I agree, you have been pretty clear.
This was pretty clear, and it was objectively false. And…
…this is not what it said. It said you have only spoken to (NOT JUST PRIVATELY) 3 people making that claim. And in this very thread, you had responded to more than that number of people bringing up such issues prior to making that statement.
You’re right with the “my dislike doesn’t make them objectively bad” part of this. But there ARE elements of the UI which ARE objectively bad. And it’s not my dislike of them that makes them so. It’s objective facts about what makes good UI design in a mouse and keyboard driven environment, and objective facts about how human eyes and brains process information, whch makes them objectively bad. As I stated in the comment you were responding to. Those are not all 100% consistent or universal things, but there are lines which can be drawn to delineate good design from bad in an objective sense. And SOME (not all, and at this stage, not even a huge amount) of the design choices in photon fall on the wrong side of those lines, where the old UI did it objectively better.
Removing the vertical dividing lines from the overview, market screens, and other list type UI elements where those lines were visible in the old UI and aren’t in photon, is objectively bad design. There is demonstrable fact-based reason for the inclusion of those lines to improve information clarity and allow for greater information density without confusion. There is no purpose served by their removal except to make photon look different - it doesn’t look any cleaner, I’ve seen exactly zero arguments that it even subjectively improves the look of the UI to remove them, and they are verifiably beneficial to users.
There are colour combinations in some parts of the new UI are objectively less informative than we had before. The market screen mentioned earlier in this thread is a great example of this, and screenshots of this issue have been posted elsewhere as well as provided to CCP, so I hope they fix it. But this IS an objectively bad design choice which negatively impacts user access to information. There are VERY few instances where this happens, but “very few” is still more than the NONE I saw in the old UI. And it’s also an objective fact that while some people have less trouble identifying similar colours, having 2 colours that are too similar representing different things for which the difference is important to be able to see at a glance makes it harder to quickly parse the relevant information.
In the same vein, the issues with eye strain have not only been presented by significantly more than 3 people in this thread and elsewhere, but have been explained multiple times with valid fact-based reasoning behind those claims. An overly-vibrant primary colour, or a too-high-contrast white, on a dark grey background, is objectively more likely to cause eye strain than a dimmer white or light grey on black, or than a less vibrant colour. There are other colour combinations which can be directly shown to increase the risk of eye strain, which have been shown to be used in photon on several occasions. Multiple users have confirmed themselves to be having issues because of this, so it’s not even just a “textbook” problem - we’ve got practical examples of the impact. Photon causing eyestrain where the old UI didn’t is an objective and proven fact with objective factual reasoning backing up how and why it’s happening.
Several users have posted multiple screenshots of UI elements with text fading out where it doesn’t need to, or cutting off in buttons and other areas where the text is important to have access to and was available while using the same amount of space in the old UI. These are verifiable facts that have been demonstrated by users (hopefully also in bug reports with full relevant information provided to CCP, I’ve seen as much claimed in at least 2 instances). These issues existing for users in photon and not being present in the old UI makes the new UI objectively less suited to the needs of users who are seeing such problems. This isn’t a universal issue, because it’s dependent on screen size, resolution, UI scaling and other factors. But that doesn’t make it any less of an objective fact about how the interface looks and operates and provides information to users with certain setups. Changing those setups can very often not be a practical solution to try and force onto such users, as the availability of physical space, budgetary considerations, or other reasons might impact their ability to make changes and the game shouldn’t be forcing that on them over what should be a simple UI update.
The problem I and several others have raised with the compact mode for the inventory screen is objective fact. The elements for which compact mode should actually be providing more information density, are not affected by compact mode. It is testable, verifiable, 100% reproducible in every instance, and an entirely objective criticism. The one element of note that changes in compact mode, is the removal of useful and functional information. This is also entirely consistent and reproducible in 100% of cases, and has been a requested change by multiple players ever since compact mode was added to this window. A token half-measure was implemented for the removal of information, but it doesn’t restore full functionality, and doesn’t address the lack of compactness to the elements which should be getting compacted.
Another issue with photon is the inconsistency in its interface design. One of the stated design goals for photon was to make the UI more consistent, and that isn’t happening in some areas, though it has improved in this regard A LOT over the course of photon’s development. Areas in the old UI where there used to be a consistent button size for all buttons, now have buttons of varying sizes, sometimes with the change impairing accessibility of important functionality. Some options which seem like they should be available throughout the entire UI are absent seemingly at random in some windows while being available in others. The number of places where this is a problem has been DRASTICALLY reduced in the past few months, though, so I can’t deny the devs are improving things at a really good pace. But “it’s not ready yet” means it’s not ready YET not that it never will be. If they waited for maybe even as soon as next month, but I’d say probably April is more realistic, with this push being another “turn it on but you can opt out” moment, I’m pretty sure they could have addressed these remaining complaints.
I’m not being negative here for the sake of negativity. I’m saying it’s not YET ready to be live because IT ISN’T ready for the removal of the opt out YET. I’m not throwing out complaints that have been fixed just to add fuel to the fire. And I will acknowledge when things are fixed (or in the process of being fixed). The improvements we’ve seen over the course of photon’s development have been faster and bigger than I expected them to be. When they first said they would be pushing photon live in Feb, I didn’t think there was any reasonable chance of it being ready before July. Now I thiink there’s a good chance it’ll actually be ready for the removal of opt out that already happened as soon as next month.
If this update had come with an opt out, I would have done what I’ve done on the previous couple of “it’s activated again but you can opt out” betas, and given it a chance, then decided whether it’s worth keeping. But from what I saw within an hour of starting to use the latest photon UI version, I wouldn’t have been opting out this time. I still think the option should exist, because while I’M OK WITH USING IT MYSELF IN ITS CURRENT STATE there are valid reasons why I don’t think it’s ready to be forced onto users yet. And other than saying there needs to be an opt out, I’d have all the same feedback I have now, if the opt out was still available.
I agree that SOME of the exact same people would be back here if they put it off for another 3 months. Or even if they only waited another 1 or 2 months. But if they fix the most important of the complaints still being made - and just to be clear, MANY OF WHICH HAVE BEEN MADE CONSISTENTLY AND REPEATEDLY FOR THE ENTIRE HISTORY OF PHOTON UI’S EXISTENCE - there will be LESS (probably quite a lot less) people here complaining about it. Because people whose issues with photon have been fixed, won’t still be complaining. And more importantly, the arguments will be much more based on subjective preferences, because the main things that many of us are claiming as “need to fix before removing opt out” are the objectively factual elements that are still problematic. If they fix those, it will be more obvious - because it’ll actually be true instead of people being dismissive because “doesn’t affect me” - that the remaining feedback is just people wanting reversals of changes for personal subjective reasons.
If they fix the issues with design elements that impair readability, can be proven to be long-standing known causes for eye strain, and reduce clarity and density of information without tangible benefits, there will only be subjective claims left. And when there are only subjective problems with the new UI, it’s ready for the opt out to be removed. Those remaining subjective issues can be cleaned up without chasing the playerbase away. Even if there’s only minor rather than functionality-breaking or potentially-harmful issues, I’d say it’ll be ready once those concerns have been addressed.
My issues with photon and concerns about the possibility of it being rushed into service before it’s ready have directly contributed to me not paying for omega before now (though I have gotten some omega time without paying). I almost did so on several occasions, but my worries about the new UI not looking like it was in a fit state and possibly wouldn’t be ready enough for me to use before being pushed live made me hold back. The quality photon has achieved already has convinced me that I’m going to be upgrading my account soon (maybe soon enough to catch the PLEX for GOOD event). I’m definitely going omega even if they don’t roll back the removal of opt out, even though I think they should restore that option for a little bit longer before removing it properly. I consider it a mistake not to have the opt out still, but I respect that there are reasoned arguments against me in both directions - people with good reason not to want to support CCP with photon in its current state with no opt out, and people who think it’s fine and I should stop complaining. But I have given what I consider to be very strong reasons why I believe the opt out should still be available while photon is in its current state, and I don’t consider the removal of the opt out to be as serious an issue when so many of the past concerns with photon have already been resolved, and CCP have demonstrated that they’re continuing to improve it at a good pace.
And going back to the topic of the colour palette issues, I think this argument needs to be addressed specifically:
The ability to change theme is an omega-exclusive feature. Locking free players out of accessibility tools isn’t really good practice. Nor is forcing non-colourblind players to use colourblind mode, which has its own readability issues when you’re not colourblind. Unless that changed with the latest update, though it doesn’t look like it has from where I’m sitting with an alpha account that has no UI themes to choose from.
