Odyssey - Removing Bookmarks is unnecessarily complicated and bad UI design - easy fix suggestion inside

Slegnor

Slegnor
Removing bookmarks in Odyssey is unnecessarily lengthy, and the changes go against all UI design principles of less clicks the better.

Example: Removing a bookmark:

Horizons:
1) Hover over bookmarked system
2) Click Remove bookmark icon
3) Click confirm button
Result: 2 clicks, no additional windows, details of the system remain on screen so unlikely to remove bookmark on wrong system, very efficient UI design

Odyssey:
1) Click bookmarked system
2) Move to and click bookmark icon on left menu
3) Move to and click manage Bookmarks button
4) Scroll down list of all bookmarks looking for the one you wish to remove (if you can remember the exact name, no details of the system are now visible due to the bookmarks window over the top of the map)
5) Click the desired system
6) move to and click the Remove Bookmark button in ANOTHER new window
7) Click Confirm
8) Right click Bookmarks window to close
Result: 7 clicks, 3 additional windows/sub menus, details of the system hidden by a window more likely to remove bookmark on wrong system, very inefficient UI design compared to Horizons.

The easy fix?

Make the "Add Bookmark" button on the right menu change to "Remove Bookmark" if the targetted system is already bookmarked instead of greying it out and displaying "Already bookmarked".


Now I reported this on the issue tracker and it was promptly invalidated by the QA team as not a gameplay issue and not suitable for the issue tracker.
QAResponse.PNG


I had to re-read that, apparently in FDev-land, the issue tracker is not for raising issues affecting gameplay like bad UI design which affects gameplay, you heard it here first folks.
Oh and the URL they supplied to raise on the forums is either invalid, permission locked or deleted, maybe I should raise another issue on the issue tracker.......
 

GrandAdmiralThrawn

GrandAdmiralThrawn
I've heard about this issue before release (I did not have Alpha access), and tried Odyssey for the first time yesterday. I am an explorer, 100%.

Alright, there are lots of UI changes that I don't particularly like, but I guess most I can adjust to given a few days time.

This bookmark issue however... drives me... absolutely.... CRAZY!

Reason: My use of bookmarks is quite extensive. I plot routes using them looking for rare stuff orbiting stars of a specific class, so I'll usually put about 30-60 bookmarks there, visit them all, then rinse and repeat. Number depends on the sparsity of the region. Alright, so for every system reached (usually 10-15mins in between), I go to the galaxy map and remove the bookmark of the system visited, unless I hit the jackpot and find what I want (hasn't happened in the past year, so it'll take a loong while).

Bottom line: I create and delete bookmarks all the time. And in a VR+HOTAS configuration, which makes this even harder. Please, use the [K.I.S.S.] principle for UI design as well!

I'll try to keep using it, but I may need to go back to Horizons for a while if I really absolutely can't stand it... :unsure:​
 

Slegnor

Slegnor
Similarly, I use bookmarks extensively.
Having been doing The Great Raxxla Potato Hunt for nearly a year and a half now, my entire play sessions revolve around bookmarks.
Bookmarking a grid of systems and removing each one as they've been scanned to ensure nothing is missed. I'm sure a lot of explorers do the same thing.
Under this new system, it's a joke, where is the oversight and input from people who actually play the game when changes like this are suggested?

We've often wondered by there's a small limit on bookmarks, this change goes to show FDev still have 0 understanding of how people use bookmarks in their own product, as they clearly think a bookmark is a one-off use thing, maybe used every few weeks, not updated multiple times an hour.

Who'd be an explorer in Elite eh?
 
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