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

[Tokila]

OP has nicely put what are my thoughts on the new UI.

 

It is NOT mouse and keyboard friendly at all and definitely needs a complete overhaul on that end. I preferred the old UI when it comes to user friendliness with the shortcuts at the top and quick access to all the information you needed. Seriously, a lot of the player base is PC-based, why go for a design that is 0% PC user friendly (and makes some people sick)? I understand that there's also a Console player base, and they deserve a Console UI too. In fact, I seriously think that either 1) mod accessibility for UI design using LUA scripting or 2) multiple UI versions where you pick one of your liking is necessary.

 

Personally, what I would like to see is the new UI style applied to the Update 13 UI since I do prefer the overall look of the new UI.

 

I really DON'T need fancy 3D gimmicks when it comes to a UI for a game like Warframe. What I'm looking for is user friendliness and ease of use while still looking ok. It don't need a 3D effect and I don't need to see my character in the corner. What I do need however is a point and click inventory and some way to easily switch between my arsenal, the chat window, the mission window, etc.

[Atvir]

[EDIT:]

Firstly: I am terrible sorry for the bad quality of the pics. i dont know what went wrong. but i believe, that they are nevertheless more than enough to underline my points

 

[EDIT:2]

I still don't see how many explicit Voidkeys i have. Yes, i have a T4 Mobile Defense, but how many? How should i plan exploration when it can be, that i've run out of key after 10minutes instead of planned 40min? How should i trade effectivly if i dont know how many keys i have ...

 

[EDIT:3]

Now legit:

 

 

Here are a few of my biggest enemies. I'll try to point them out as objectiv as i can - if there are new ones, you can gladly add them to your post.

 

 

[Mod-Menu]

When i want to tweet my CURRENT equipped mods i'll be just sent to the usual 4x Mod Menu instead direkt into it. So if i just want to look at my mods i have to choose one option. if i choose to see all cards and then want to fuse them i have to go back to the 4xMod mainmenu and start over. that nowhere near comfortable it's only annoying and hard to understand.

 

 

 

[Arsenal-Menu]

 

1. I'm playing on 1680*1050 and my "little" frame blocks a huge amount of available mods in the list.

 

 

 

2. Why must i hoover over every card to see it's function?

 

 

 

3. Another huge problem: i do not have the best computer and for me the arsenal works much less fluid then the previous one. i am sure that i am not the only one with this problem.

 

 

4. The blankspace on the right screen. the whole screen seems to be toggled to much to the left ... i don't get it, sorry

 

 

 

5. The buttons and used cards are WAY TO BIG. i am feeling like a 85 years old granddaddy who have to get 10 cm befor the screen and then needs additional help in form of big buttons. i remember the old television remote control of his :x big as a brickstone. Or do i smeel a "little" playstation customization? perhaps it's just me and we are very old near blind men for DE.

 

 

 

=> the same goes for every other installment! here's a pic of the mod one. 4 rows - NO overview - Only for the Blind and Console User. I don't get it.

 

=> forge: why this massive "tabs"? i really dont get it, why are they so big? 90% is white background - why this absurd wasting of space? Ahh, i get it. The smell again.

 

 

[ESC] Menu

 

They said the new UI would be faster to access and to use. But what happens? If u really want to be faster - or more accurate - come near the old simplicity you have to use the [ESC] Menu (get it? - it's smelling). There you now have to use at LEAST 1 additional click for every action - so much for the faster use/access.

 

1. Why do i have to log out over the Profil Menu, instead of putting it above the game closing tab?

 

2. If i want to use the installments (arsenal, etc.) over the [ESC] menu u have to very carefull! Example Arsenal: One false click on the Forge Button, instead the Arsenal one, and you will be warped in front of the forge and have to redone the whole "[ESC] -> Equipment -> Arsenal" -Route again. And with the moving menu and a bit of haste it can happen to much, that it get's really annoying!

 

3. In this brand new UI there are a lot of old elements which definitly break the immersion, which is every pro-ui-guy so fond of. for example:

 

4. to see the news i HAVE TO go the new installment. no quick view on the left corner of the screen. i have to go manually to this stupid little installment. sorry, that's so annoying, i can't descipe it. and then again - if i want to view one of the news i have to further click on it and choose one available. no [ESC] function.

 

i know, these complains might look a minor issues for some, but if u add all the issues .... u get a brand new "i will leave warframe" cocktail.

 

 

[board-Menu]

 

1.Starmap - Alerts

They are very hard to read - i can not imaging how it is for people whith real eye handicaps. And if you want to see all the Alerts (sometimes there are a few) in an overview you have to go back, out of the starmap, to this installment.

 

 

[Party-Menu]

 

1.Why do i have to go after every run into this menu to leave a squad manually, after a random run?

 

2.The first (without use of [ESC]) Party-Menu is a joke. What does it tell us? We can get Zero (okay, except how many are in the party) Information out of this menu.

 

 

 

[END]

There are a lot more flaws... but i dont want to and dont have to time to point out more problems at this point. Yeah u can try to add new infos in different menus here and there - BUT with the current system will never be as fast and as simple and as user friendly as the old U13,x one! I am feeling trolled, cheated and much more. This whole mess reeks of a Gaming-Console optimization and centralization. I as a PC user am - and dont try to tell me other - feeling exploited. We were the first ones, the first one to play and to invest and now we get this huge amount of crap and being told by menu: "you just have to get used to it" or "you just have not played enough to complain" (wave @vaugahn).

Edited July 19, 2014 by Atvir

[Awazx]

Hopefully someday we will one of these.

 

 

[Kappatalist]

You know, I was going to make this post, but you sir have done it 10 times better for me.

 

I don't have a whole lot more to say that you didn't already cover, but this deserves to be plastered across DE's computer monitors, so I'm bumping it.

 

EDIT: I lied, I do have something to say - what are all these "EXIT" buttons that do nothing on my screen?  Are they left over from menus behind the current one, just to trick you?  And why does the progression of the new... map... whatever, radial thing make no sense whatsoever?

Edited July 19, 2014 by Kappatalist

[waftycrank]

if all of the OP's points were addressed UI 14 would be in a generally better state, functionally speaking, than the old UI was

there would still be a great many other tweaks necessaryin order to 'complete' the UI experience - not the least of which being the horrible, sloshy menu panels - but the OP's list would be a good start

[Ishki88]

Another thing I don't think was stated.  The Warframe's heads turn WAYYYY to much to the point I thought Mirage's head was going to snap off 

[waftycrank]

Another thing I don't think was stated.  The Warframe's heads turn WAYYYY to much to the point I thought Mirage's head was going to snap off 

who cares

she looks like a cow anyway

;)

[MightyDaddy]

I'm playing Warframe for a couple of days. The game was already hard to learn even before the U14. After the U14 i feel like I am TOTALLY LOST.

In the U13 i could figure out what missions to do in order to advance, in U14 I'm looking at big balls of bullS#&$ (planets) with $&*&*#(%& circles in them.

Also, I'm always stuck in the loading screen, finding squad, or connecting to host/etc.

 

Thank you developers for testing the updates before releasing them to public, keep the work up!

Edited July 19, 2014 by MightyDaddy

[Star]

I strongly agree with everything the OP has pointed out. I am not a fan of this UI update. It is clunky, it is slow to navigate, and it feels like it is extremely tailored JUST to make navigating it by controller the primary means of using it. It doesn't feel mouse-friendly at all. Things are hidden that don't need to be, and the planet view is really boring imo. I thought the solar system map was beautiful, unique, and easy to navigate with lots of readily available and easy to interpret information. This new nav is a mystery, with a lot of guesswork.

[insaninater]

It's really not PC friendly at all. Needs more visibility and less menus.

[Loswaith]

...snip...  mooching image ;)

 

Another thing this image shows is you have buttons on the hud (white buttons at the bottom right) as well as the ingame UI (below equiped mods) that effect the contextual window.  In this case the 'mods' or 'remove all' buttons (back could go with the others for uniformity) are actually contextually part of the modding procedure so really should be grouped with the rest of the contextual buttons like the 'upgrade' (the installed button in the image), 'auto install' and 'tutorial' buttons.

 

This simply makes it look inconsistent and hobbled togeather.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Loswaith

[Atvir]

Ive stolen a pic from another thread to make a comparism

 

This is the old menu:

 

 

When i see is i could cry. Fast access to every feature. No clumpy, whirling, navigation in the ship. Fast access to every Altert or one click to the latest news. Quick change of online status. And so much more. Tears... R.I.P.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Atvir

[Maladictor0909]

*snip*

That might work for a story-driven single-player game like ME(which I hate because it was basically babylon 5 with Borg universe-wise) but Warframe is a fast-paced combat game where you tweak loadouts, follow alerts, chat and change warframes constantly and where you need to use the map non-stop.

 

Not aplicable for Warframe, nor do I want a ME clone.

[Maladictor0909]

Ive stolen a pic from another thread to make a comparism

 

This is the old menu:

 

 

When i see is i could cry. Fast access to every feature. No clumpy, whirling, navigation in the ship. Tears...

+1, I agree with you 100%.

[insaninater]

Ive stolen a pic from another thread to make a comparism

 

This is the old menu:

 

 

When i see is i could cry. Fast access to every feature. No clumpy, whirling, navigation in the ship. Fast access to every Altert or one click to the latest news. Quick change of online status. And so much more. Tears... R.I.P.

 

+1, It was so elegant and intuitive.

[DaGrull]

Ive stolen a pic from another thread to make a comparism

 

This is the old menu:

 

 

When i see is i could cry. Fast access to every feature. No clumpy, whirling, navigation in the ship. Fast access to every Altert or one click to the latest news. Quick change of online status. And so much more. Tears... R.I.P.

+ 9000

 

And i  liked to see my Tenno guarding the solar system :(

[alfaomega04]

Wow, i was going to list alot of things I do not like about the new AI, but reading through the thread almost all of the gripes I have with it have been already addressed and in a more detailed manner. Therefore I will only contribute by bumping thread. 

 

In the meantime while the bugs get ironed out, I'll be finishing borderland since the cumbersome UI is killing it for me. Keep in mind that before every mission I would change out my gear. I played it for a day and really felt frustrated at all the submenus needed to do anything. Then for some reason the parties I joined kept having connection problems and we would get kicked or disconnected or just separated. Of course this had nothing to do with the change of UI, but I'm guessing how parties were formed has been changed.

 

Hopefully a new patch revises some of the problems, bu until then, I think I'll put warframe in the backburner a bit.

[Justin_Case001]

I agree 100% with OP.  The new UI is very pretty, but slower and clumsier to use.  I applaud DE for being creative, I applaud them for trying to expand this into a more finished, polished product.  I like the ship, I like the imersion, I like the quests.  But the UI needs to be more streamlined.  My initial reaction to the new UI was, "Wow, this is gorgeous!  Neat!"  But then after about five minutes, it was like, "Ok, I'm over it.  Is there a chase, and if so, how do I cut to it?"

 

The animated, moving menus seem impressive at first, but static is much easier to read.  I very much dislike having my frame cover parts of the menus.  My biggest problem is with the mod screen.  When browsing your collection, if you're holding the scroll bar, you can't even see the leftmost column.  Not to mention that the skewed perspective, while neat looking initially, means that mods on the left appear smaller and more difficult to read.  A flat, static menu would be preferable.

 

I really like the immersive element that the ship adds.  I just wish there was a check box for "classic view."  Perhaps we could just have the old UI back, and board the ship at times as part of quests or something.

 

Honestly, this kind of looks to me like yet another example of DE's pattern of one step back, two steps forward.  If you look at the evolution of the game from the beginning to now, I'd say that things have gotten much better.  But DE does have a tendency to take something that works perfectly, screw it up, then fix it again.  E.g. the Continuous Conundrum, The Great Stamina Nerf.  How many times have we said, "It was fine before.  I just want it back the way it was"?

[kultuu]

After hours spent ingame trying to adapt to the new ui, all i can say now is :  

 

its one of the WORST and Clunkiest PC UI's i have ever seen , its rage inducing having to manage hundreds of mods+duplicates  atm . i just want to punch someone in the face when im trying to manage my mods. Its that bad and Obvious.

 

And the foundry.......oh the foundry!! wth is the obsession with white? and  everything is zoomed in. Hey DE im not playing in a tv!

 

everytime i want to change anything in loadouts or do some minor changes =  click click click click back and forward 

 

this  will get old very soon. its shiny now, but when you spend hours ingame farming/grinding/shooting whatever, everyone will appreciate alot more the old UI and his superior functionality and speed.

 

 

 

 

 

How someone gave greenlight to this hack job of a UI??

 

 

 

 

[Skiptis]

Some good feedback in this thread. Really hope the devs take notice and adjust the UI to make it fit for PC users.

 

the page in full fits nicely on the screen if reduced in size 10%~

 

10%? Literally every menu could be HALVED in size, and individual UI elements would still be large enough to be easily readable.

 

Even if UI size was adjusted just enough to make everything fit on the screen, that's still way too large because you have to move your mouse cursor and your eye focus all over the screen to cover on everything - and that size of the UI isn't warranted for any reason on the PC.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Skiptis

[_Je_Suis_Bruxelles_]

The new UI is nice to look at,but totally inferior in functionality compared to the old one.

Why do I need to use the WASD keys to get around the menu? Did they really needed to spread the game menu all over the goddamn ship???

the old star chart was much nicer and easier to use and access missions.

I want the " Click on alert ''  to start it , back.

[Oxazejam]

Ive stolen a pic from another thread to make a comparism

 

This is the old menu:

 

 

When i see is i could cry. Fast access to every feature. No clumpy, whirling, navigation in the ship. Fast access to every Altert or one click to the latest news. Quick change of online status. And so much more. Tears... R.I.P.

 

+1000000

 

  This new UI is a total step backwards;I liked to change frames and gear quite often depending on missions and with this new system I spend more time clicking and fiddling with annoying menus and submenus than actually playing.I usually try to get new warframes on release,but this time i ended quitting after an hour after having to spend all that time with the horrid new menus.

    Same goes for foundry/gear browsing..now you have to walk to every damn terminal and deal with more cramped menus.

   The ship hub may work for a game like Mass Effect on which you actually have stuff story related to do,but not a game like warframe which is all about fast action,quick character gearing and such.Now even looking for a mission on the star chart is a PITA.

    The new UI brought nothing new to the table but that incubator thing(that could have been set up as a room on our dojos);like other posters had stated,it feels like a total console concession.

     There are only two ways i could see this working:

 a)Return to old UI interface and make the ship thing a space hub like the Dojo,so those that prefer it can just go in there and "enjoy" all the new bells and whistles.Incubators could be added to the dojo for those that dont want to go in ship.

 b)Keep the new ship thing and add a terminal that takes you to a screen that works like the old UI,and maybe an option so whenever you enter the ship you are taken to that screen.

 

  I cant keep thinking of this new UI as DE pulling a "Metro" interface on us,all style,but little efficiency..

[ShaxTheRipper]

I only started playing this game little over a week ago, so I've recently had to learn the old UI and now the new one.

 

After playing for about 8 hours with the new UI I've had to log out because of frustration. I absolutely agree with the OP.

Also, the old UI was easier to learn and a pleasure to deal with. 

 

huge +1 to the OP. I really wanted to like the new UI, but I absolutely hate it.

[Llyssa]

Well, the one great thing is that our dynamic duo tends to figure out how to fix the "wtf" quite well once things hit "the wild"(us).

 

Like, the very first version of the current in-game HUD was awful. Some rage was "it is different", but a lot of it was "this is garbage, functionality X, Y, Z that we had before are GONE!" It took a few weeks, but we eventually got X, Y, and Z back, and then had Q, R, and N added too.

 

So, I imagine that will happen here too--now that they've got the basics down, they can fix it. Eventually, it should surpass the old one, but that's going to take a bit of time.

[Atvir]

Well, the one great thing is that our dynamic duo tends to figure out how to fix the "wtf" quite well once things hit "the wild"(us).

 

Like, the very first version of the current in-game HUD was awful. Some rage was "it is different", but a lot of it was "this is garbage, functionality X, Y, Z that we had before are GONE!" It took a few weeks, but we eventually got X, Y, and Z back, and then had Q, R, and N added too.

 

So, I imagine that will happen here too--now that they've got the basics down, they can fix it. Eventually, it should surpass the old one, but that's going to take a bit of time.

 

Nope the exact opposite - it will not happen. This is not different - it is a completely new UI - that is in every aspect, exclusiv the optic, - inferior to the previous one.

 

I am the best example. The UI looks really cool and i really wanted to love it but even after playing x-hours yesterday and today i cannot get used to it. "used to it" doesnt even discribe it, i hate going back to the ship. i hate switching frames and weapons because of the navigating through this ever moving, side viewing, big buttons/pics showing, confusing(e.g.mod), xxx , UI. warframe is this kind of game which needs fast and accurate maneuviering instead of this clumsy thing of a UI.

 

The new UI is for a lot of players not a a little different UI which needs time to get used to, no, it is a game breaking element - which makes playing for a lot of players not the slightest fun.

 

Of course: there will be those who will "adept" and for whom their progress and friends are more important than this game breaker - but there are a lot of others who do not have a positiv outcome after this equation. especially for new commers is und will be the UI a factor to leave the game immediatily. they are way more confused with the new UI than with the old one - and when the old one was the reason for this huge update (or the UI update) i cannot imaging what they would feel about the new one.

Edited July 19, 2014 by Atvir