Warframe Turning into Netscape Browser Paradigm

[xxswatelitexx]

Not many people will get this joke,but I am sure all the developers would understand.

For those who do not understand the reference,

Netscape was a browser that existed ages past, before Google even existed, also quite famously known as the Wild West of the Internet. What made Netscape special was Netscape Composer which allowed anyone to make a Website back then, with flashing neon marquees and what ever visual clutter you can imagine it was possible and quite likely used. 

There was no standardization of design it was a mess of marquee, flashing gifs and thank god autoplay videos have yet to hit mainstream ( mainly for bandwidth reasons ) or it would have probably killed the internet as we know it. 

For some bizarre reason, in my opinion, Warframe seems to have gone Nostalgic and taken their UI and Gameplay design back into Netscape Era. Just a horrendous amount unneeded and completely unwanted visual clutter. On higher graphics settings all you see are just glowing colors, its no longer a game anymore, but virtual experience of inebriation. 

UI wise it has become a jumbled mess, take Fissure reward screen for example. 
Before you could easily tell which Relic reward you picked, what the rarity of the reward it is you picked.

Now for some reason or another, they decided lets just add in tons of art and no longer tell the user what they picked and make this a wheres waldo experiment. 

 

----

While the world was moving toward more elegant, simple, meaningful designs, Warframe again decides to surprise everyone.

 

 

Edited May 30, 2019 by xxswatelitexx

[Oreades]

So what you're saying is that Warframe needs a Clippy or a BonzaiBuddy to help us navigate the menus? 

[KnossosTNC]

As someone who uses Mozilla Firefox purely out of nostalgia for Netscape, I suppose that explains a few things...

Edited May 30, 2019 by KnossosTNC

[SenorClipClop]

What a weird way to complain about something. Locking your actual point behind understanding an obscure reference, making that reference the crux of your post, then having to drag people though several paragraphs just to understand what you're trying to say about Warframe.

Just tell us you think the new UI is overly cluttered with fancy art and doesn't display pertinent information clearly enough. That's not a difficult concept to grasp, and your reference to a long-dead browser just makes reading this post a struggle.

[rand0mname]

58 минут назад, SenorClipClop сказал:

What a weird way to complain about something. Locking your actual point behind understanding an obscure reference, making that reference the crux of your post, then having to drag people though several paragraphs just to understand what you're trying to say about Warframe.

Just tell us you think the new UI is overly cluttered with fancy art and doesn't display pertinent information clearly enough. That's not a difficult concept to grasp, and your reference to a long-dead browser just makes reading this post a struggle.

After reading your summary, I begin to think that OP done it intentionally, as an example or a joke. Reading original post feels too much like dealing with current UI.

My head hurts now.

Edit: I also think that you probably would be able to design a better UI.

Edited May 30, 2019 by rand0mname

[gordianknot]

Agree, unnecessary visual effects over functionality. 

Best example is when you go to see weapon stats, you just see weapon VISUALS, to see weapon stats you have to go with mouse cursor over some area. 

Thats worst change, besides using void to refine relic. 

[Rhalick0]

Quality post

[(XBOX)Tucker D Dawg]

9 minutes ago, gordianknot said:

to see weapon stats you have to go with mouse cursor over some area. 

that's going to be annoying as f. on console with its slow cursor control.

[Xavori]

You young whipper snappers with your Netscape and things!  Back in my day we had Gopher and we were thankful we even had that (some days, after watching 20 ads sneak past ad block including multiple video and sound autoplays, I would be even more thankful if we had to go back).  And don't even get me started on telnet...

p.s.  Yes.  I really did use to use telnet to access the Internet.  I really even used it to play a text-only MUD.  Now get off my lawn!

[(PSN)Yderil]

14 hours ago, Xavori said:

You young whipper snappers with your Netscape and things!  Back in my day we had Gopher and we were thankful we even had that (some days, after watching 20 ads sneak past ad block including multiple video and sound autoplays, I would be even more thankful if we had to go back).  And don't even get me started on telnet...

p.s.  Yes.  I really did use to use telnet to access the Internet.  I really even used it to play a text-only MUD.  Now get off my lawn!

I also played text based MUD hosted in the US but access from the UK so also had to learn how to use ! to redirect email when the UK/US link went down.
Had to use Archie servers for FTP, and usenet for news/forum postings.
We also had to write our first web pages such that a 14.4K modem could download them efficiently as in UK we were paying a fair cost for using telephones to access internet (black and white files preloading jpg or actually using the interlaced part of the gifs so they loaded in stages)

UI changes based on how we access the information is common, I had to write menus for DOS based apps using ASCII art to try and make them look like windows/frames, windows then changed a lot of that but still keeps keyboard shortcuts.

Have been in situations were we were using command line tools - which had a steep learning curve but once you got over that were really efficient, and watched the move to a graphic interface where the learning curve was a lot lower but due to having additional mouse clicks added you could not get the same efficiency once mastered.
Graphic interface was great for casual/holiday staff and getting through those periods but the regular staff knew they weren't able to work as fast as they could using the command line based tool.

With mobiles and tablets etc we are seeing side scrolling become as prevalent, if not more, than vertical scrolling, and large images and videos replacing text in menus and help files.

The new users that Warframe will be trying to ensure keep coming to the game will have seen those sort of interfaces common elsewhere and so having something that is recognisable to them makes the transition easier.
If for instance warframe used the old DOS press 1 for X 2 for Y ... menus then for people who had used that for a while they would probably just
enter 5,1,F1,2,3,Y
to select Relic, Lith, F1 relic, Refine, Radiant and Yes to confirm
which would probably still be quicker for them than
clicking on the Lith tab, searching for F1 (or scrolling to find it) , clicking the F1 graphic then moving the mouse down to click on the refine to radiant option then clicking OK in the centre of the screen.

You sacrifice efficiency for making it easier for new users to come in and see something they are more familiar with.

[FlusteredFerret]

17 hours ago, xxswatelitexx said:

Not many people will get this joke,but I am sure all the developers would understand.

For those who do not understand the reference,

Netscape was a browser that existed ages past, before Google even existed, also quite famously known as the Wild West of the Internet. What made Netscape special was Netscape Composer which allowed anyone to make a Website back then, with flashing neon marquees and what ever visual clutter you can imagine it was possible and quite likely used. 

There was no standardization of design it was a mess of marquee, flashing gifs and thank god autoplay videos have yet to hit mainstream ( mainly for bandwidth reasons ) or it would have probably killed the internet as we know it. 

For some bizarre reason, in my opinion, Warframe seems to have gone Nostalgic and taken their UI and Gameplay design back into Netscape Era. Just a horrendous amount unneeded and completely unwanted visual clutter. On higher graphics settings all you see are just glowing colors, its no longer a game anymore, but virtual experience of inebriation. 

UI wise it has become a jumbled mess, take Fissure reward screen for example. 
Before you could easily tell which Relic reward you picked, what the rarity of the reward it is you picked.

Now for some reason or another, they decided lets just add in tons of art and no longer tell the user what they picked and make this a wheres waldo experiment. 

 

----

While the world was moving toward more elegant, simple, meaningful designs, Warframe again decides to surprise everyone.

 

 

Sounds like you need to adjust your monitor and/or graphics settings.

UI looks fine to me...

 

...and yes I'm old enough to remember the "good old days" of Netscape...

 

[OneYenShort]

What should also be stated is this is back in the days of  DOS 6.xx/Win 3.11  to give players greater context.

Standard screen resolution was 640x480, games played in... what was it... 320x200?  (think that was mode 13.)

Data transfer was done over modems ranging from 14.4 bps to 28.8 bps, or 56.4 bps if your phone lines could handle it.  (think my decimal values are correct.)

 

What hasn't changed from back then is that good UI design is good UI design.  What changed was screen resolution size, and more people thinking they were actually good at UI design for all.  (Kinda like fashion sense.)

[(PSN)Hikuro-93]

On 2019-05-30 at 9:17 PM, SenorClipClop said:

What a weird way to complain about something. Locking your actual point behind understanding an obscure reference, making that reference the crux of your post, then having to drag people though several paragraphs just to understand what you're trying to say about Warframe.

Just tell us you think the new UI is overly cluttered with fancy art and doesn't display pertinent information clearly enough. That's not a difficult concept to grasp, and your reference to a long-dead browser just makes reading this post a struggle.

Ironically enough, this post does the very thing it complains about. A wall of flashy and complicated text just to say something so simple.

Thank you for clearing that up for the rest of us.

[xxswatelitexx]

 

 

 

6 hours ago, FlusteredFerret said:

Sounds like you need to adjust your monitor and/or graphics settings.

UI looks fine to me...

 

Ya. That is pretty much it reminds me of.

It really isn't fine, they essentially adding too many visual elements to both the UI and gameplay.
The UI is less functional and more of an avant-garde art piece.

I have around 10 different Status icons running across my screen which honestly is just random shapes that serve no meaningful representation of what they do. Which makes it visual clutter if it does not have any significant meaning to the user. 

For example; 

Do these icons hold any meaning to you? You ask 99% of Warframe players they wouldn't be able to identify any of them.

The Relic Screen is another offender. Meaningful information which was there previously which had the text of the item in the rarity of the item has been replaced by a tiny diamond on top. The player name which represented which item you picked has been replaced for some bizzare reason a Bookmark in the corner.

 

Then you have Gameplay elements where various enemies simply glow different colors that hold very little meaningful value to the player, with the exception of a few ancient healers.

3 hours ago, OneYenShort said:

What hasn't changed from back then is that good UI design is good UI design.  What changed was screen resolution size, and more people thinking they were actually good at UI design for all.  (Kinda like fashion sense.)

Really has nothing to do with Screen Sizes, or bandwidth.

It had to do with the internet being "new" and people wanted to shove in as much "New Features" as possible into a website.. 

[xxswatelitexx]

On 2019-05-30 at 3:17 PM, SenorClipClop said:

What a weird way to complain about something. Locking your actual point behind understanding an obscure reference, making that reference the crux of your post, then having to drag people though several paragraphs just to understand what you're trying to say about Warframe.

Just tell us you think the new UI is overly cluttered with fancy art and doesn't display pertinent information clearly enough. That's not a difficult concept to grasp, and your reference to a long-dead browser just makes reading this post a struggle.

That is the whole point though isn't it?

Warframe UI is not functional, its not clear, it is a pain to use. I think my post clearly shows how irritating it is to try to wade through to get the information you want.