Re: [Rails-devel] Changes & UI ideas

[Brett L. <wak...@gm...>]

On Thu, 2007-07-05 at 21:18 +0200, Erik Vos wrote:

> I'm no longer very happy with the varying use of the OR window buttons.
> In particular I think that the payout decision can better be done 
> in a popup than by the standard buttonsm which are renamed for that purpose.
> 
> Perhaps the revenue entry should as well be put into a popup.
> 

Just to get this out of the way, I despise pop-ups.  I really hate apps
that over-use pop-ups (especially modal pop-ups) to present every
niggling little detail to the user and force the user to click an OK
button to go back to whatever they were doing before the pop-up
interruption.

I don't want to get into the habit of forcing things into the user's
face with pop-ups unless it's absolutely necessary.

That being said, I do think there are a few, occasional good things to
put into a pop-up, such as critical application errors.

Right now, the popup for setting the value of a new company is okay
simply because it's one of the few decisions that *must* be made before
play can move forward. So, having that be an interruption is, to me, a
good use of a pop-up.

> I fact I'm inclining to an approach previously proposed by Brett,
> to have a fixed set of buttons as in the 1830 PC game, which 
> are enabled/disabled as appropriate. I'm not sure if buttons should
> also be added to initiate tile and token laying, as that would imply 
> an extra mouse click.
> 

Yes. I'd much prefer this style of interface where all of the
information needed to play the game is on a single "screen". Being that
we're already using a multi-window approach, I'd like to keep the total
number of windows to a minimum.



> Having a fixed set of buttons will also give a quieter look -
> it's now a bit chaotic with buttons appearing and disappearing all the time.
> Special actions (like the M&H/NYC swap) could be put under a "Special"
> button.
> Undo/Redo would be moved to a menu bar, as in the other windows.
> Comments?

Agreed.  I don't mind having context-specific buttons that appear and
disappear from the button list. However, I do agree that
enabling/disabling existing buttons is easier on the window layout than
adding/subtracting whole buttons.


> Talking about popups, I am also considering to replace some popup
> choice lists by a set of radio buttons, at least in those cases where
> a choice must be made between equivalent options, such as in selecting
> a company start price. The current choice list initially shows 
> the top price ($100) only, and the list must be scrolled to see the other
> values. 
> I think it would be better to show all prices on equal footing.
> 

It's certainly worth trying. Perhaps this is a good option to make a
user-configurable option? 

Would it be much work or complicate things unnecessarily to have both
layout options available?


> As an experiment, I have replaced the par price choice list, 
> that is shown when starting a company, by a set of radio buttons. 
> I have /not/ replaced the price list that pops up when buying 
> the B&O private, so you can still compare the two possibilities. 
> Let me know what you think about it.
> 

I'll check it out.

> >From here I will continue to complete Undo/Redo to the
> point that perhaps Save/Load can be implemented.
> By then I think we will have a firm enough basis to resume adding
> more functionality.

Awesome. I think we can do another release soon, perhaps when the last
bit of Undo/Redo work is complete but before you start on Save/Load?

 ---Brett.


The trouble with being punctual is that people think you have nothing more
important to do.