You may be giving them too much credit, lol.
A thought about WHY the new UI..
- Thread starter Old Duck
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- odyessy ui / ux user interface
Or maybe people don't want to get used to workflows now requiring significantly more user actions (2x-3x and even more in some cases).
Much of the redesign violates basic UI/UX principles that have been around for decades and should have never passed any kind of initial design review. The outfitting UI for example - would earn you a failing grade in any type of UI/UX design course.
Much of the UI actually is "wrong" if you judge it based on basic industry-wide UI design standards.
FD have redesigned things that didn't need redesigning on several occasions. And ignored fixing things that need fixing since E: D was first released...
I hope they aren't taking any pointers from SC, but if they are, that could certainly explain the recent debacle.
Nah. Its easier to fiddle with the UI than it is to understand the game and its mechanics.
Not picking on you, but I find this point of the new UI being "more clicks" pathetic. So it's two or three more clicks, so what? If that's honestly what you think is wrong with the UI, you obviously have nothing else to complain about. It's like having a route to the shops you take everyday, and suddenly the council block off the road you've always taken, and you have to find a slightly longer route. It's not as simple as the route you used to use, but your only complaint is that it's not the route you are used to using. There's bigger problems with Elite Dangerous and Odyssey than "I had to click 2 or 3 extra clicks to do something". You're not speed running the game FCOL.
Again Lone Star, I am not picking on you specifically, I just went into a bit of a rant. No offence is intended towards anyone.
Touch or not, there is the old design motto "form follows function". UIs are not there for their own sake, but rather to support a certain workflow in order to achieve a certain goal. In my feedback to the UI I actually detailed the workflow I follow when I am exploring and how that has changed in Odyssey.People have rightly pointed out that the new UI feels like it is made for a touch screen / tablet. What if they are right? I'm not talking about playing ED on an iPad, but rather the idea of future-proofing the UI to work on VIRTUAL touch screens. For example, if we someday get ship interiors, maybe there will be a station on the bridge that has a screen dedicated to the system and galaxy maps that we access like the screens in the concourse, as virtual CMDRs touching a screen rather than a person playing a video game on their PC (the current full-screen implementation of maps). Same goes with other virtual screens for things like outfitting. This would IMO explain why the UI has been drastically changed to use big "touch buttons" instead the traditional UI we had previously.
Now please don't get me wrong, this is not a defense of the new UI. I hate it as much as anyone. But it might explain why Frontier completely redesigned something that was perfectly fine to begin with, because they want to take a more Star-Citizen approach to everything being interacted with as our character rather than these "out-of-game" full screens we currently have.
Anywho, just a thought!
For those saying the number of clicks have not changed or they don't mind a few more clicks I only can assume that their gameplay does not focus around exploring. When you scan thousands of system and constantly plot and re-plot a route, that's when the change to the worse becomes really noticeable. The simple fact is that in Horizons much of the needed information can be accessed without click by simply hovering over an object with the details updating automatically when changing the object. In Odyssey I have to click every single time for that. Touch might improve upon that in real life somewhat since it is easy for us to move a hand across a screen, but virtual touch requires mouse travel across the screen back and forth right now, which is much harder. With a HOTAS only it becomes a nightmare, in fact that's the main reason why I switch to the mouse for those tasks.
And I wish I had a key binding for Orrery View and an icon for "terraformable". One can always wish.
No offense - but you are ranting about something you really, really don't understand. I've worked in the software industry for 20+ years and UI design principles exist for a reason. When you don't follow them and you don't think it's a big deal to add a few extra clicks this is the result:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/njeirl/how_it_feels_to_equip_8_shield_boosters_using_the/
The UI is arguably the most important part of any software product that has human users.
I understand a lot more than you think I do.
yea, but you still did not equipped a ship with engineered modules from stock, while trying to figure what is what
I'm not sure I buy the "but what if touchscreens" argument, because the functional difference between a touchscreen and using a mouse is that touchscreens make your arms tired faster.
Some of the loss of functionality in the UI is at the design intent level. The ur-example is bookmarks in the galaxy map.
In the old galaxy map, you could select a bookmark and plot a route to it directly no matter what it was. This was, essentially, the whole point of having bookmarks in the first place. Quickly plotting routes to common destinations.
In the new galaxy map, there is no direct option to plot a route to a bookmark. There's no reason touch functionality would necessitate disabling this especially since press and hold is already used for plotting routes on the new galaxy map you just can't do that with a bookmark because reasons. Whoever designed the functional interface didn't think about what uses they were designing for. These are basic mistakes.
And the same thing is all over the lack of information presentation in outfitting. You can see in the module storage if a module is engineered, but not how. There's no reason not to have that information, there's loads of unused screen realestate where it could be shown. And you can't fit from storage if you go through the ship loadout option. It'll tell you you've got stored modules there, but you can't use them from there! There's no reason not to have that. They just didn't put it in because who knows? They didn't think about people actually using the UI to accomplish literally the only task it actually does.
Some of the loss of functionality in the UI is at the design intent level. The ur-example is bookmarks in the galaxy map.
In the old galaxy map, you could select a bookmark and plot a route to it directly no matter what it was. This was, essentially, the whole point of having bookmarks in the first place. Quickly plotting routes to common destinations.
In the new galaxy map, there is no direct option to plot a route to a bookmark. There's no reason touch functionality would necessitate disabling this especially since press and hold is already used for plotting routes on the new galaxy map you just can't do that with a bookmark because reasons. Whoever designed the functional interface didn't think about what uses they were designing for. These are basic mistakes.
And the same thing is all over the lack of information presentation in outfitting. You can see in the module storage if a module is engineered, but not how. There's no reason not to have that information, there's loads of unused screen realestate where it could be shown. And you can't fit from storage if you go through the ship loadout option. It'll tell you you've got stored modules there, but you can't use them from there! There's no reason not to have that. They just didn't put it in because who knows? They didn't think about people actually using the UI to accomplish literally the only task it actually does.
![[DOOK] Droogie](https://forums-cdn.zaonce.net/data/avatars/m/124/124078.jpg?1553527149){kind=avatar}
Obviously, the game is going mobile
Not gonna lie.. I'd like a carrier management app on my phone. An Elite companion app in general would be great with a knowledge base etc.
Even equipping a ship with newly purchased modules lets the new UI stick its stupid oar in because if you're fitting multiple similar components like weapons or boosters already mounted ones are listed at the top of the shop window. Meaning that every module you purchase reorders the shop list for the next one.
Because screw consistency amirite?
You're right ... I wasn't trying to figure out what is what. As I've said, I had no problem adapting to the new UI.
As it happens, I have equipped engineered modules I had in storage.
So again I ask ... if a self-confessed idiot like me can adapt to the new UI ... why can't you? ("you" generalisation, not specific you)
It's not about adapting, but accepting a tool that is way worse at serving its purpose
And not at last, that will lead the user to lose modules (unequipping a module defaults to sell instead of storing)
Comparatively, the Horizons Outfitting UI was way better (faster, more informative and with a much much lesser chance of losing modules)
I mean this is technically "usable"...... but come on - this is objectively worse:
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/nk7y0f/just_how_bad_is_the_new_ux/
Source: https://www.reddit.com/r/EliteDangerous/comments/nk7y0f/just_how_bad_is_the_new_ux/
I could technically mow my lawn with a non-motorized push mower.... but why would I do that if I could use a tractor instead?
Another semi-good analogy.... imagine your kid dumps a pile of legos on the floor. You could leave the bin on the other side of the room and pick up the legos one by one and carry them over there.... but why would you do that when you could put the bin down right next to the pile of legos and pick them all up at once?
Hmm, you mean like in "they used a experimental UI in reality designed for the VR crowd"?People have rightly pointed out that the new UI feels like it is made for a touch screen / tablet. What if they are right? I'm not talking about playing ED on an iPad, but rather the idea of future-proofing the UI to work on VIRTUAL touch screens. For example, if we someday get ship interiors, maybe there will be a station on the bridge that has a screen dedicated to the system and galaxy maps that we access like the screens in the concourse, as virtual CMDRs touching a screen rather than a person playing a video game on their PC (the current full-screen implementation of maps). Same goes with other virtual screens for things like outfitting. This would IMO explain why the UI has been drastically changed to use big "touch buttons" instead the traditional UI we had previously.
Now please don't get me wrong, this is not a defense of the new UI. I hate it as much as anyone. But it might explain why Frontier completely redesigned something that was perfectly fine to begin with, because they want to take a more Star-Citizen approach to everything being interacted with as our character rather than these "out-of-game" full screens we currently have.
Anywho, just a thought!
The idea is interesting and as a holointerface for my VR commander, I think, it could work
alooks a lot like the interface used on console. My guess is its the lazy mans approach, design for one system and make everyone use that system regardless
I know a lot of guys here love to bash console.. (it's seriously like blaming the marginalised in 1940's germany up in here) but lemme tell ya.. however bad you think this is for mouse users.. it's ten times worse with a controller!!!
Source am a filthy controller user