Hi and welcome to my Ted talk on the EvE UI
TLDR:
-Remove the wasted space
-Bring back boundary lines
-Adjust colors to prevent visual fatigue
-Iterate on usability
The previous UI was not perfect, but it was a solid 9/10
-It had great usability and functionality
-It was compact and minimallistic, allowed for high information density and made good use of screen real state
The new photon UI is a 4/10
-There is too much empty wasted space, too big margins and padding absolutely everywhere. Information density as a result is so much worse compared to before.
-At the same time lack of boundary lines make everything much less clear and more difficult to read
-Too high contrast causes eye strain, mainly the pure white font and colors used instead of light shades of gray.
-Many icons and items in the interface have a doubtful color palette and design that make the game look like a kids game, like the rounded standing icons next to character name in chat windows
-Worse functionality. The only thing compact mode seems to do is remove the window title bar. In the overview it also reduces line spacing. Many windows are very difficult to drag around in compact mode since there is no bit of space reserved for dragging the window.
-Some windows have a too big minimum size, like the drone window and system map (the system map being too big also happened on the previous UI, but no reason not to fix it now)
Tips to improve photon:
-Seriously trim all that wasted space in the interface or give plenty of user settings to adjust pixel margin widths and sizes of different elements of the UI. The current options given do not cut it at all in a data-heavy game like eve.
-Bring the option of getting back boundary lines in the data boxes of windows like the overview, dscan, probe scanner, etc
-Adjust the colors or allow more color and font color options to combat visual fatigue.
-Remove the rounded borders from standing icons next to character name
-Iterate on compact mode. Instead of simply removing the title bar there could be an option for a thin title bar 12px high instead of the chunky 20 px high photon title bar. If the title bar is removed there shold be at least a bit of space reserved so you can drag the window around without interfering in the window content.
-The probe scanner window should be iterated so there can be much more lines of data shown given any window size. There is too much empty space. Frequently used buttons like recover probes are now tiny and in a more inaccessible spot to use than before
-Windows like drones and the system map should be allowed a much smaller size. In the old UI you could make the drone window be 2 lines high. There is no reason for the solar system map to have a minimum size of 500x400 pixels or whatever it is now.
Thank you