Usability Enhancements

rwmorey · 06-03-2006, 01:33 AM

Hi..

Ok, I just spent about 7 hours playing OOTP 2006. My major frustration is very similar to what I had to say about past versions of the game and that is general usability enhancements with the UI.

First off, there does not seem to be much in the way of keyboard support in the game other than F keys for your favorites. I am a touch typist and can move around standard windows apps very quickly with my keyboard. I would love to do this with OOTP rather than having to use the mouse.

When using the mouse, however, the roll out menus are hard (for me at least) to get items on sometimes. It would be nice if these were more STICKY rather than DHTML like roll over menus.

I also would like to be able to use standard windows keystrokes when entering data in a text field, such as SHIFT-CTRL-LEFT to high light text, or even CTRL-C to copy, etc. Offering players contracts is SOO time consuming and that is very frustrating. While the +/- dollar amount buttons are a nice touch, they are slow to respond.

I'm not sure if there is a lot of code going on behind the scenes as I enter in salary amounts, but why not have it happen on a "blur" event -- this might save some processing time when entering data.

I love that the game is so much quicker than past versions and I love the depth of the minor leagues, free agency, the waiver wire, etc. What is frustrating though is that the UI, while it is "pretty" seems to be what is bogging down the game.

I don't know if I'm alone in saying that I prefer and simpler, easier to use UI with standard Windows keystroke functionality.

Rich

rwmorey · 06-03-2006, 11:49 AM

I have been playing the game some more and I have come up with some additional thoughts --

When making changes to my roster, if I attempt to put someone on the Active roster who is not on the 40 man roster I get a message informing me I have to put that player on the 40 man roster. I think that if I have a spot open on the 40 man roster and I put a guy on the Active roster then he should be automatically added to the 40 man roster. Perhaps the confirmation dialog box could tell me if I put the man on the active roster he will go on the 40 man roster as well.

I would like the option to turn off some or all of these confirmation boxes as at times I do a lot of moving players around and it would be easier to not have to confirm all of these changes.

Another thought I had which relates to my initial message above is -- It would be great if all of the screens where the players were listed were a more adaptable grid control -- for example, I could right click on the header row and add or remove columns from the list, I could change the columns widths or re-order the columns, I could click on the columns and sort. That way, rather than having predefined views (as is the case on some pages) I would create my own views and save them to use anywhere.

In theory this grid control would only need to be developed once and then could be placed throughout the game.

It would also be nice for the right click menu for a player to have one menu instead of one menu and then a popout menu. I would like to be able to right click a player and select "Promote", "Demote", "Release", "Waive", "DFA." My thinking is that most times I am aware of what level a player is in and I can promote him up to the next level or demote him down a level so I don't need the option of which roster to place him on.

Finally, when searching through free agents I would like the option to filter results by last years stats, especially number of at bats. I like to sort the players by batting average but want to filter out players with fewer than 50 or so at bats because obviously a guy who hits 4-10 or 2-5 is not gonna be a .400 hitter over a whole season.

Rich

rwmorey · 06-03-2006, 02:47 PM

I have been thinking about my request for a more standard "Windows" app performance and was using WinAmp and realized this is a good example of a nice looking UI with the functionality I am looking for. The panels can be widdened or narrowed as well as the columns being sortable by clicking on them and clicking again sorts them in reverse. The columns can be moved or resized. I have attached a screen capture to show you what the screen looks like.

MorseMoose · 06-03-2006, 02:51 PM

Quote:

Originally Posted by rwmorey

I have been thinking about my request for a more standard "Windows" app performance and was using WinAmp and realized this is a good example of a nice looking UI with the functionality I am looking for. The panels can be widdened or narrowed as well as the columns being sortable by clicking on them and clicking again sorts them in reverse. The columns can be moved or resized. I have attached a screen capture to show you what the screen looks like.

Other than Sheryl Crow and a few others that I can't read...those are some good artists

.

rwmorey · 06-03-2006, 09:06 PM

LOL. Well I'm glad my thoughts got a response.. just maybe not the response I was looking for! ;-)

dbacks933 · 06-04-2006, 01:33 AM

this post is on the money. i agree. keyboard needs to be incorporated badly and the menus are clunky.

rwmorey · 06-04-2006, 11:16 AM

Ok I have some more thoughts / issues with the game UI.

First off all, I really like the ability to customize the columns in a view, but of course I would like option to change the order of the columns and this has been stated in my posts above.

An issue that I have come across is that if I put too many columns into a view the columns get squeezed together so that I can not see all of the data. I'm also not sure how the code is figuring out the column widths but it is definitly buggy. For example, I was looking at pitchers and I had W/L columns along with salary. The W/L columns were much wider than they needed to be while the salary column was squeezed. Obviously the W/L don't need to be so wide.

Secondly, I like that on the columns you can hold the mouse over the column heading and get a "tool tip" except that 99% of the time this "tool tip" is just the same thing as the column header so their is no point to this "feature" What should really be shown is a what the abbreviations stand for -- for example "R/9" should have a tool tip that says "Runs Per 9 Innings", etc.

Rich

fantom1979 · 06-04-2006, 09:42 PM

I would LOVE to see support for the back/forward buttons for my mouse. Currently only the Scroll buttons/wheel work.

lmuguy · 06-05-2006, 12:45 AM

I may be nitpicking, but one thing that would be quite helpful would be the ability to quickly scroll through the messages by the use of the space bar, like in FM. Also the ability to continue by the same method would be nice. Thanks.

BPS · 06-05-2006, 12:53 AM

One additional suggestion along these lines: in OOTP6.5 say you were looking at the batting stats for your team and sorted by BA. Then if you switch, via drop down menu, to display batting ratings the players would NOT be resorted but would remain in the sort positions they have before.

But in this version of OOTP it appears than whenever you switch the information displayed about a list of players the players get resorted. I liked it "the old way" because it permitted someone to see how various factors were related to other factors.

rwmorey · 06-05-2006, 12:14 PM

Also when you receive new e-mails and go to the screen it does not default to the top of the screen. It shows the last e-mail that you read. When I first started playing the game I missed some e-mails because I didn't realize I had to scroll up.

Rich

rwmorey · 06-05-2006, 02:15 PM

When looking at a players contract status screen I think it would be nice to see the prorated portion of their salary left for this year. That way if you were trying to trade for or away a high priced player in the last year of his contract and wanted to send along some cash to cover part or all of his remaining salary you could easily see what was left.

I've also had problems when trying to make trades where I get an "Invalid Trade!" message with no explaination of why -- and I have players on both sides of the table. Sometimes removing a player or players resets this and sometimes not -- I have to exit the trade screen and come back into it.

Another UI tweak I would like is that the "continue" button is misleading. I know that it plays out today but sometimes I forget and click on it thinking it will take me to the next step of whatever process I am doing and I accidentally sim past the day I am on. Maybe this could be relabeled "Sim Day"

Rich

Bobble · 06-22-2006, 01:13 PM

A bump and yet one more plea for more keyboard functionality. All this mouse work isn't doing my carpal tunnel any good.

ctorg · 06-22-2006, 01:27 PM

One thing I think needs to happen is that when loading a custom schedule, we need to be able to see the full name of the schedule. As it is, it cuts off after a few characters.

rwmorey · 07-04-2006, 03:24 PM

I just started creating my second OOTP Universe and I too would like the option to save my universe as I'm creating it. And as I've mentioned previously, standard keyboard / input controls would make this game SO MUCH EASIER to use. It takes way to long to enter data.

Also, would it be possible to get to pick cities by region so that I could easily set up a league where the "Eastern Division" has only teams from the East, etc.. ?

06-03-2006, 01:33 AM	#1
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	Usability Enhancements Hi.. Ok, I just spent about 7 hours playing OOTP 2006. My major frustration is very similar to what I had to say about past versions of the game and that is general usability enhancements with the UI. First off, there does not seem to be much in the way of keyboard support in the game other than F keys for your favorites. I am a touch typist and can move around standard windows apps very quickly with my keyboard. I would love to do this with OOTP rather than having to use the mouse. When using the mouse, however, the roll out menus are hard (for me at least) to get items on sometimes. It would be nice if these were more STICKY rather than DHTML like roll over menus. I also would like to be able to use standard windows keystrokes when entering data in a text field, such as SHIFT-CTRL-LEFT to high light text, or even CTRL-C to copy, etc. Offering players contracts is SOO time consuming and that is very frustrating. While the +/- dollar amount buttons are a nice touch, they are slow to respond. I'm not sure if there is a lot of code going on behind the scenes as I enter in salary amounts, but why not have it happen on a "blur" event -- this might save some processing time when entering data. I love that the game is so much quicker than past versions and I love the depth of the minor leagues, free agency, the waiver wire, etc. What is frustrating though is that the UI, while it is "pretty" seems to be what is bogging down the game. I don't know if I'm alone in saying that I prefer and simpler, easier to use UI with standard Windows keystroke functionality. Rich

06-03-2006, 11:49 AM	#2
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	Additional Thoughts I have been playing the game some more and I have come up with some additional thoughts -- When making changes to my roster, if I attempt to put someone on the Active roster who is not on the 40 man roster I get a message informing me I have to put that player on the 40 man roster. I think that if I have a spot open on the 40 man roster and I put a guy on the Active roster then he should be automatically added to the 40 man roster. Perhaps the confirmation dialog box could tell me if I put the man on the active roster he will go on the 40 man roster as well. I would like the option to turn off some or all of these confirmation boxes as at times I do a lot of moving players around and it would be easier to not have to confirm all of these changes. Another thought I had which relates to my initial message above is -- It would be great if all of the screens where the players were listed were a more adaptable grid control -- for example, I could right click on the header row and add or remove columns from the list, I could change the columns widths or re-order the columns, I could click on the columns and sort. That way, rather than having predefined views (as is the case on some pages) I would create my own views and save them to use anywhere. In theory this grid control would only need to be developed once and then could be placed throughout the game. It would also be nice for the right click menu for a player to have one menu instead of one menu and then a popout menu. I would like to be able to right click a player and select "Promote", "Demote", "Release", "Waive", "DFA." My thinking is that most times I am aware of what level a player is in and I can promote him up to the next level or demote him down a level so I don't need the option of which roster to place him on. Finally, when searching through free agents I would like the option to filter results by last years stats, especially number of at bats. I like to sort the players by batting average but want to filter out players with fewer than 50 or so at bats because obviously a guy who hits 4-10 or 2-5 is not gonna be a .400 hitter over a whole season. Rich

06-03-2006, 02:47 PM	#3
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	I have been thinking about my request for a more standard "Windows" app performance and was using WinAmp and realized this is a good example of a nice looking UI with the functionality I am looking for. The panels can be widdened or narrowed as well as the columns being sortable by clicking on them and clicking again sorts them in reverse. The columns can be moved or resized. I have attached a screen capture to show you what the screen looks like. Attached Images

06-04-2006, 09:42 PM	#8
fantom1979 Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2002 Location: Detroit, MI Posts: 3,498	I would LOVE to see support for the back/forward buttons for my mouse. Currently only the Scroll buttons/wheel work. __________________

06-22-2006, 01:13 PM	#13
Bobble Hall Of Famer Join Date: Jul 2004 Location: High and outside Posts: 4,036	A bump and yet one more plea for more keyboard functionality. All this mouse work isn't doing my carpal tunnel any good. __________________

06-03-2006, 09:06 PM	#5
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	LOL. Well I'm glad my thoughts got a response.. just maybe not the response I was looking for! ;-)

06-04-2006, 01:33 AM	#6
dbacks933 Minors (Double A) Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 112	this post is on the money. i agree. keyboard needs to be incorporated badly and the menus are clunky.

06-04-2006, 11:16 AM	#7
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	Ok I have some more thoughts / issues with the game UI. First off all, I really like the ability to customize the columns in a view, but of course I would like option to change the order of the columns and this has been stated in my posts above. An issue that I have come across is that if I put too many columns into a view the columns get squeezed together so that I can not see all of the data. I'm also not sure how the code is figuring out the column widths but it is definitly buggy. For example, I was looking at pitchers and I had W/L columns along with salary. The W/L columns were much wider than they needed to be while the salary column was squeezed. Obviously the W/L don't need to be so wide. Secondly, I like that on the columns you can hold the mouse over the column heading and get a "tool tip" except that 99% of the time this "tool tip" is just the same thing as the column header so their is no point to this "feature" What should really be shown is a what the abbreviations stand for -- for example "R/9" should have a tool tip that says "Runs Per 9 Innings", etc. Rich

06-05-2006, 12:45 AM	#9
lmuguy Bat Boy Join Date: May 2006 Posts: 6	I may be nitpicking, but one thing that would be quite helpful would be the ability to quickly scroll through the messages by the use of the space bar, like in FM. Also the ability to continue by the same method would be nice. Thanks.

06-05-2006, 12:53 AM	#10
BPS All Star Reserve Join Date: May 2004 Posts: 732	One additional suggestion along these lines: in OOTP6.5 say you were looking at the batting stats for your team and sorted by BA. Then if you switch, via drop down menu, to display batting ratings the players would NOT be resorted but would remain in the sort positions they have before. But in this version of OOTP it appears than whenever you switch the information displayed about a list of players the players get resorted. I liked it "the old way" because it permitted someone to see how various factors were related to other factors.

06-05-2006, 12:14 PM	#11
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	Also when you receive new e-mails and go to the screen it does not default to the top of the screen. It shows the last e-mail that you read. When I first started playing the game I missed some e-mails because I didn't realize I had to scroll up. Rich

06-05-2006, 02:15 PM	#12
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	When looking at a players contract status screen I think it would be nice to see the prorated portion of their salary left for this year. That way if you were trying to trade for or away a high priced player in the last year of his contract and wanted to send along some cash to cover part or all of his remaining salary you could easily see what was left. I've also had problems when trying to make trades where I get an "Invalid Trade!" message with no explaination of why -- and I have players on both sides of the table. Sometimes removing a player or players resets this and sometimes not -- I have to exit the trade screen and come back into it. Another UI tweak I would like is that the "continue" button is misleading. I know that it plays out today but sometimes I forget and click on it thinking it will take me to the next step of whatever process I am doing and I accidentally sim past the day I am on. Maybe this could be relabeled "Sim Day" Rich

06-22-2006, 01:27 PM	#14
ctorg Global Moderator Join Date: Nov 2002 Location: Queens, NY Posts: 9,848	One thing I think needs to happen is that when loading a custom schedule, we need to be able to see the full name of the schedule. As it is, it cuts off after a few characters. __________________ My music "When the trees blow back and forth, that's what makes the wind." - Steven Wright Fjord emena pancreas thorax fornicate marmalade morpheme proteolysis smaxa cabana offal srue vitriol grope hallelujah lentils

07-04-2006, 03:24 PM	#15
rwmorey Minors (Double A) Join Date: Dec 2001 Posts: 177	I just started creating my second OOTP Universe and I too would like the option to save my universe as I'm creating it. And as I've mentioned previously, standard keyboard / input controls would make this game SO MUCH EASIER to use. It takes way to long to enter data. Also, would it be possible to get to pick cities by region so that I could easily set up a league where the "Eastern Division" has only teams from the East, etc.. ?