Drones window no longer has access to control the drones for focus fire or agressive modes. As well as options for guard and assist.
Compact mode should be available for all windows - eg Saved Locations
Windows brought up over full screen views (planetary interaction) remain over the top when focus is lost.
The chat channel blink settings only blink once and then have a minor highlight to indicate new messages - this is not noticeable - When blink is on for a channel this should be very obvious and continue until the focus is on that channel.
I get a static + dot grid pattern in the background of active windows.
its much more visible when on my monitor is in âgaming modeâ.
looks like a bug to me, but maybe its the style youâre going forâŚ
I would like to get tabs for âregionâ, âconstellationâ, âsolar systemâ, etc back for my assets window. I always use those things, and itâs incredibly inconvenient having to access them through a drop-down menu.
I like the new look for the UI, but it needs work. a lot has already been said.
for me the bigest problems are:
wasted screen space (banners, empty space, and buttons way to big)
and the smaller you make the window the more % space is wasted. This makes it unusable for me.
film grain as background is bad. just make it a flat color that is a bit different from the standard.
I canât tell if I have a blueprint selected or which one is as its almost the same blue as the highlight color and the âbackgroundâ is already blue.
UI interface needs to be pleasant and clean. This is distracting. Drop the light bar altogether. Find a better way to highlight the active window if you absolutely must do it. But Iâm not an idiot. I can separate out my active window from non-active ones even without any visual effects.
The header sizes are huge lots of wasted space. This maybe helpful for players with visual difficulties. But should have a scale up and down option for those who like smaller headers. I personally like the lowest magnification on my text and header sizes.
I didnât explore everything so canât talk about other features, but the overall design needs to be more minimalistic. The glows are ok since photon UI is the name but wasted space means difficulty in navigation and in this game navigations need to be lightning fast. All in all, further work is required for the UI to be efficient as well as aesthetically pleasing.
The submenus (amount of km to warp etc) could have a collared line at the top. This would make them stand out from other submenus beneath them. Now it is very difficult to see, when you drill down in the submenus.
Firstly, Iâm pretty sure that a number of these observations are already echoed in the feedback above however will nonetheless cover them here as they are reflective of my particular experience with the UI.
Some context regarding settings being run for issue replication:
ROG Zephyrus G14
Windows 11 Home
AMD Ryzen 9 5900HS with Radeon Graphics 3.30 GHz
16.0 GB RAM
Visual mode enabled (feature of graphics card/ comp) = RTS/RPG
Window mode - 3440x1347
UI scaling 100%
Anti-aliasing = H; Post Processing = H; Shader Quality = H; Texture Quality = H; LDD Quality = H; Shadow Quality = H; Reflections = L
Dynamic Camera Movement = Y
Resource Cache Enabled = Y
Feedback as follows:
BUGS
Ships and item lists under station hangars have the following bugs:
When switching between items and ship sub-tabs when both are in icon view, the other tab will show items in a singular column instead of wrapping to the width of the window (i.e., I see a 1 across x50 tiles down instead of a 5 x 10 arrangement on a window that is 5 icons wide).
When trying to access the ship and items sub-tabs when in a citadel / POS, the names disappear. Clicking the otherwise empty space will âresurfaceâ the names and thus the ability to switch tabs.
Capsuleer day/ event encounters page - sidebar text explaining the event wraps at absolute agency windows edge with zero bottom margin/offset rather than internal box. The event progress bar and rewards sometimes overlaps with the previous page (Encounters) without having accessed the actual event page.
Redeem items showing only 3 icons wide instead of 4 resulting in a large black space beside box 3 and an unbalanced feel to the contents of items in the box.
PROS
The UI overall looks much sleeker and has a crisper look
Right hand context menus are better - more rationalized options with clear icon and color highlights for key commands like information, trash, etc.
Active screen and active tabs are clear
PHOTON UI SUGGESTIONS
Back lighting color and general color scheme - Currently the default color of the back lighting is straw (#e4d96f) and brass (#e1c16e) respectively. Optionality can be given across some colorways to enable personalization. For instance, I like the brass color for buttons and such but would rather go with a different back light color that has a slightly lower contrast against black (which is the tinting used in the windows) such as ecru (#c2b280). At the very least, do (A) enable us to adjust brightness and contrast to back light, (B) select a color that is closer to brass and has lower contrast.
Icon size - As has been previously indicated in other feedback, icon sizes for items are too big. I would suggest that you enable us to select icon size instead of a one-size fits all. Similar to how in windows you can select big icon, medium icon, and small icon for files and folders in file explorer. There are times when I appreciate having the larger icons but many times I would still like to see icons but at a much smaller size.
Iconography on probe formations and return buttons are too small to make out the formation unless one hovers over the text. I would also suggest that aside from making the size of the image larger, to make the lines thicker for easier differentiation for the launch formations.
Header sizes - As has been previously mentioned, they are too large. Similar to the above suggestion, it would be good to have the ability to modify the text size. This will cater to both individuals who might want a slightly larger font size (for readability) without having to scale the whole UI and those who want smaller font to enable more window space.
In the fitting screen, the tab colors for the selection of hulls & fits vs. hardware and modules vs. charges is too stark as it is using white. Even with using a shadow behind the text, it detracts. I would suggest remaining within the brass colorway similar to how other items selected in the fitting window utilize this. The same feedback for the sub-headers in Project Discovery, build vs. scan in PI, buy & sell vs. courier in Contracts page, etc.
Transparency of probe scan screen is more opaque. This does not help when having the scanner open while trying to monitor surrounding space. Would suggest providing an opacity option to allow the user to select whether to allow greater transparency to see ship and surrounding or higher opacity when in safe space for easier scan review. The purplish tint doesnât exactly work for me either.
For high criticality / sensitive buttons like âundockâ in stations and citadels, use a different hover color to make it clearer that it is being selected rather than the subtler border glow.
Color gradation for security in route are less pronounced making the differentiation of levels of security less straightforward. Would suggest increasing the saturation but retaining the colorway currently showing in the Photon UI.
In the skills catalogue, would suggest differentiating the button color for items that can be trained (i.e., +s) vs. those still require a skill book/injection.
White-gray gradient of icons on left main menu result in the icons âfading outâ / becoming difficult to view when in space and the background scene is one that is lighter e.g., one of the visuals of the nebulae or when facing the sun.
Move the lock/unlock screen from the burger menu and put it directly beside the minimize button. Compared to the rest of the items within the burger menus, it is the most used item and is far better to be easily accessible to players.
Search bar for people & places screen consumes too much vertical space. Would suggest moving the âsearch byâ drop down be moved to the right of the search button.
An more obvious alert (mutable) for chats would be preferred to the small underline beneath the chat name. Without this it is very difficult to determine that a new message has come in, particularly for channels that I would want to actively monitor new messages e.g., fleet, alliance/corp.
OTHER SUGGESTIONS
I would suggest including a hyperlink/ button below each of the 4 certified plan categories that opens up the video and a brief overview of the role within the application itself similar to what is available on the website. As it currently stands, a new player who opens the certified plans would only have the little (i) blurb which barely helps. Also letâs face it, a veteran wouldnât really be utilizing the certified plans and would instead be jumping directly to personal or corporate plans which means that particular page is really aimed for new players.
Dear CCP, I spent the time and tried the new UI and then read most if not all of the feed back posts here, Iâve come to the conclusion that the current UI isnât broke and doesnât need fixed or changed.
There are other things that require attention such as Missions which needs a serious overhaul/update. Letâs dedicate sometime toward that in stead of wasting it on a Tablet/iPad interface for the game.
Even if you asked or want want to know whatâs wrong with this Photon UI, I donât feel it necessary to provide any since I donât plan to use it, Iâll stick with the current one since it works properly.
ps: and no I donât use the newer map either, I still use the original one thatâs been around since game release.
overall i like the photon UI better than the original but i will enter a plea for the ability to scale the text font sizes larger. my eyes. like those of many players i talk to arenât getting any younger. we desperately need a larger font size or i fear our days of eve will soon be over. id really like to scale the text without having to scale the entire UI. the eye fatigue the current font sizes offer at the screen res of my my monitors causes a lot of eye strainâŚreally kills the enjoyment of the game.
I love how the colors are and how its setup but its still buggy. Sometimes the item bay doesnât show in the hanger. Sometimes the ships are all in one line and you have to resize it to get stuff to show. I cant wait for it to be put into production
Generally I like the newer UI but I urge your devs to brush up on accessibility.
There are easily measurable, technical tests that you can do to ensure the text on the UI is readable with the eye. The PhotonUI (just like the current UI) is failing these tests in many places. Please look especially at the guidance for contrast.
Here is an example:
The minimum contrast you should be aiming for to comply with the accessibility guidelines is 4.5:1. The âSearchâ text fails the contrast test because it is 3.36:1. It is hard for some people to read (very hard for me).
There are many many resources out there you can use to test your UI to ensure people can read the interface. Please take your users into account who may be playing on smaller screens, are playing with low quality graphics settings, or who are just generally older.