i´ll just thrown in my 2 cents, maybe a bit late, but i´m new and it took a while to read everything
this is my suggestion of an UI that uses a taskbar just like windows. the player will feel at home and is free to arrange the windows as he likes (forget about the X, there is only min/max functions). Both the fleet window and the siterep are located in the taskbar. They automaticly filter the displayed info depending on the system selected, or will show everything if no specific selection is made.
i also played around with icons and other stuff, but nothing is finished.
Comments:
For 0.2, Taskbar is not needed, as we don't have statistic, research, shipyard etc. I think for now, It's better to have button for sitrep in top-bar and icon in side bar to open fleetwindow for those fleets in system. The little research we have is done by the dropdownlist in topbar. Idea itself is good and this kind of system will be needed later.
I like the line-box combination to show selected planet, but rather with circle than a box. Animation here drawing the line would be in place. The planetview itself should always be located at same spot in screen and not to move according to selected planet.
The arrows in systemname box look good now. Sitrep design is good and basic, needs ui for assigning filters and opening view for selected system.
Icons do look clearer in sidebar, though bit apart from our theme.
Difference between a man and a gentleman is that a man does what he wants, a gentleman does what he should. - Albert Camus
If the planet info screen doesn't move next to the selected planet, then maybe there should be a handle (a circle?) in the middle right. A line extends from the circle to the planet, capped with a small white circle. The end point would move with the planet if the sidebar is scrolled.
Just a quick comment about using colors to differentiate things:
I actually work (at the moment anyway) with a disability advocacy group, so we're not allowed to use only colors to differentiate things on web sites; however, a web site is very different from a game UI.
Ideally, we would have an option for 'additioanl data' somewhere so people who can discern colors easily can do so, and people who cannot can add a little bit of extra text.
however I'm a bit out of my league here, so I'll let you guys sort this out.
Surprise and Terror! I am greeted by the smooth and hostile face of our old enemy, the Hootmans! No... the Huge-glands, no, I remember, the Hunams!
i don't like the white bg in icons for food, industry, mining and research and they seem to be too small, but i do like the border around.
I like the line-box combination to show selected planet, but rather with circle than a box. Animation here drawing the line would be in place. The planetview itself should always be located at same spot in screen and not to move according to selected planet.
maybe we should use only a partial circle-like shape and it should focus the entire planet(so we need different sizes here too)
The first button would toggle star lanes on/off
the second button would toggle fleet info that is shown on the screen graphically on/off
the third button would toggle the planet ownership shown graphically on/off
and the last button would toggle the planet value ie, population, resource, and tech advancement if we show it graphically
Just tossing it out there for public ridicule.
I have to say I'm not fond of the taskbar idea. I don't find that UI design intuitive, though it is familiar. With games we have the option to make new and highly specific UI designs. The windows taskbar is designed to handle a generality of applications, while we have a specific design. Most games it's just fine to have buttons. I don't like dealing with windows, minimising, etc.
Well I have to admit it probably would distract from the immersion affect of the game but I really like the idea of being able to toggle certain graphical information on and off. If the button idea is to stark well a drop down menu some where else would be fine.
UI engineering is difficult enough as it is - I'm not sure that immersion should really be that much of a factor.
And FWIW, the idea of a set of overall controls on the bottom is something that I think people are used to, so long as it needs to be there. It's difficult to weigh things like this in isolation though.
Surprise and Terror! I am greeted by the smooth and hostile face of our old enemy, the Hootmans! No... the Huge-glands, no, I remember, the Hunams!
My main problem with a taskbar is that it's not consistent. One window may be the first in the list one time, and then the third the next. When I used Mac OSX I very much enjoyed the panel down the bottom. If you clicked, for example, on the Safari web browser it would bring to the front the already open window. The button was always located in the same place.
Having buttons in consistent locations would be sufficient imo. We don't need a tasklist with access to "maximise" and "close" buttons (EDIT: I mean maximise and close while it's on the tasklist - I'm not talking about the windows once they are open). If they are buttons themselves we just need the text, and they'll perform their function no hassles. Maybe even something simple like some games where space bar returns you instantly to the starmap, and f1->x take you to the various screens.
The advantage of the panel being on the right side is it's consistent - you know where it's always going to be. This should extend to the buttons too, or however we plan to access various features.
I agree with Tyreth. Also, the limit on your UI options should not be limited by your screen space. We could just as esily toggle view options by accelerator key combinations Ctrl-X, etc., or using an options menu with checkboxes, or both.
Well I have to admit it probably would distract from the immersion affect of the game but I really like the idea of being able to toggle certain graphical information on and off. If the button idea is to stark well a drop down menu some where else would be fine.
those buttons are simply way to big, and those ugly white borders... :)
we should use some small checkboxes with tiny text for displaying additional map information or turning 'eye-candy' stuff off
Well I have to admit it probably would distract from the immersion affect of the game but I really like the idea of being able to toggle certain graphical information on and off. If the button idea is to stark well a drop down menu some where else would be fine.
those buttons are simply way to big, and those ugly white borders...
we should use some small checkboxes with tiny text for displaying additional map information or turning 'eye-candy' stuff off
There not too big imo. They look good. Though I do think that the width of the buttons could be reduced, because there is a bit of empty space on the inside of the buttons (the left and right sides).
the windows don´t have close buttons, only min/max (i didn´t finish the pic, that´s why the X-buttons are still there). so the taskbar´s functionality is that of an standard option menu, but i wanted to make the design of the menu fit the window design, so i did it taskbar-style. if a player maximizes a window, it will leave the taskbar (some animation) and leave an empty grey space behind (between the minimized shipyard & statistcs windows there would be siterep, but it is currently maximized). If it´s minimized, it returns to the same place in the taskbar. it´s really just a matter of streamlining the look of the UI, i though this could make it more intuitive.
