UI & Design changes - some thoughts

[redmoss2]

Thank you to the OOTP Dev team, you've really nailed it this year and I appreciate that not every year is going to have the same number of headline-grabbing features; there's always behind-the-scenes/sim work to do that often goes underappreciated.

I just wanted to share a thought about the UI and general design changes I've seen from the screenshots, I'll use this one.







1. I think that finally dropping the "chevron" design that the top bar used in previous iterations is a great move. They added visual noise and broke up the display. Having the top bar now fully fill is perfect and I love this decision

2. I love the subtle 'dot' gradient you introduced last year and continue with. It gives the gradients more character and texture and I'd like to see it become a mainstay.

3. What I don't think is so great is the abundance of visual noise on the right - the dynamic stripe at the end is very abrupt and I would prefer the gradient just to continue to the edge. It really breaks up the UI to me and just adds to the confusion from an interactibility point of view

4. Likewise the background image with all the dynamic vectors, it's just too much. It's a ton of visual noise that complicates an already busy UI - but on this point, maybe there's a setting to have a simpler background, so it might not be a problem?

My final point is just - I feel like you guys have been experimenting with the UIs "design language" in the past couple of years and while I do think there have been mostly steps in the right direction, it feels like you're "fiddling" with it too much as if you need to provide a "fresh look" each year, since players are often drawn in by new visuals.

This is definitely the best UI yet - but all the dynamic stuff on the right feels like it was put in there to make things more "exciting". All it does to me is create visual noise.

I honestly think you've nailed the UI despite this and I hope that the current design, sans all the stripes, forms the basis of your look for the next few years. You don't need to fiddle so much! Keep it simple! Let the gradients and simple textural elements (like the dots) do the hard work, the Feynman diagrams are way too much

Thanks for taking the time to read this, the game is of course a day one!

[Markus Heinsohn]

Thanks, glad that you like it! Regarding the "visual noise" (stripes), I am very sensible to this in general, and believe me when I say I have stared at this for hundreds of hours now, and it is not an issue, it blends in well and gives the whole thing a bit of dynamic feel

[itsmb8]

Thank you for removing the chevrons from the UI!! Backgrounds will now be much easier to create without having to worry about the chevrons making the background designs look wonky.

But I do have a request, and IDK if this will be simple or not (probably wont be that simple), but is there any way we can replace team names in the dropdown with wordmarks if applicable?

To explain what I mean I have how it currently looks:


And what my proposal would look like:



Not much of a change at all but I think it looks a bit cooler. Of course, might be tough to add in regardless.

[Bluenoser]

The new look is awesome, please don't change anything about it.

[BusterKing]

I must say that I dislike the loss of displayed information on the games at the top right. I want to see multiple games displayed giving me easy access to click on the games to view further information. Now I will need to constantly use the arrows to see them.

Unless a manual adjustment can be made to display more games?

[redmoss2]

Originally Posted by Markus Heinsohn

believe me when I say I have stared at this for hundreds of hours now, and it is not an issue

It's possible that it's because you've stared at it for hundreds of hours it's not an issue, but my initial reaction was "what is going on with that side of the screen"? I genuinely thought it was glitched for a second. Just offering my opinion as a fresh pair of eyes, I'm sure I'll acclimatise to it I do appreciate the dynamic feel works in subtle ways elsewhere, like the way the tabs are all rhombuses, and all point in at that same upwards angle like the continue button.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by itsmb8

Thank you for removing the chevrons from the UI!! Backgrounds will now be much easier to create without having to worry about the chevrons making the background designs look wonky.

But I do have a request, and IDK if this will be simple or not (probably wont be that simple), but is there any way we can replace team names in the dropdown with wordmarks if applicable?

To explain what I mean I have how it currently looks:


And what my proposal would look like:



Not much of a change at all but I think it looks a bit cooler. Of course, might be tough to add in regardless.

I can see tons of problems with this regarding certain logos not distinguishing themselves against the background. Plus it makes the top bar look busy. Please don't do this, or at least make it an option.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by redmoss2

It's possible that it's because you've stared at it for hundreds of hours it's not an issue, but my initial reaction was "what is going on with that side of the screen"? I genuinely thought it was glitched for a second. Just offering my opinion as a fresh pair of eyes, I'm sure I'll acclimatise to it I do appreciate the dynamic feel works in subtle ways elsewhere, like the way the tabs are all rhombuses, and all point in at that same upwards angle like the continue button.

Isn't it an option to turn off such backgrounds?

EDIT: Yes, I think if you choose to turn off "Semi-Transparent Background," you may not see those dynamic doo-dads as much.

[Déjà Bru]

Originally Posted by BusterKing

I must say that I dislike the loss of displayed information on the games at the top right. I want to see multiple games displayed giving me easy access to click on the games to view further information. Now I will need to constantly use the arrows to see them.

Unless a manual adjustment can be made to display more games?

Now that you mention it, this bothers me too. You can add those windows to the Manager Office screen, though, so I would not be too inconvenienced and would get used to it over time. I wonder if turning off the Continue button restores that information up there?