mkmin
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Posted - 2011.01.01 20:11:00 -
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Didn't see sticky threads for these, so created my own.
Neocom:
1) having the most used feature (undock) on the bottom right instead of the bottom left is counter-intuitive. I'm pretty sure every good UI I can think of has the most important tools on the left. A vertical option would fix this.
2) too many things are blinking and highlighted. There are too many conditions that try to draw attention, making all conditions frustrating and annoying. Often a neocom item might be highlighted for no discernible reason.
3) Having neocom buttons for open windows, windows you might someday open, and minimized windows is unfocused. It's impossible to discern what is what. Probably a bug, I had on my neocom the contracts button, highlighted, (no open contracts window), and when I single-clicked it it picked it up to drag and move instead of doing something useful. Other highlights/flashes did not go away when the conditions were no longer met (specifically journal was highlighted for an expired contract even after opening the journal using the neocom and deleting the contract.)
4) There are too many possibilities of what kinds of windows there are in EVE to adequately communicate what they are by icon alone. This has made the current version of icon-based ctrl-tab frustrating and nearly useless (as opposed to the wonderful old efficient useful awesome text-based) and bringing that confusion to the new neocom is bad UI design. For example, if you're browsing loadouts, the icons for the loadout window, browse loadouts window, and any actual opened fittings all show the same icons. I often have 5-6 different 'show info' icon windows open at a time including 'selected item' and 'overview' that I can ctrl-tab between, and adding that level of reduced usefulness is a bad thing. Adding divider bars on the neocom would go a long way to fixing this. It seems to me you're trying to migrate your UI to mimic operating systems that the general populace has been resisting migrating to themselves.
Contracts: Not as much to say since it didn't work. From the new public contracts search, there is a drop down for 'contract type' and then a text based search field for 'type.' The language is confusing to begin with, but I would assume it's a generic search. Also opening the 'more options' section of the search, even if the fields are left blank, returns very very few results.
Chat Portraits: I understand you're trying to get the players to connect more with their avatars, but when that's in the form of a 1/4 inch blurry little box in chat windows, please don't try to force us. Specifically, on TQ players have the option to load or not load chat portraits. Not loading provides better client performance and is the smart setting. The current TQ method of clicking a portrait to load it reflects the real life analog of not memorizing faces of strangers. Summary, I hate the auto-load-everybody-in-jita's-portraits and that the fact that it's an awful idea probably won't convince you not to.
Shortcuts: I like the idea of having new shortcuts. I don't like the idea of the new shortcuts overwriting my current shortcuts. Having to go through the new shortcuts, figuring out what my current shortcuts have been overwritten with, reassigning those to something that's not already used, and going back and replacing my previous awesome shortcuts is... well... bad implementation.
UI notes in general: There have been approximately 2 good UI changes over the past 3 years since I started playing, others being nice but useless, or just plain bad. Please think very very carefully about how your users use your product and design your UI in a way that makes it easier, not just flashier or for your own egos. Nothing destroys the credibility of someone in the creative fields than creating for your ego instead of for your customers.
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