Optimize the clarity of the OVERVIEW with more color and optimally standardized names

EVE Technology and Research Center Player Features & Ideas
1

PROBLEM: Overview is messy and noisy and not optimized. Hard to find what you want, sometimes. In the left column of the overview are a bunch of icons. Square Box for Stations, Circle for Planets, etc. But because they are almost always Black&White, it is hard to pick out what you are looking for.

VERY EASY SOLUTIONS:

  1. Make the icons different colors. Change the Station icon to a !!!PURPLE!!! Square Box or better yet, make it a player-chosen color. Change the Planet icon to a !!!GREEN!!! Circle (or a player-chosen color). Suddenly the noise is not a problem, because the SIGNAL is so much stronger. Signal-to-noise-ratio vastly improved! Suddenly, the thing you are looking for is OBVIOUS in that dang list!!

2)Change the names of Stations so that they all start with a standardized ā€œSTATIONā€¦ā€ instead of each one beginning with a different name like ā€œMinmatar Mining Stationā€ or ā€œGallente Research Stationā€. That way, even if the TYPE column of the Overview is narrow, you will still see the needed information, like maybe you see ā€œSTATIā€ for ALL Stations instead of ā€œMINMAā€ one time and ā€œGalleā€ the next because our wonderful devs kindly changed ā€œMinmatar Mining Stationā€ to ā€œStation-Minmatar Miningā€ and changed ā€œGallente Resarch Stationā€ to ā€œStation- Gallente Research.ā€ Make the name displayed in the TYPE column begin with the same first few letters every time!

1 Like
2

You want to add a bunch of colours to the Overview because it is too noisy?

If you ask me, your suggestion does the opposite: it adds a bunch of irrelevant noise.

Colours in the overview have a different purpose, a dynamic purpose:

  • next destination is yellow
  • enemies are red
  • allies are blue
  • neutral are white
  • yellows for suspects / kill rights
  • all sorts of other colours for other standings

I want to see at a glance if the overview shows one of those many colours so I immediately see what kind of situation I am in.

If you were to add a lot of colours that have no dynamic meaning but only static (this is a station, this is a planet) then this extra colour noise will drown out the real purpose of the overview.

I think the problem is that youā€™re not used to the icons for stations and planets yet, or have not yet made an overview filter to list only the relevant icons.

1 Like
3

You are correct that it is possible to become well-trained in how to use any un-optimized system over time. And once youā€™re used to it, it can seem like what you are used to is optimal. And at that point, perhaps a point that you reached a long while back, any change can seem unhelpful. At least at first. But as a neuroscientist, I can tell you how the brain processes signals like these and organizes information and how predators create search patterns for prey inside their brains, etc. How an eagleā€™s brain works when it is searching for a rabbit from 500 feet up, etc. And visual search patterns is exactly what we are talking about here. If done well, a little added color among the icons of the Overview will make the desired target POP into view quicker than the current display. Just like how a Hunter Orange vest makes a hunter stand out to other humans in the woods.

You do raise an excellent point though, that it could be possible to implement the color suggestion poorly. If too many colors that are too similar to each other are introduced, it could indeed make things worse. So, player-chosen colors would be a good option. But that might be harder to code than simply adding 2 or 3 colors to the icons of the existing Overview. The way to do it well (assuming the devs decide not to allow players to choose their own colors) would be to follow the philosopy of ā€œless is more.ā€ For example, if only one color, Neon Purple, were added for only Station icons, that would be helpful. Adding a second color for a second item would probably be quite useful, too, but would begin the slide into diminishing returns. Every single item having its own color would be a horrible way to execute this idea. Doing it well would require some skill, but really should be quite doable.

Although I have recently returned after a long absence, I do have >30M SP, so ā€œnot being used to the iconsā€ is not where Iā€™m coming from. Iā€™m coming from a place of Information Content Theory and physiological psychology. I assure you, with great certainty, that there is merit to this suggestion. And kindly remember there are two suggestions on the table here. Try to put yourself in the shoes of someone who isnā€™t an absolute expert on how to use this system you have clearly already mastered. Think like a hungry fox looking for dinner on the day the Good Lord decides to change the color of mice to something that doesnā€™t blend in. Happy Day!!

4

Hereā€™s my overview.

image
image368Ɨ770 111 KB

In it are very few colours, but that does make the few colours that are in the list pop out. And that is good, because most of the icons are irrelevant while the coloured lines are what I should pay attention to.

The top overview tab has one yellow icon. That is where I want to go. The rest is irrelevant to me, unless I need to quickly warp somewhere else, like a station.

The bottom tab has a bunch of neutral ships and one hostile (red) ship. It pops out because thatā€™s the only coloured row.

Applying colours sparingly in the overview makes it easier to pick out the relevant lines out of the background noise.

If all of the icons would have their own colour, even the irrelevant options, it would be much harder to pick out the relevant information.

You mentioned a second suggestion:

I like the current option better to be honest.

I mean, I already know itā€™s a station because of the icon:
image

So why put that again in the name? Itā€™s redundant information.

As you can see I keep my overview rather narrow so I prefer to see the relevant name rather than the type in the name.

Even then I agree that the current overview isnā€™t ideal. As you can see in my picture I see two ā€˜Amarr VIII (Oris)ā€™ stations so the only way I can distinguish which one I need is by looking at the type or by hovering the name:
image

But thatā€™s a choice I made by making the overview as small as possible while still functional.

If you want to be able to more easily pick out stations out of the list on your overview, I recommend setting up an extra overview tab for such things.

In my picture above I have a few tabs:

  1. System. All the relevant landmarks I may want to warp to, stations, structures, jump gates, the sun. My main navigation overview tab.
  2. Warp. It includes moons, belts, but now that I think of it I should remove it as I never use this.
  3. Targets. The combat tab that shows enemy and neutral ships, both player and non-player.
  4. Misc. Swap to mining tab or friendlies when needed.
  5. All. Whenever I want to click something that is filtered out by any other tab.

Having good overview filters allows you to quickly find anything you need even without colours.

5

Yes, the picture you show has very few colors. And that fact does make the colors that are used POP. Exactly as you say! But it isnā€™t optimized for color usage. Just a little more color, not a lot, could be used to bring it closer to optimal. Particularly if the location of the new color is different, say only on the left column, and only for a very few important entries.

ā€œIf all of the icons would have their own color, even the irrelevant options, it would be much harder to pick out the relevant information.ā€ CORRECT! EXACTLY AS I SAID ABOVE. Iā€™m glad we are in agreement! ā€œEvery single item having its own color would be a horrible way to execute this idea.ā€ Iā€™m not talking about whatever horrible idea you seem to be envisioning. Less is more here! We totally agree!

As for redundant information, again we are talking about visual search patterns, possibly while experiencing a fight-or-flight adrenaline rush. If you need to find something quickly, having redundant signals for your brain to process makes target acquisition faster and more reliable.

You say you prefer the current option better. I say of course you do. You are one of the gameā€™s experts. Your brain has already been trained over a good length of time to work with the current set-up. But how many players become as one-with-the-game as yourself? I challenge you to run this idea past some average players.

6

There are custom overviews to solve this issue

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I tried using the interwebs to learn about customizing the overview, but I only got outdated/confusing stuff. I want to color the icons on the left column of the overview. They are nearly all black&white. Iā€™d like Stations to be represented by a purple square instead of a black&white square, for example. I want Stations to really pop out among all the clutter. Is there a way to do this, or do I send a suggestion to CCP?

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I donā€™t think it can be done, IIRCā€¦ otherwise folks would change the color of the jump location from that faint yellow to another color.

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merged duplicate thread Customizing the Overview

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I can swear to you I have seen what you are looking for but I havenā€™t been able to find it because it was a long time ago when I used it

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@Zena_Xena Overview is fine as is. Yu can chose diffrent overview kind in the chat and try them.
Colors is fine too. Too much color in overview will not make easier to see, it will just overwelm the vision and make players mistake because overview will look like rainbow :rainbow: and confuse more then help.
Learn to use existin overview. It is game basic.
I vote NOšŸ‘Ž

12

Totally right! ā€œToo much color,ā€ as you point out, would indeed be bad. I couldnā€™t agree more. So, um, donā€™t add too much. I guess I wasnā€™t clear, because Iā€™m not proposing, as you say a ā€œrainbow.ā€ I agree with your down vote on the thing Iā€™m not proposing.

13

Good. Becuase to much color only confuse the brain. We need clean easy to read overview.
Yellow for gates on route is perfect. Any more color and its like clown face.

14

What if players were given the power to change the color of any or all (or none) of the icons in the icons column to any color they like? Surely that would have no downside.

1 Like
15

Welcome back!

16

That I can get behind. :+1:

17

Thatā€™s my idea in a nutshell. Player-defined colors for the icons on the left side of the Overview. For some reason, I donā€™t always communicate things clearly and it often leads to misunderstandings. But thatā€™s what Iā€™d really like to see.

Butā€¦ if that is too much complicated coding for the devs to do, and only as a back-up suggestion, Iā€™d like to see the devs color ONE OR TWO items in the icon list for us. Sorry if that wasnā€™t clear from my walls of text above.

18

That is cool, more choice better than no choice. I also like to change somthing in overview.

No, somtime I dont understand so well for english.

True, like station icon or players ships. Like they have NPC in red/blue.

No you fine. It was me.