductive if reduced that much. Modules, on the other hand, have already nice scale-friendly icons. Weapons do not.

[Varvar86]

Like C - but colors need to be less bright.
D is also cool. Great job, man!

[Mezzerine]

One more vote for option C!

PGI, make this happen plz! (pretty plz? )

[Hawk819]

This is what I meant:



By adding these icons to Option C, we can easily find the weapons and add them to the `Mech in question, plus, it'd be a way cooler effect, too. Also, it harkens back to the Beta test as well. Just add weapon names alongside the icons in Option C and color code, and we got a winner!

[Ragtag soldier]

i like C, but i don't know if anything like that will work with their UI code (which is kinda shoddy as usual). so if not, i'd suggest sticking to it and just adding weapon type tabs.

[d3dReaper]

Another vote for "C".

[Sjorpha]

PGI, this needs to happen.

[fyurian]

C

[Patzer]

You all are voting on appearances while I am still wondering why! The current lab is easy to use, why fix something that's not broken why not work on more mechs and maps...make changes where they are needed don't fix something that's not broken.

[Ragtag soldier]

Patzer, on 10 May 2015 - 02:05 PM, said:

You all are voting on appearances while I am still wondering why! The current lab is easy to use, why fix something that's not broken why not work on more mechs and maps...make changes where they are needed don't fix something that's not broken.

because a lot of these would make the process of rebuilding a 'mech faster and easier. kind of like how we can select out 'mech now, but everyone wants the tiled images back because they're faster and more intuitive while also requiring less clicky just to pick a 'mech/

[pyrocomp]

Patzer, on 10 May 2015 - 02:05 PM, said:

You all are voting on appearances while I am still wondering why! The current lab is easy to use, why fix something that's not broken why not work on more mechs and maps...make changes where they are needed don't fix something that's not broken.

You know, I bet that for devs it was much easier if we'd configured mechs via SQL-like requests, but still we have some GUI. I can handle this and that, but I alllow others to have some difficulties finding or doing things. On the other hand, small things like discussed appearance of some list is just what forms the overall impression of this game. So why not? If the devs want to know our opinion on appearance of mechlab, so be it. It's their time, their resources, their development strategy and their responsibility and risks.

[sabujo]

pyrocomp, on 10 May 2015 - 03:32 PM, said:

You know, I bet that for devs it was much easier if we'd configured mechs via SQL-like requests,

Loved that one!

[Patzer]

I was only saying it works now and for this old man what's better? It works really good now they have made great game i justthink resources could be used better like get me a warhamer Or marauder and I will spend money.

Just a old man speaking out

[Troutmonkey]

C++

This design is great, and a massive improvement. It just goes to show that PGI should really stop letting programmers design UI and actually hire some competent UI designers instead.

I'd like to think PGI has had a change of heart since UI2.0 and it's "we'll take that feedback under advisement" approach that resulted in every fix being ignored, but I'm pessimistic that they'll actually change anything before release.

[Troutmonkey]

Patzer, on 10 May 2015 - 04:24 PM, said:

I was only saying it works now and for this old man what's better? It works really good now they have made great game i justthink resources could be used better like get me a warhamer Or marauder and I will spend money.

Just a old man speaking out

It looks terrible, is clunky, and fails several UI design heuristics.
The mechlab UI is the part of you game you'll spend almost 50% of your time with, so it is definitely worth investing more time and effort into to make it as fast and simple to use as possible, while also putting effort in to make it look good.

As someone who has studied UI design and spends a lot of time with software, a bad UI can be the difference between someone using your software or just giving up and using something else. It doesn't matter how powerful or how many features it has, if it's ugly and hard to use people will go elsewhere. Why do you think Apple is doing so well in the mainstream while the superior Linux barely gets use?

I quit my previous job due in part to an "upgrade" to our software that made it nigh unusable, and I also quit MWO for several months after UI2.0 released.
How bad do you think it will be for the casual Steam player who tries out the game? If first impressions aren't good the UI will likely drive away thousands of new players.