Game Page Layout - new proposal! [First Post]

[JoshyBoy]

Can we see all medals in the forum please?

[Duality.]

RjBeals' version is hawt.

[yeti_c]

Sorry for Double post but...

Thanks for the feedback, I read every post (and I especially appreciate the mockup, Ffraid).

I'll prepare a few mockups of my own based on your feedback and put them to a vote in the coming days...

Now that Javascript is forced on... just implement the "hide menu" code that I wrote for BOB...

That will give you a massive amount of real estate...

Personally I prefer to have the "hide menu" on as the "Game" setting - which means it only happens in the games... and not in the forums.

Which I think is the best mix - but it would be ace if you can code it as selectable.

C.

Anyone?

Simple and effective?

C.

[Ace Rimmer]

wow Yeti, I never realized what the Hide Menu did before That's a great option.

I prefer having the CC menus along the top with drop down for submenu items. Meaning, add Game/Interaction/Personal beside Help in the same style as Home/Instructions/etc. Mouseover or click brings down the submenu. That would be an easy place to add menu entries for add-ons such as BOB or Map Rank GL.

Jake

[porkenbeans]

I think it would be nice to have the attack buttons to the right of the map instead of the names. This way you would not have to scroll so much, while taking your turn.

RJ's version is nice, but I would move the menu down, and put the attack buttons up there.

[registered_user]

RJBeals is on the right track.

I've complained in the past about how any given screen in the forum is two lines of actual content, the same thing applies here. When you're filling in a web form -- or taking a turn in a game, all the stuff that's around the interface that you don't need/want is clutter. Think about the view: game play. What do you need, as a player, to play the game?

The nav on the left doesn't need to be there. It barely needs to be there as it is, but definitely shouldn't be so prominent in the game play view. The map and the attack interface (dice), obviously, are the most important parts. Then players (and their stats) and your spoils, then chat, and last is the log. Think about what you look at. Do you look for comments or in the log more often? Do you look at your spoils or at the other players'? Evaluate and assign a rank to each element.

Once you've rated each element's value, the rest falls right in line. The timer is awfully prominent and offers very little value outside of a speed game on a large map. Same with game number and round number. Yes, it's nice to know, but it's not the end of the world if I have to scroll to find it while in the game play view.

Add color codes could go into user preferences. I don't imagine people toggle that off and on a whole lot -- either you use it or you don't.

Larger map is nice, but that and refresh could be consolidated to small icons near the map.

Feedback rating doesn't need to be there. A user's profile is a click away, and if I'm in a game with a jerk, I don't need a low number staring back at me to remind me of that.

Game stats like Fog / Assassin / Initial Troops / blah can go where the game number and other game meta data goes. It's important for the record keepers and the database and whatever, but it's not important to the game play.

The premium and merchandise ads, while necessary, probably never get clicked mid-turn either. They can move down.

Now, regarding user stats. You don't need to reference them with each roll of the dice. If you do, then you're doing it wrong. Sure, sometimes when you conquer a territory you want to check if you knocked your opponent down from 18 to 17 territories, but for the most part, casual checking suffices.

As far as layout is concerned, if you can't find a satisfactory layout at a smaller size, you might do well to employ something like this: http://www.alistapart.com/articles/switchymclayout/ where you can really think about user experience and provide the view you envision to users with 1920px resolution, and then degrade gracefully to smaller screens.

I have a 1280px wide MacBook at home. It's not a lot of room. I realize that I need to scroll around to see more stuff, but vertical is always better than horizontal scrolling.

I hope this helps inform your layout decisions.

[denominator]

The nav on the left doesn't need to be there. It barely needs to be there as it is, but definitely shouldn't be so prominent in the game play view. The map and the attack interface (dice), obviously, are the most important parts. Then players (and their stats) and your spoils, then chat, and last is the log. Think about what you look at. Do you look for comments or in the log more often? Do you look at your spoils or at the other players'? Evaluate and assign a rank to each element.

The nav on the left could easily be incorporated into the nav at the top, with the menus changing to drop down menus. Game Menu gives you the "My Games", "Join a Game", etc. etc. etc. Even the scripts like BOB and Map Rank could be moved there easily. That will increase your horizontal screen availability.

Add color codes could go into user preferences. I don't imagine people toggle that off and on a whole lot -- either you use it or you don't.

I have to disagree with you here. I switch between the two almost every game. I find the colour codes distracting for games with 4 or less players, but necessary for games with 5 or more. So every time I "jump to my next playable game" and the number of players changes I just hit the colour code button and switch it.

Larger map is nice, but that and refresh could be consolidated to small icons near the map.

I would just put all 3 of those "buttons" (including colour codes) above the map, so they're accessible when you need them but out of the way most of the time.

Feedback rating doesn't need to be there. A user's profile is a click away, and if I'm in a game with a jerk, I don't need a low number staring back at me to remind me of that.

Totally agree with you there. The Feedback rating is also visible on the "My Games" screen, so you can see what any player's rating is there.

Game stats like Fog / Assassin / Initial Troops / blah can go where the game number and other game meta data goes. It's important for the record keepers and the database and whatever, but it's not important to the game play.

Again, above the map. Accessible when needed, out of the way otherwise.

The premium and merchandise ads, while necessary, probably never get clicked mid-turn either. They can move down.

Put them in the top bar with the rest of the options. That bar stays there no matter where you are on the site (like the side bar now), so might as well consolidate.

Now, regarding user stats. You don't need to reference them with each roll of the dice. If you do, then you're doing it wrong. Sure, sometimes when you conquer a territory you want to check if you knocked your opponent down from 18 to 17 territories, but for the most part, casual checking suffices.

I fully agree with you yet again. Let the stats refresh when a player hits refresh map, like the game chat doesn't need to update with every roll.

With the current setup, there is a lot of wasted space and a lot of info in places that is not easily accessible. The key is to make the essential parts easily accessible to everybody, and then add in the extra stuff.

[lackattack]

Thanks again for the feedback!

yeti_c - Hiding the side menu (or shrinking it to an iconified strip) is definitely a worthy idea. Fortunately, the side menu will be history when we do the sitewide redesign.

RjBeals - I didn't forget about your layout. In fact, I reviewed all the screenshots from the old design committee while working on this update. A radical change like yours could be appropriate for when we do the sitewide redesign.

registered_user - Excellent post. I'll keep your tips in mind for this and future UI changes. Good to know about Switchy McLayout!

Bruceswar - Although I wanted to avoid listing players twice, I think this approach is the simplest way to address everyone's concerns. I'm updating my first post with a similar mockup.

[AndyDufresne]

I think something like this could indeed work---but I still look forward to the site redesign in 2010! But so far, so good.


--Andy

[nippersean]

It may have been mentioned but there are a couple of hover things that need to be seen at the same time as the gameplay screen.
Player, team, spoils ters etc. they should be in the same view.

[SlugReborn]

I definitely like that better!

[igozd]

I think this is fine. Especially for BOB users who are used to seeing it there anyways. Speaking of which if you are running BOB the regular stats will not be displayed? Other then that great work CC team and thanks for keeping us in mind when doing these changes.

[sherkaner]

Speaking of which if you are running BOB the regular stats will not be displayed?

I'll change BOB to adjust, so it will need an update again. But it should be a pretty straightforward change this time around.

[SlugReborn]

Speaking of which if you are running BOB the regular stats will not be displayed?

I'll change BOB to adjust, so it will need an update again. But it should be a pretty straightforward change this time around.

Please, not unless the regular stats give the same or less info than BOB. Right now, the stats show all territories, but BOB shows just adjacent. I'm trying to get this changed :-\

[Godsav1]

Much better layout!