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QuestGAV · 06-01-2006, 10:15 AM

I'm a big UI guy. To convert a new player to a long-time spender is not an easy task and is made much more difficult if they're having difficulty understanding what is going on. I'll start by saying that I dislike the FM UI and found it a huge hurdle to enjoying the game - enough so that despite several tries over multiple versions I never purchased the game. I think it's great that OOTP has stepped up to the plate and greatly improved its codebase to improve its potential. With the greater capabilities comes more robust architecture. While that's great for people like me who already have a high level of investment in the game and are willing to probe its depths you can't expect new users to digest a 300 page manual to understand what's going on. Things should be more or less self-explanatory in most areas if SI is to reach its stated goal of reaching a larger audience.

That being said, there are many areas in which the UI can be improved to enhance the player's experience. I'm hoping that in this thread we can limit ourselves to UI tweaks and minor improvements. Large scale overhauls aren't what I'm looking for - but I think there are plenty of things that can be done just in terms of function (without really looking at form) to improve the initial experience.

I have to go to work so this is going to be shorter and less in depth than I'd like:
-When tabbing between text boxes, the contents should be highlighted so that typing overwrites the contents of the box. This seems pretty standard and would massively reduce the amount of time it takes to enter information when starting a new universe.
-Allow for the deletion of leagues when creating a new universe. I clicked the Add Minor Leagues button before editing my major league and then noticed after changing all the info on my major league that I had to edit them each individually to maintain the changes. In retrospect it would have been smarter to start over than copy over the changes from one league to 5 others but if we could have a way to take a league out without restarting the process it would be appreciated.
-Don't bounce to the top of the frame when making a selection from a dropdown box. I noticed this when choosing affiliates for the minor league teams but it happens elsewhere.
-Tabbing from the bottom of displayed fields in a frame goes to the next frame, rather than going to the next field within the same frame that is not currently visible. It should scroll down and take you further within that frame.
-This is picky, but the Add-A-Manager screen has dd/mm/yy for birthday instead of the North American form.
-Every fricking list of data in the game should be sortable by the column headers. What possible reason could there be for it to not be sortable? It is essential for the World Nation List and Nation Profile screens to be sortable in this manner, as well as any other screens like this I haven't come across.
-Make the city search not caps-sensitive when trying to associate a team with an exact city.
-Hitting the back button from a player profile to bring you back to the roster screen erases the position selection you had. The View and Filter are sticky, position should be too.
-Being able to use the arrow keys to scroll to the next player profile in a list would be quite welcome.

What UI issues drive the rest of you batty? Which issues above are fixable/not fixable?

06-01-2006, 10:15 AM	#1
QuestGAV Hall Of Famer Join Date: Mar 2002 Posts: 2,010	Suggested User Interface Tweaks I'm a big UI guy. To convert a new player to a long-time spender is not an easy task and is made much more difficult if they're having difficulty understanding what is going on. I'll start by saying that I dislike the FM UI and found it a huge hurdle to enjoying the game - enough so that despite several tries over multiple versions I never purchased the game. I think it's great that OOTP has stepped up to the plate and greatly improved its codebase to improve its potential. With the greater capabilities comes more robust architecture. While that's great for people like me who already have a high level of investment in the game and are willing to probe its depths you can't expect new users to digest a 300 page manual to understand what's going on. Things should be more or less self-explanatory in most areas if SI is to reach its stated goal of reaching a larger audience. That being said, there are many areas in which the UI can be improved to enhance the player's experience. I'm hoping that in this thread we can limit ourselves to UI tweaks and minor improvements. Large scale overhauls aren't what I'm looking for - but I think there are plenty of things that can be done just in terms of function (without really looking at form) to improve the initial experience. I have to go to work so this is going to be shorter and less in depth than I'd like: -When tabbing between text boxes, the contents should be highlighted so that typing overwrites the contents of the box. This seems pretty standard and would massively reduce the amount of time it takes to enter information when starting a new universe. -Allow for the deletion of leagues when creating a new universe. I clicked the Add Minor Leagues button before editing my major league and then noticed after changing all the info on my major league that I had to edit them each individually to maintain the changes. In retrospect it would have been smarter to start over than copy over the changes from one league to 5 others but if we could have a way to take a league out without restarting the process it would be appreciated. -Don't bounce to the top of the frame when making a selection from a dropdown box. I noticed this when choosing affiliates for the minor league teams but it happens elsewhere. -Tabbing from the bottom of displayed fields in a frame goes to the next frame, rather than going to the next field within the same frame that is not currently visible. It should scroll down and take you further within that frame. -This is picky, but the Add-A-Manager screen has dd/mm/yy for birthday instead of the North American form. -Every fricking list of data in the game should be sortable by the column headers. What possible reason could there be for it to not be sortable? It is essential for the World Nation List and Nation Profile screens to be sortable in this manner, as well as any other screens like this I haven't come across. -Make the city search not caps-sensitive when trying to associate a team with an exact city. -Hitting the back button from a player profile to bring you back to the roster screen erases the position selection you had. The View and Filter are sticky, position should be too. -Being able to use the arrow keys to scroll to the next player profile in a list would be quite welcome. What UI issues drive the rest of you batty? Which issues above are fixable/not fixable?