Re: [TuxKart-devel] GUI

[Matze B. <ma...@br...>]

(for the record I do not have a joystick and still would prefer having not 
more than 2-3 widgets per page to keep things simple - I doubt the 
intention was to put only 1 widget per page. I think Ingos flowchart on 
the Wiki gives a good example on how a multipage menu could work.)

And finally here's my opinion on this stuff copied from the wiki:

MatzeBraun thinks that this needs more discussion in the mailing list. My 
view of thinks is that grumbels idea is ALOT better than having everything 
on 1 page. You're destroying the simple flow of the game if a user has to 
look at a single page full of widgets and settings and needs to figure 
what does what. Visual feedback and recommendations are harder to give if 
the screen is already full of stuff (because it's hard to tell which 
window previews which thing). After all we should also try to reduce the 
number of settings and options. (I know most coders have problems with 
disabling features that are already coded, but believe me, having a clear 
and intuitive interface is alot better than flooding users with strange 
options like mirror or reverse tracks).

We should also stay away from these "standard-widgets", the current menu 
looks like a funky colored office-application with all these radio 
buttons and sliders.

Perhaps another good guideline for testing the GUIs would be to sit some 
people in front of your computer that are totally unfamiliar with typicall 
user interfaces on windows, etc.   (or at least imagine you'd do that if 
you can't find someone ;-)
You'll easily recognize that this multi-page approach is leading into the 
direction instead of expecting knowledge about GUI elements like 
radio-buttons or sliders.

Greetings,
	Matze

On Wed, 30 Jun 2004, Steve Baker wrote:

> Oliver Jeeves wrote:
> > 
> > I kinda agree with some of what you're saying.
> 
> Damn!  Now the debate isn't over!
> 
> To save typing:
> 
>     Many single-widget screens == SWS  == What the majority(?) seem to prefer.
>     Single many-widget screen  == MWS  == What I want.
> 
> > The GUI should be as simple as possible, after every game, the play should be 
> > able to play again immediatly if there are no changes he/she wants to make, 
> > and changing tracks will probably be something that the player will want to 
> > do often, so this should be readily available too.
> 
> Both SWS and MWS can handle that.  Once the game is over, the SWS system can
> pop up yet another widget-screen with something like:
> 
>     REPLAY THIS LEVEL?
> 
> ...and a single button click gets you off and playing again (but with the
> EXACT same setup).
> 
> With the MWS approach that I favor, you'd just get dumped back into the
> big GUI page with all of the widgets set up how you left them.  So, again,
> a single click on the "PLAY!!" button gets you the same thing...back playing
> with a single button click.
> 
> I'd argue that the benefit of the MWS approach is that you can very simply
> play again - but with more or less laps - or with a different Kart or whatever
> using only one click to change the option and another one to replay.  In the
> SWS approach, that's a LOT harder because you have to navigate through a
> stack of menu screens to get to where you can change that one thing - then
> back though a bunch of 'no change please' clicks to get back to playing
> again.
> 
> So (of course), I maintain that the MWS approach wins hands-down (especially
> if you allow the joystick to steer the pointer as well as the mouse and have
> the joystick's "A" button work like the mouse button does.
> 
> > However, I definatly register my vote for being able to change options via 
> > joystick.
> 
> I never denied that possibility - although you'd have to be doing it by
> steering the mouse cursor around with the joystick...which is certainly
> possible although perhaps not ideal.
> 
> I still think everyone is grossly over-estimating the number of
> people with joysticks.  I've been playing with this stuff for a
> long time and I *know* it's a rare thing in the Linux population.
> 
> ---------------------------- Steve Baker -------------------------
> HomeEmail: <sjb...@ai...>    WorkEmail: <sj...@li...>
> HomePage : http://www.sjbaker.org
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