Quote:
Originally Posted by pstrickert
I hear you, Sweed. I'd also be in favor of having the option to choose what is displayed in the widgets. Doubt it'll happen, but you never know. I also doubt we'll see an overhaul of the widgets anytime soon. 
For me, the problem is jamming too much information in a tight space. After a while, I get weary trying to read it. In fact, I give up. The popup window provides most of the info I need on a regular basis. If, on a rare occasion, I need more info, I can always click on the player's name to access his page. I certainly don't need all the extra info displayed every pitch, every at bat, every inning, every game, for the entire season. To get additional info requires of me a few extra clicks per game. I don't mind, if it means having easier-to-read widgets containing less, but more essential, data.
Actually, now that I think about it, based on my own experience with and screenshots from other baseball text sims, I can't recall another game that tries to squeeze so much info into tight windows like OOTP. Either they choose not to display as much info, or they make the window large enough to accommodate what needs to be displayed. Again, I hear what you're saying. If the data must be displayed, at least make it more readable. That's all I ask.
Some screenshots to show what I mean about the lack of readability. Happy New Year to you, Sweed!  |
I think this a great description of the crux of the problem: not all information is of equal importance. While a player's stats in 0-2 counts is definitely important to some users, I'd wager it's not nearly as important as a player's overall current season stats. When both lines are presented at once without a clear hierarchy, it's basically telling users that this information is all of equal importance, which isn't necessarily the case.
Ideally there could be some research as to what information is valuable to what percentage of users (surveys, application analytics, etc.). Then the items that tend to be important can be shown at all times in priority order while the other items are still accessible but obscured by a button, dropdown, etc. Really important information can be made visually distinct with different font, size, color, or placement. It's probably easier to figure out which is the really important information in the bottom of the attached two stat boxes. I think the OOTP widgets sometimes put the burden on the user to figure out what's important.
Letting users customize the widgets is definitely another answer that would appeal to the power users, though of course this is another feature that takes time for Markus and crew to implement and test. There's not a perfect answer, but I do think there's a valid argument that in general, trying to cram every screen with as much data as possible increases
cognitive load and makes it difficult to navigate screens and tasks.