New Ui Feedback From Ui/ux Designer: Visually Nicer, Slower To Use, More Clicks To Do The Same Task

[DawnFalcon]

All the people shouting their heads off about wanting the old UI back and how horrible the new one is aren't contributing to this process.

 

Polish is something you do when the basic idea works well. Sorry, but I simply don't see the new UI as that. And I remind you that beta...

 

 

KriLL3 - Um, so professional UI/UX/HCI designers are a "constant presence", and we do what? Erm...

 

No, there are real and major issues here, and what happens is tolerance, and not actually liking it. In fact, I can argue (and have, and am writing an academic paper on this) that a good part of the explosive success of WoW was because of it's UI customisation - people were no longer limited to the designer's vision of a good UI.

 

Please don't be rude and dismissive - if you have specific criticism then let's hear it, especially when we have agreed on some issues such as the planet display.

Edited July 18, 2014 by DawnFalcon

[KriLL3]

I think you misunderstood me, I didn't dismiss any of your points, I dismissed the people saying "zomg nuke it from orbit!" "giev back U13 UI!" And yes most people that don't have any strong feelings one way or another are the kind that don't have the energy to care about anything, make their email UI hotpink and they would endure because they don't know how to fix it.

 

People saying "it's horrible but I'm not specifically going to say why nor give constructive feedback" are the constant presence btw.

Edited July 18, 2014 by KriLL3

[Maladictor0909]

To all those who are defending the new UI/explaining how we do not deserve these great developers:

 

There is this thing called capitalism, you might have heard about it.

It basically involves one party wanting to get what the other party produces by giving the second party money for it, or in warframe's case - for special extras, speed-ups, premium access and pay-to-not-farm-like-crazy-and-wait or an outright pay-to-win.

Now if a whole lot of someones that previously paid for premium access, platinum and so forth up and leave or cut gaming time because of the awful mess of an UI and all the bugs then the developers will have a real quandary - a choice between the update which they allegedly love so much and the ability to get these nice little pieces of paper that can be used to buy food, because S#&$ty output and revenue drops usually means &!$$ed off management and/or investors, which means layoffs or the company being cut to bits and sold to the highest bidders, or a bankruptcy:D

 

Just copy-pasting from another post of mine.

[Deus_X_Machina]

I 54th the points of the thread starter..

Of course some points look nice, and the ship is definitly nice (Although it would be nice if standard movement would be avaiable).

 

But there are so many points more problematic with this UI, all I can think of mentioned in the opening post. And I don't see anything that works better. Only things that works worse, look worse.

Especially star map and planet map are ugly, non intuitive, and slow to navigate. Especially in that cases I really want the old UI back - by the way with the old star and planet map the tilting (that some menus now have) would acually work a bit, and be not so bad as, for example, in the Mod menu.

[BlackBird]

It is far from "beyond redemption". The new GUI looks very good but it feels bad right now. If you look at the huge size of the screen elements, the main menu text and the giant square tiles in item views it is clear that this was made for people who sit a couple of meters away from the screen and not directly in front of it. Same goes for the way the menu control. Missing or overly small back buttons are clearly a sign of a "press b button to return" design choice that has now been ported from console to PC with the change that this "b" button is called "ESC" and can't even be rebinded.

 

Resizing the menu elements and making room for more elements, fixing the screens at a 90° angle and listing the locations of a planet as a grid below the planet instead of around it would already fix the most pressing issues. I personnaly would like to see the option to simply disable the liset and have a simple replacement UI. I want to play Warframe and not "Space Menu Manager 2014".

 

Right now I would be playing Warframe because I could just launch the game make two clicks (click on an alert and start) and there I go but now it seems so tedious and involved to even get going that I'd rather watch the International.

Edited July 18, 2014 by BlackBird

[Methanoid]

the UI imho is becoming more and more console oriented/friendly and less PC user friendly, the Mods/fitting sections are a cluttered mess, a giant leap backwards, the new navigation/map i find is oversized and bland the node selection is also a leap backwards.

 

simply trying to do anything that was simple before is now a chore requiring more clicks and leads to frustration, nothing seems very user friendly, it reminds me greatly of the complete and utter waste of time was the Eve Onlines Captains Quarters, another 3d walk around which does the same job as your basic menus only it takes longer and has no real value, warframe has followed suit.

 

My feeling is this is all to accomodate console users, it reminds me both in use and looks of various PS3 console games ive played, but feels utterly alien, annoying and unnecessary for PC users.

 

all in all i dont like any of the visual "updates", i cant think of even 1 single thing where id think "yeah this parts better than before".

[DawnFalcon]

Deus - Indeed, it's not just the cosmetics (and I'd hope that was modular, because I can totally see customising the look of the UI as something which could be sold by DE at some point in the future).

 

I'm not that keen on the white, projected, look but that's really not the issue. The issue is the changes to the menu flow and UI.

[Methanoid]

Deus - Indeed, it's not just the cosmetics (and I'd hope that was modular, because I can totally see customising the look of the UI as something which could be sold by DE at some point in the future).

 

I'm not that keen on the white, projected, look but that's really not the issue. The issue is the changes to the menu flow and UI.

^ This.

[Atvir]

From the amount of feedback on the forum I'd be very surprised if we didn't see some serious changes in 14.1 and .2

 

To me it seems like ideas matter more than execution this early into an update, because the execution can be polished with user feedback. All the people shouting their heads off about wanting the old UI back and how horrible the new one is aren't contributing to this process.

 

Of course is not everybody contributing to this process, but i can fully understand that.

 

There are so many flaws, how should someone, with a very limited set time to play, do the work for the devs? Look at the countless family daddys, hard working man, etc. They wanted to play. They believed the Devs and were disappointed. Why should they invest hours of hours to sort out actual portable ideas for so many problems that it would even need more time, that they have, to name all the problems. They want to  be heard and they want to express their feeling towards this update and that's only fair.

 

Other example: This game is such a mutli cultural and multil language game that there are a lot of players who are simpley not able to bring forward their arguments in good english and therefor reduce their post to the poor critique. And dont come up with the other "langague warframe forums". Nobody cares about them. The only thing that is even considered to matter are the English Forums.

 

And hey, when someone only wants to get back their UI13,x it is okay, too! Why should every post be a revelation for the devs? If you follow the different threads you will notice that a lot of players do their first forumspost because of this incident! If that is not alarming :x i dont know...

 

TL:DR

There are so many different kinds of Players, not everyone wants, can or is able to do constructiv critiques and that totally okay. in the end the devs do what they want to. they know exactly what went wrong. you cannot tell me that they didnt know this S#&$storm would come. because of an absurd idea they choose to release this unpolished (and i would say idiotic) UI. I dont know why, but there must be reasen.

[Gorg50]

Anyone else get motion sickness scrolling through the mods in the arsenal and through items in your foundry?

[KriLL3]

Yeah they really need to come up with example tasks and make a flow diagram showing how many steps you need to take to accomplish that task, and if possible compare to the U13 UI for reference, pretty much all things I do in the game seem to need at least 1.5x the clicks/time as it did before, some tasks a lot more.

 

 

Anyone else get motion sickness scrolling through the mods in the arsenal and through items in your foundry?

 

Yes, I suffer from simulation sickness easily on low FOV FPS/TPS titles, the ship's small FOV and the super zoomed in projected UI segments makes me queasy.

Edited July 18, 2014 by KriLL3

[vaugahn]

TL:DR

There are so many different kinds of Players, not everyone wants, can or is able to do constructiv critiques and that totally okay. in the end the devs do what they want to. they know exactly what went wrong. you cannot tell me that they didnt know this S#&$storm would come. because of an absurd idea they choose to release this unpolished (and i would say idiotic) UI. I dont know why, but there must be reasen.

 

Oh, I'm not saying that DE didn't release a buggy product, or that some players can't contribute to the debugging process. I'm saying that people who come to the forums with or without playing the update and do nothing but complain about how horrible it is aren't helping.

 

The UI is in need of some work, but so was every single other update when they released it. That's why we have a feedback section.

[Jyro-Blud]

A well crafted post that I whole heartedly agree with. Unfortunately it's bound to be overlooked as people flood in defending it saying "it's new, give it time". Sacrificing the functionality of the UI for the sake immersion has gone too far in my opinion. It's clear the UI was designed for console users, which would be fine, except we aren't on consoles.

agree and is a total waste of the potential of us PC users, we have mouse no need to go around and around when I can point what I want with a simple movement of my hand, it feel so so heavy on the movement that it makes me angry and wanna just stop, get out and go for a walk.

[Atvir]

 I'm saying that people who come to the forums with or without playing the update and do nothing but complain about how horrible it is aren't helping.

I dont understand. Do you imply that the people who complain havnt played the update yet? In this feedback it's all about the UI - you dont need to play a dozent hours to see the problems. actually you only need 10 minutes to see that the UI is a completetly mess and that you will never get used to it.

 

And one last thing concerning the "good new look" of the UI. It really looks great. BUT you will play dozent, if not further 100 or so hours this game! At some point the graphics do not care anymore, you have seen it hundrets or thousend times - what remains is the player-friendliness - that's what's important in long terms. the look of the UI is absolut second rate. It must offer a clear, simple and fast access centre of your operations and not a huge labyrinth and wild guessing and stupidly searching construct.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Atvir

[vaugahn]

I dont understand. Do you imply that the people who complain havnt played the update yet? In this feedback it's all about the UI - you dont need to play a dozent hours to see the problems. actually you only need 10 minutes to see that the UI is a completetly mess.

 

And one last thing concerning the "good new look" of the UI. It really looks great. BUT you will play dozent, if not further 100x hours this game! At some point the graphics do not care anymore - what remains is the player-friendliness - that's what's important in long terms.

 

Ok, I think you're not getting what I'm saying. This thread is good, because it outlines problems in a clear and concise manner and presents fixes. The dozens of threads filled with nothing but hate are what's counterproductive.

 

And I strongly disagree. Good looks are what keep me playing a game, and I'm convinced we're going to see some ease-of-access changes within the next two hotfixes.

[Slacka]

One thing that you missed in your feedback is the fact that equiped cards no longer tell you what they do, or how far they are powered up (current given % etc) unless you roll over them. really cant see any good reason to obscure that information on the ui and force additional unnecessary interaction rather than simply being able to see what you have equiped at a glance as we could in the old UI.

 

Edited July 18, 2014 by Slacka

[Brasten]

Here is a core flaw in the overall design:

 

When I can switch from the Arsenal Menu to the Mods Menu faster by walking over to it, the "veteran" part of the UI has completely failed.

 

It is faster to ESC out of the menus and to the ship and walk over to the "menu" you want. Depending on if you are up-ramp or down.

 

=====

 

The more I use it the more it reeks of Controller preferred input. And it doesn't even have the Keyboard hot-keys to go along with it. The mouse fights and overrides Arrow Key inputs on menus. There are no Keyboard keys to acknowledge or cancel selections, such as on mission selection.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Brasten

[Sepharoth]

I will add my input here as well. The mod page is cool but does leave a lot to be desired. At the moment, it is clunky and rather difficult to use. My warframe standing in the picture also kinda blocks some of the mods on the upgrade screen. And as the OP has pointed out, you can't see all your mods due to them being blacked out at the top and bottom. For me, the mod and upgrade screens sit at an unusual angle making them much less user freindly. I prefer the flat on view we used to have. At this point, I would rather have the old mod and upgrade screens back as they were much much more user friendly.

 

As far as planet and mission selection go, I prefer the old layout compared to the new. Selecting a planet isn't to bad but when you get to selecting a mission, it just looks clunky. It was way better in the old layout. The tiles around the planet seem very out of place and do not go with the game at all.

 

Edit: I just checked and as others have stated, all mods have the bottom blacked out. You can only see what it does and what level by mousing over them. Hope this gets addressed quickly.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Sepharoth

[Methanoid]

This reeks to high heaven of Controller preferred input and it doesn't even have the Keyboard hot-keys to go along with it. The mouse fights and overrides Arrow Key inputs on menus. There are no Keyboard keys to acknowledge or cancel selections, such as on mission selection.

 and yet DE stated the PC is the main development focus not consoles.....  starting to look like thats not gonna remain that way for long.

[Dracknar]

I completely agree with your feedback here.

The new UI is just a chore... getting in my way of doing what I want to do.

 

Well written and good feedback here.. Hopefully it is heeded...

[notionphil]

I was going to post...pretty much the exact same thing.

 

Thanks and +1 for doing it better than I would have.

 

DE: Form has totally demolished function on this UI. More clicks for the same tasks. Everything is hidden under selections, main menus and mouseovers.

 

Missions feel like menu items instead of geographical sectors of a planetoid. The ship made my Tenno feel more "real" but makes the universe feel like a series of menus, instead of a world.

[ArbitUHM]

I agree with the OP as well.  The UI is spiffy looking but less or equally functional to what we had before.  The planetary map it particularly atrocious.  I didn't it could be difficult to pick Jupiter out of a lineup, but it is!  And not only do I still need to consult the wiki to find where a lvl 10-15 interception mission is, I then need to spend a minute or two spinning the wheel o' planets, only to then have to spin the planet itself to finally find the mission!  Granted, having to click-drag around the map and mouse over a bunch nodes wasn't a fun time either, but I would've hoped such a massive overhaul would improve the situation, not keep it annoying but in different ways.

 

Frankly, UI design in videogames is generally really bad, and pretty bad for enterprise software as well.  Look how many iterations Microsoft Word has gone through and the interface is annoying and clunky in so many ways.  No offense to the OP, but I'm starting to think UI designers have some other sensory organs besides eyeballs.  ;)

 

(but it looks really cool, I'll give them that, and I like the immersiveness of a diegetic interface)

Edited July 18, 2014 by ArbitUHM

[Kinderghast]

Lots of very good feedback here, I hope the devs listen to the constructive and valid copncerns of users in this thread.

 

I just want to add a few things.

 

1. I feel like i am being punished for being a PC user and that everything is suddenly harder to do with a mouse and keyboard, and for no positive gain.

 

2. I feel we  are being forced to use a dumbed down "console" version. Giant buttons, so much wasted space on a 20+ inch monitor. Cramped and uncomfortable FoV and camera and childish "immersive UI"

 

3. This is literally worse than Eve's notorious "Walking in Stations" fiasco because at least CCP relented and let users use the old UI interaction.

 

4. The game feels like it is being prepped for PWE takeover and full pay 2 win mode going forwards, with the main focus being all the kids on XBone and PS4 with their parents credit cards.

 

EDIT: Okay so, at the end of the day, why was Windows 8 so hated and reviled by users?

 

Because it forced a crappy tablet UI paradigm on all users, regardless of the fact most people still used a desktop PC and wanted a traditional UI experience.

 

The exact same thing has transpired here - normal use is being punished and aggravated and slowed just to update the UI for console controller interaction.

 

This UI update, is the Warframe "Metro" update and will likely be as successful. P{lease note Windows 9 appears to be reverting most of the tablet focused UI cues for desktop users, and giving people choice.

Edited July 18, 2014 by Kinderghast

[Methanoid]

Lots of very good feedback here, I hope the devs listen to the constructive and valid copncerns of users in this thread.

 

I just want to add a few things.

 

1. I feel like i am being punished for being a PC user and that everything is suddenly harder to do with a mouse and keyboard, and for no positive gain.

 

2. I feel we  are being forced to use a dumbed down "console" version. Giant buttons, so much wasted space on a 20+ inch monitor. Cramped and uncomfortable FoV and camera and childish "immersive UI"

 

3. This is literally worse than Eve's notorious "Walking in Stations" fiasco because at least CCP relented and let users use the old UI interaction.

 

4. The game feels like it is being prepped for PWE takeover and full pay 2 win mode going forwards, with the main focus being all the kids on XBone and PS4 with their parents credit cards.

^ Couldnt agree more.

[PolarBurr]

Very, very, very much agreed. I've honestly put less effort into wanting to play this game. I have a lot of fun on it otherwise, but the new UI makes it overkill for the navigation of planets and missions. It takes so long to get into something and it's so frustrating that I inevitably just quit the game and play something else. It's not something I will look forward to in a game if it is kept.