The latest screenshot of the interface makes a lot of sense from the perspective that it must adapt to work on no less than four or five wholly different platforms, including touch interfaces. The overhaul UI clearly implements such principles as proportion, balance, concord and contrast. These design elements may not be immediately clear to an untrained eye, but there is indeed a method to the madness. Overall, the direction they are going in seems sound, and with continued refinement and tweaking they will no doubt achieve UI nirvanna.
@space_hamster this close to release, i think they're just trying to get it done in a hurry, rather then getting it right. Like i said, my biggest complaints are that the text box isn't across the full width of the screen (what it could use at least) and the colors are distracting on something that should be invisible.
@Bjjorick I'm sure the team would be more inclined to push the release date and expand the features of the shipped version if you offered to pay their salaries...
They have been saying for a while that they'll keep adding features post-ship, so the fact that they're sticking to the release date shouldn't be too surprising. As a small company you don't have the same luxuries of time and money as the big developers... That doesn't mean that they can't take the time to "get it right", just that they may have to leave some parts until after the game is officially released.
@Bjjorick The text box not being more wide is something that is a fair complaint (though I've been beta-testing for 2 months now and only noticed that "problem" when people mentioned it in this topic).
The color scheme though, I think that's really debatable. While playing you're focused on the battle area, the only way the new GUI would be distracting would be if it had animations playing. Something static won't really be distracting.
TBH, I don't see why the width of the text box is an issue at all. Combat feedback will still fit on a single line, and as for dialog I'd much prefer it to be broken into comfortably narrow (~12cm/5in) blocks. Reading lengthy paragraphs spread out on a >24" monitor with only a single line break was perhaps my biggest gripe with the community made widescreen mod...
@Bjjorick The text box not being more wide is something that is a fair complaint (though I've been beta-testing for 2 months now and only noticed that "problem" when people mentioned it in this topic).
The color scheme though, I think that's really debatable. While playing you're focused on the battle area, the only way the new GUI would be distracting would be if it had animations playing. Something static won't really be distracting.
In desktop publishing and design, keeping text boxes to a fixed width makes the information more readable (there are many ratios one can use depending on the given space), as opposed to allowing the text box to expand infinitely. Think of a newspaper or magazine column. The goal is about what increases readability for the user, not necessarily choosing a method to display the most information at one time.
The dialog box perhaps doesn't need to be the complete length of the screen, I can imagine on a widescreen pc in a high resolution that it would make reading text harder rather than easier.
As I understand it the text doesn't wrap at specific points and will just run on given the space to do so. That could be really ugly on certain setups.
I would love to mod a ui for the game. I know how to do all the design work and create it for scalability, but I'm not a coder. For usability, I can think of several ways to improve the ui overall. I think there needs to be a strong contrast on the icons like the new ones so those silhouettes on the icons really stand out, also I'd lose that border on the icons edge so we can identify the shape more. Whether they need to be 50px or 200px everything just blends together if the values and shapes are too similar. It's different if you've played the game 40 times and have it memorized where everything is, but the less you have to think the better. There also needs to have those little breaks in between the icons and around the buttons to give your eye a place to rest and quickly identify that section so you don't have to be so precise on clicking the tabs, and it's not so immersive breaking trying to narrow in on one tab.
I also think it makes sense to keep all the stuff you click on all the time for combat on one side such as the portraits and the pauser and selector, and keep all the non combat stuff on the other side. I really would like to change the bottom so that the party's portraits are smaller & closer to the bottom so you can quickly tab on the party's portrait and immediately their combat bar shows up instead of having to keep scrolling and clicking all over the place like a blindfolded kid trying to whack a pinata. You could still keep the right portraits, but it's just another method of selecting and not be so immersive breaking trying to navigate through 4-8 buttons at a time. I'd also add tool tips to pop up what the spell is immediately. One of my biggest pet peeves with the game is it's not very intuitive. You have to really spend a lot of time with it to familiarize yourself with the names, spells, etc even though you may only use a particular spell 4 times the whole game. Some of the bottom buttons are so seldom used anyway if at all, they could be moved or scaled down too.
I know standard conventions state to read text on the bottom, but I wonder if they could have introduced floating damage over the heads of the npcs and color coded the #'s for status changers like poison or critical hits, etc. Making the text easier to read on small screens is easy, don't use a serif font below about a 9-11 point size. Use a sans serif font for smaller screens, and a serif font about 11-14 points on bigger screens. I can give suggestions of which ones to use. That's part of the reason I was suggesting floating text damage or text boxes over the head. That eliminates the need for the box in the bottom and you can fade the text out after a second or two as it pops up and you're not having to lose your momentum so much. I'll work on some mock ups for what I envision and share them in a few days. I just started a new job that's 12-14 hrs a day, but I don't think it would take me long to make the visual changes I suggest. Hopefully the game is mod friendly. I've never done a mod for a game like this, but it would be fun.
I think the GUI looks fine, sure the gold is a bit bright but hey, I don`t think i`ve ever played a game that had a GUI i found pleasing. I usually download UI mods when i find some dark grey/black ones anyway. The important bit is that it does the job without getting in the way, BG had a good UI for it`s time, it`s a bit clunky with switching weapons and the like but it`s not like PS:t or NWN`s horrible attempts at a GUI. Which were both fantastic when compared to Skyrim..
Something just occurred to me, which should have been obvious from the start - the screenshot they showed us is one of an approved batch. This probably means it's been sent to all powers that be, looked at, debated over, put aside, debated again... The point is, we don't know how long the 'approval procedure' took, so the screenshot can just as well be weeks old, and all the issues we're flipping out about had already been taken care of. With this in mind, I'm going to withdraw all my further comments about GUI for nine more days at least.
@Tr_ond I don't think NWN's GUI was that bad. Sure, the radial menu is clunky when dealing with a long list of spells, but the quick slot system was great.
Something just occurred to me, which should have been obvious from the start - the screenshot they showed us is one of an approved batch. This probably means it's been sent to all powers that be, looked at, debated over, put aside, debated again... The point is, we don't know how long the 'approval procedure' took, so the screenshot can just as well be weeks old, and all the issues we're flipping out about had already been taken care of. With this in mind, I'm going to withdraw all my further comments about GUI for nine more days at least.
Also if you look very carefully there is a large gap between one of the quick spell icons and the other two, which would suggest to me its a really old screenshot, there is no way that gap will be there in the final version
I have to admit that the more I go back and look at the released screenshot and compare with with other examples of how it might look (which are great too), I'm actually preferring the new look. It's a "richer" look.
The dialog box width doesn't bother me, as I would actually rather not read text in lines the full width of the screen.
I've been illustrating a 1950's living room all day; complete with retro repeat patterned wallpaper, wood panelled walls, Ray Eames plastic chair ... so tempted to do a mid-century inspired GUI now, hah!
Ok the ones designed by @Kerozevok and @Daylight were really AWESOME, to say the least. Great colors, good fixes to the portraits edge, more spell buttons, etc... But I think that now the stuff has a more clear idea of what we would like, and will hopefully improve it.
@ king_of_worms Ugh, no. No offense, but I hope this doesn't happen. I hate that Win7 transparency gimmick - it's the first thing I turn off on any computer I work on; it looks messy and distracting to me. (Dang it, I only just said no more commenting on GUI till 18.09... My self-control is horrible. )
The color scheme though, I think that's really debatable. While playing you're focused on the battle area, the only way the new GUI would be distracting would be if it had animations playing. Something static won't really be distracting.
I heartily disagree. Human vision has evolved to take special notice of sharp contrasts; it's hard-wired into your brain, no way around it. It's true that as time goes on your brain will pay less and less attention to a static contrast; however, the images in the blue portions of the OP GUI screenshot will not be static. There will be loading screens, animations in the character portraits as they take damage and receive buffs, skill selection on the toolbar, item usage in the belt slots, etc. All of these will draw your eye to the sharp contrast in the OP GUI screenshot. The contrast that exists b/w the soft natural tones found in the "world" portion of the OP GUI screenshot and the bright, screaming blue of the "tool" portion of the screenshot means that the two are inherently unable to meld into one unobtrusive image. I have to question the reasoning behind intentionally incorporating such a disruptive color scheme into the UI, I understand the argument that this is a work-in-progress and I certainly hope that this is something that is customizable.
@Tr_ond I don't think NWN's GUI was that bad. Sure, the radial menu is clunky when dealing with a long list of spells, but the quick slot system was great.
It was horrible, the quick slots makes it slightly less awful but it still really gets on my tits. It`s one of my least favourite GUI`s of all time.
Comments
this close to release, i think they're just trying to get it done in a hurry, rather then getting it right. Like i said, my biggest complaints are that the text box isn't across the full width of the screen (what it could use at least) and the colors are distracting on something that should be invisible.
I'm sure the team would be more inclined to push the release date and expand the features of the shipped version if you offered to pay their salaries...
They have been saying for a while that they'll keep adding features post-ship, so the fact that they're sticking to the release date shouldn't be too surprising. As a small company you don't have the same luxuries of time and money as the big developers... That doesn't mean that they can't take the time to "get it right", just that they may have to leave some parts until after the game is officially released.
The text box not being more wide is something that is a fair complaint (though I've been beta-testing for 2 months now and only noticed that "problem" when people mentioned it in this topic).
The color scheme though, I think that's really debatable. While playing you're focused on the battle area, the only way the new GUI would be distracting would be if it had animations playing. Something static won't really be distracting.
As I understand it the text doesn't wrap at specific points and will just run on given the space to do so. That could be really ugly on certain setups.
I also think it makes sense to keep all the stuff you click on all the time for combat on one side such as the portraits and the pauser and selector, and keep all the non combat stuff on the other side. I really would like to change the bottom so that the party's portraits are smaller & closer to the bottom so you can quickly tab on the party's portrait and immediately their combat bar shows up instead of having to keep scrolling and clicking all over the place like a blindfolded kid trying to whack a pinata. You could still keep the right portraits, but it's just another method of selecting and not be so immersive breaking trying to navigate through 4-8 buttons at a time. I'd also add tool tips to pop up what the spell is immediately. One of my biggest pet peeves with the game is it's not very intuitive. You have to really spend a lot of time with it to familiarize yourself with the names, spells, etc even though you may only use a particular spell 4 times the whole game. Some of the bottom buttons are so seldom used anyway if at all, they could be moved or scaled down too.
I know standard conventions state to read text on the bottom, but I wonder if they could have introduced floating damage over the heads of the npcs and color coded the #'s for status changers like poison or critical hits, etc. Making the text easier to read on small screens is easy, don't use a serif font below about a 9-11 point size. Use a sans serif font for smaller screens, and a serif font about 11-14 points on bigger screens. I can give suggestions of which ones to use. That's part of the reason I was suggesting floating text damage or text boxes over the head. That eliminates the need for the box in the bottom and you can fade the text out after a second or two as it pops up and you're not having to lose your momentum so much. I'll work on some mock ups for what I envision and share them in a few days. I just started a new job that's 12-14 hrs a day, but I don't think it would take me long to make the visual changes I suggest. Hopefully the game is mod friendly. I've never done a mod for a game like this, but it would be fun.
The important bit is that it does the job without getting in the way, BG had a good UI for it`s time, it`s a bit clunky with switching weapons and the like but it`s not like PS:t or NWN`s horrible attempts at a GUI. Which were both fantastic when compared to Skyrim..
I don't think NWN's GUI was that bad. Sure, the radial menu is clunky when dealing with a long list of spells, but the quick slot system was great.
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http://nsa29.casimages.com/img/2012/09/09/120909064102715890.jpg
The dialog box width doesn't bother me, as I would actually rather not read text in lines the full width of the screen.
I'm on board. I like the new GUI.
Great colors, good fixes to the portraits edge, more spell buttons, etc...
But I think that now the stuff has a more clear idea of what we would like, and will hopefully improve it.
Ugh, no.
No offense, but I hope this doesn't happen. I hate that Win7 transparency gimmick - it's the first thing I turn off on any computer I work on; it looks messy and distracting to me.
(Dang it, I only just said no more commenting on GUI till 18.09... My self-control is horrible.
It`s one of my least favourite GUI`s of all time.
Am I the only one who actually likes the new (official) UI?