So I still consider myself to be a “New Player” since I really am in that phase of playing, not playing, playing, not playing Eve-Online. Good game, not so good game etc…
However something I can provide some feedback on is regarding the User Interface. And I notice this is very common for alot of Eve Online players and I guess for all the old players they are so used to it that it doesn’t really bother them.
But, my feedback to CCP is to really take a good inventory of what percent of the screen is filled with UI clutter. And ask yourself if that is good design, or not.
Eve Players want alot of information, and in order to get all that information they need to have alot of different windows open just to get that feedback resulting in like 40-60% of their screen covered with windows that display information.
Besides that it looks stupid, it just tells you there is alot of room to optimize the UI to give players that information they want, in a more sensible way that doesn’t clutter 40-60% of their screen, but maybe only 20% of the screen and have the other 80% to actually see the game and stuff around.
I am not in a position to give suggestions how to do this efficiently. But its just one observation I make as a new player is the amount of windows you (need) to have open to display information.
And, from a new player perspective… yeah… simplified UI that can still display all that information would be easier for them too to process all that information. For experienced players they are so used to it that it really doesn’t bother them at all.
But I think even long-time players and veterans can appreciate a UI that displays the same information they are used to saying without taking up 50% of their screen.
I can’t speak for newbies, I’ve been playing EVE for almost two decades now, but the main issue I have isn’t that all the windows take up too much space (newer things that insist on opening full-screen excluded, that’s beyond stupid and I absolutely hate it), but that the white text is sometimes very difficult to read if you’re in an area where space is unnaturally bright (all of Amarr space, or many deadspace and mission pockets with clouds).
Making space properly dark (the way it is in most holes or null) in empire space and sites would go a long way to fixing the UI for me.
If you guys want an absolute layup for a little thing, get rid of this.
The default probe and dscan windows are particularly egregious. The list and the map should be separated by default. Dscan shouldn’t even open a map display out of the box.
I often wonder how many new players have been trapped in that particular hellscape without realizing they could change it.
Photon has always been a massive failure and will always remain a massive failure. You can be happy that we got Compact Mode. Initially, Photon shipped without; it was the crap in terms of wasteful use of white space. Even now, there’s so much useless empty space for the sake of it and not for the sake of improving readability of the UI.
I think I was here for less than one year when they decided to swap to this Photon UI. I sure don’t care much for this UI. There is an old thread here on the forums asking the players for input on the new UI. I am sure anyone can see, in that thread, how much they ignored every user’s suggestion. Players continue to post about the awful UI they generated, and only the developers patted themselves on the back.
Once you do get it viewable by your standards, be sure to make a backup copy of the Default Settings folder. Since every once in a while, they make sweeping changes, and reset your UI settings.
If you have a lot of characters, you can clone the UI settings from a master character to all the others. That suggestion was made 3 years ago this February, we still have to do it ourselves.
good point also. I just had to spend time watching a guide on how to copy settings from one character to my second character on the same account. thanks for that tip btw. I mean, the process wasn’t hard or anything but indeed it is a few steps too many and a good example of something that could easily be done in a more efficient manner.
It would require some developer time and I guess this isn’t high up on their priority list. I am not in a position to say what is or isn’t a priority as a relative newcomer. But from feedback on the forums and reddit and other places in general I did notice that CCP in particular is interested in how to make their game more approachable for new players. Hence I decided to give them my feedback on the UI, because covering 60% of your screen with windows is just… you know. Not cool and also not userfriendly either. Something worth redesigning while also not compromise on what information players want to see already. But just repackage it in a more efficient way resulting in less of your screen being cluttered with windows.
I don’t think it has to be difficult if they’re clever about it. Something like a drop-down menu where you select a character, that copies the settings from that character to the current character should do it.
Maybe you can talk to one of the CSM people flying off to the fanfest. They talk face to face with the developers. Mike was a CSM, said he got a developer drunk enough to create the Bowhead ship.
By the way, one thing I forgot to mention and it is a minor item. When I clone John Rochard’s setting to all the characters, Contract Search will retain John’s name. Just use the drop down to correct it. Not that you could access other character’s contracts, it is the only bit of personal info copied to all of your characters from the master.
I agree. I think in some ways it was previously more compact years ago. Windows and many store and website UI’s changed to present their information in a way that it would be usable on a tablet or desktop but that made things worse for many desktop users with the same amount of information taking more amount of space with every update it seems. Eve it seems followed a bit of this idea and it can be seen in many parts of the UI. Luckily they have compact mode and a way to shrink many parts in size. I remember when they made the change to the Character Profile sheet… it still takes up twice the size as the original. Sometimes it’s a case of some new developer coming in trying to fix what isn’t broken without giving users customizability. Even the old map man I was still using the old map since this latest release of the new 2D map because I prefer the old original map. Luckily they did a great job on the 2D map. It would be cool if I could just have it open in a web browser so that I could have it up on another screen.
The ship info window NEEDS a compact mode that is similar to the old one with tabs for information. It’s incredibly clumbersome to use the new one. I still absolutely hate it after all this time. PLEASE provide a simple compact version.
I wish they would just put ship info back into the regular old item info window we got for all the modules.
With the new design, that sliding bar on the left is terrible. Whats so bad about tabs that do not occlude the content (except maybe change the tab text for an icon to… you know, save more space)? I tend to move the mouse pointer where i look/read like many, so that silly side bar pops up all the time and is just annoying. I also hate moving design elements in general, they make things restless. Some, like the auto-moving image slider in the Agency, even give me vertigo.
Design elements are way too big, what a waste of screen size. This goes for the silly side bar too, which is so wide i have to move the mouse quite a bit so it disappears and i can read content. Its a constant back and forth with that bar. Did i mention i hate that thing?
Attributes tab is terrible to read. Information seems to be all over the place compared to the old item info window. Someone took information and design elements and just threw them all in a box. That’s how it looks and handles. Comparison:
Why is the ship description text nested? Its at the bottom of the window, nesting it does make zero sense. You nest things to reduce scrolling time for content located below the nested item. But there is no more content below the ship description text. One more thing you need to click on without need.
Those huge tool tips (you can not deactivate, only delay and then wait ages for them WHEN you want them) on the skills page overlap with the silly side bar, making it hard to get back on the sidebar when you had been pointing on a skill (again, involuntarily, pointing where you read). Using this window (as little as possible), i constantly move the mouse so i can read stuff. Why?!
You can only see the 3D ship when you resize the window to dimensions no one wants on his screen, then you have to shrink it again after looking at pretty ship image. Or open the skins page to have a small tiny 3D view of it. What was so wrong with having the static image in the item info window for quick reference, clicking it and having a separate window for the 3D render? I don’t get it, it was/is perfect this way:
When you resize the window to sane width, the moving 3D render in the background makes reading hard.
A lot more if i wanted to throw more time at looking at bad design, but this should normally be enough reasons to trash this garbage window and go back to what was good. Like said, maybe give the tabs in the old info window icons instead of text, but apart from that, its solid. Don’t try to “fix” what is not broken.
Please CCP, get someone on this job who is skilled in UI design, not someone who likes fancy looking things with terrible usability. It’s a nightmare and i hate it. (And this is just the new ship info window, don’t get me started about those full screen UIs like AIR career that do not properly scale their elements when resizing below full screen.)
Well, i mentioned it, now i can show it while i am here.
Full screen windows when you resize them (because, why would one want so little information take up the whole screen? Especially while in space and having an eye on three other windows).
Design elements overlapping each other, content not scaling properly, in general huge elements that might look fancy but add nothing but usability headaches. A lot of them. There’s a dozen “why?!”s in this image.
Tool tips. They are huge. And they are everywhere. E-ve-ry-where. You can delay them, but when you want them, they then take ages to pop up. Not a solution. So you live with this crap being in your face all day, its like waving hands in front of you from waking up until going to bed. Probably the biggest annoyance in EVE: constantly fighting and navigating around tool tips.
Point anywhere, billboard slaps you in the face. So point somewhere else to get rid of it. But guess what: “somewhere else” is “anywhere” too. Billboard. Slap. Face. Am i the only one who is terribly annoyed by this?
CCP, plz give “press [key of your choice] to show tooltips” in options asap. Thanks!
One more before i call my therapist for an extra appointment: “click windows anywhere to move them”.
If i had one ISK for every time i tried to drag the scroll bar and instead dragged the whole damn window across the whole screen.
CCP: “click and drag window title bar (and only title bar) to move a window” please. Why would you want to literally click anywhere to move it? It’s screaming for chaos.
