"UI is bad" Why?

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TMarc
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by TMarc »

Why not have a "simple" UI for beginners, and a "normal" or "complex" UI for more advanced users?
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adamkooo2
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by adamkooo2 »

TMarc wrote: 18 Jun 2018, 19:40 Why not have a "simple" UI for beginners, and a "normal" or "complex" UI for more advanced users?
Yeah, I wanted to write exactly that :thumbsup:
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Alexey85
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by Alexey85 »

the points below indicate poor quality, cutting corners and sloppiness. bad thing to have when you want new players to check this out and keep returning. not only some people won't deal with bad impression of using such UI, some will also think something like this "the UI is quite important and yet its is awful. the devs probably cut corners somewhere else too. i don't want to invest time in this game only to discover there is something else is lacking, i rather go play a game with a sane approach to quality."

1. the UI style is actually a mix of several different UI styles. i won't bother screenshoting all the inconsistencies, there is a lot. Miss has pointed a few things in this topic. MP has by far the most incoherent UI style of any software i have ever seen.

2. the UI 'substyles' look from OK to simply amateurish. Like colors of bad contrast in some place, large font with small margins in online status selector, background interfering too much with servers list text inside titles.

3. bugs which break expectations of controls which are familiar from many other applications. these bugs may be small but they give impression of sloppiness because they don't look as ones which are hard to fix.
examples:
  • there are things which are styled as dismissable popups. you expect them to close if to click outside them as every other software does but not in MP. they even overlap with each other like Miss has showed.
  • certain dropdowns don't close when to select something in them or click outside them.
  • open servers list overlay, type text in the filter, press enter, the text field looses focus.
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Demented
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by Demented »

I kind of don't like to reiterate something that Nadeo is already clearly very well aware of, and I don't very often have negative things to say because I love the game and understand how thing can get goofed up at times, but this is a main reason I've gone back to strictly using the old Trackmania² Title. I like the interface in it and the way it handles things like Validating tracks, Saving replays, Loading Tracks, Loading a folder full of replays with one click and just navigating in general. I can't find a single thing that doesn't work for me using TM² Title but I should also add that I have not played online with it so I can't say there are not issues on that side of it.
All that said, I am quite confident that they will get it dialed in as they do with most things in time. I'm sure bringing new aspects of the games together has a lot to do with the current fragmentation. :|
... and I'm sure reporting things in a constructive way, as most posts in this topic, is quite helpful to Nadeo. :thumbsup:
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MatheusKS
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by MatheusKS »

I think the interface could be significantly improved if there was a pattern to be followed (as Miss pointed out), like the design inconsistencies between the game's main menu and the server information modal.

The same goes to ManiaPlanet home screen

But in terms of organization, the screen of ManiaPlanet is still much better compared to that of War Thunder, for example.
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745
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by 745 »

I don't think it's that bad, some of the issues come out of superfluous features:

* The game shouldn't prompt the user about downloading custom content before loading maps locally. They should be downloaded automatically in second plan. If the user don't want them to be downloaded: turn off in options. If the user changes idea: turn on/off on ESC menu.

* The Stations system shouldn't exist. Just put a horizontal bar across the initial screen, above are the titles I own, below are the title I don't. Just drag them up to install.

* Map editor should prompt less options on creating new maps. A default setting is proposed in one single screen and the users can change the options if they want.

* Serverlist should show all the servers I can play, with an option to show all of them and instant filters(currently takes one or two seconds on each filter).

* Auto updates in second plan instead of prompting players when they want to play.

Actually, I think the servers interface are a much bigger concern, most servers are using UASECO, which covers almost half of screen with rankings and useless information. It's like turning off Adblock on random websites.
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Miss
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by Miss »

745 wrote: 21 Jun 2018, 19:26 I don't think it's that bad, some of the issues come out of superfluous features:

* The game shouldn't prompt the user about downloading custom content before loading maps locally. They should be downloaded automatically in second plan. If the user don't want them to be downloaded: turn off in options. If the user changes idea: turn on/off on ESC menu.

* The Stations system shouldn't exist. Just put a horizontal bar across the initial screen, above are the titles I own, below are the title I don't. Just drag them up to install.

* Map editor should prompt less options on creating new maps. A default setting is proposed in one single screen and the users can change the options if they want.

* Serverlist should show all the servers I can play, with an option to show all of them and instant filters(currently takes one or two seconds on each filter).

* Auto updates in second plan instead of prompting players when they want to play.

Actually, I think the servers interface are a much bigger concern, most servers are using UASECO, which covers almost half of screen with rankings and useless information. It's like turning off Adblock on random websites.
Aside from the first and last point (I don't really know what "second plan" means) I disagree with all of this. This is just making it even more complex than it needs to be.

"Drag titles"? What? Why not just something like Steam? Show uninstalled/installed, add a button to install or play. Easy. Perhaps even like in Uplay:

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The serverlist is not really a big problem now, especially since there's not that many players in Canyon/Valley/Lagoon. In Stadium however, "instant" filter options would be nice.
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745
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by 745 »

(I don't really know what "second plan" means)
"on background", "out of primary focus", etc
"Drag titles"? What? Why not just something like Steam? Show uninstalled/installed, add a button to install or play. Easy. Perhaps even like in Uplay:
That's the same, just said it so because it'd fit the actual interface style. You either have or have not the title installed and that's all. You get rid of the process of buying and managing stations and get to the "store" by just scrolling down. From the 3 things around one feature, down to just one.
The serverlist is not really a big problem now, especially since there's not that many players in Canyon/Valley/Lagoon.
The issue is this: I connect now and want to have some fun, it can be Pursuit, Stunts, Platform, whatever, as long there's some people to play with. I've to go through every title, unfortunately.
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Miss
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by Miss »

Ah okay, I think language barriers have confused me here :D

A serverlist for all titles would be cool, indeed.
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hackie
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Re: "UI is bad" Why?

Post by hackie »

745 wrote: 21 Jun 2018, 19:26 I don't think it's that bad, some of the issues come out of superfluous features:

* The game shouldn't prompt the user about downloading custom content before loading maps locally. They should be downloaded automatically in second plan. If the user don't want them to be downloaded: turn off in options. If the user changes idea: turn on/off on ESC menu.

* The Stations system shouldn't exist. Just put a horizontal bar across the initial screen, above are the titles I own, below are the title I don't. Just drag them up to install.

* Map editor should prompt less options on creating new maps. A default setting is proposed in one single screen and the users can change the options if they want.

* Serverlist should show all the servers I can play, with an option to show all of them and instant filters(currently takes one or two seconds on each filter).

* Auto updates in second plan instead of prompting players when they want to play.

Actually, I think the servers interface are a much bigger concern, most servers are using UASECO, which covers almost half of screen with rankings and useless information. It's like turning off Adblock on random websites.
About uaseco , first its a bit oftopic cause it has nothing to do with th UI of the game. Second , you can change the whole hud to youre needs if you want to.
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