My Take On The New Ui And What I Would Do To Improve It.

[AZAG0TH]

I am really sorry to say that I am not a fan of the new UI.  The look/concept of it is a good idea, but in practice it only serves to make everything harder to do and take more time.

 

Firstly, the white text/backgrounds on a ship with sooo much white/silver bloom makes many things extremely hard to read.   Also, the 'X' activate indicators are far too low on many of the systems, making it so I have to get very close and then pan the camera down to activate them, rather than just walk up and hitting 'x'.

 

Secondly, almost all the text in the new ui is tiny and nearly impossible to read.  I play on a 37" LCD at 1366x768 resoultion from about 3-4 feet away and I am finding myself leaning in to read constantly.  I am typing this post in the same way and can read it absolutely fine.

 

People have already mentioned the lack of identification on the planetary map & lack of resource markers until you "click in" and these are both bad things.  Once you actually click into a planet to me, it's even worse.  Having to spin around the planet to find the mission I want is just silly.  

 

It'd be better to have the missions overlay the planetary model just as rectangles in a grid/tree pattern that had all the information for all the nodes there all at once.  These rectangles could have an icon on the left side for the alert/invasion, mission types, as well as an icon indicating the faction we'd be fighting.  Next to that we could have text about name of the node, mission type, level etc.  Mouse users could just click the ones they wanted and gamepad users could navigate to them and click.  The spin thing is just clunky and unintuitive and again makes it harder to actually find what you're looking for.  

 

By far the worst thing about the new UI, for me, is the fact that I am still in 3rd person mode when using it.  I would like to request a toggle option that would automatically shift me into 1st person mode to look at these menus (much like the select a warframe/weapon menu system).  As it stands, having myself on the left, blocking/obscuring my view of what I am trying to do, and looking at everything at an angle, just doesn't work for me.  

 

The worst example of this that I've found is the arsenal upgrade menu.  I simply cannot see the mods on the left until I actually mouse over one.  Again, the text is too small, the forced perspective angle makes them hard to see and my warframe (depending on who I'm using) blocks a few of the mods I am trying to work with.  Please, allow us to jump to 1st person mode for all of these menus (this would effectively make them like the older-style menus while retaining the current look of the ui, but in a usable, non-aggravating to use form).

 

Sorry if I sound harsh, but it seems that much of the UI design has really leaned far more towards form than function, which is the wrong way to lean.  I know you all worked hard on it, but I hope you take our comments to heart and improve upon it.  As it stands, I feel like fighting with the new ui to do what I need to is more of a struggle than playing through a mission.

 

[misoru2012]

I agree. I think going into first person mode would fix a lot of these problems.

[JakkRandom]

I have to agree on all points OP. 

Please DE, give us a 1st person option for this.

 

I also liked the idea about the mission selection UI.  Not liking it as it stands right now. 

 

As for the bloom/white text - maybe they could outline the text or put a box around it like they do in the activate indicators - but they'd have to make the boxes not see-through for that to work.

[AZAG0TH]

Additionally, I was just in game and noticed that what a mod does isn't even visible until you mouse over it in both the mods menu and arsenal/upgrade menus.

 

This is not good.

[WI6HT]

Here is something i think could help the ui when i comes to mission selection. Move the play and cancel button for a mission under the mission info, above the planet.

 

http://www.tiikoni.com/tis/view/?id=6055fef

 

Edited July 19, 2014 by wightSpider

[AZAG0TH]

That would help one small aspect of the overall problem.  I mean it couldn't hurt.

 

Also, everyone keeps saying this UI is designed for controllers - but I often use a controller and I have to switch to a mouse to do very basic things in the new UI.  It's honestly weird how it is easier to do some things with a controller (spin the planets/navigate nodes) and impossible otherwise (invite a person to a group, switch online/offline status, deal with mods or foundry).

Edited July 19, 2014 by AZAG0TH