Subject: UI
From: Tommi Leino (namhas@majik.netti.fi)
Date: Thu Jul 29 1999 - 20:17:23 EEST
The user interface needs some designing now. All the active designers
with capable comp have already seen the client? Now, I want to hear ideas
how to improve the user interface.
In the EverQuest the user interface looks like this:
http://members.xoom.com/ArchDragon/Fearplane/pofcastle.jpg
Very MUD like etc., but practical. The current chatting system sucks
a little when you need to turn around to see the whole message and
you can't see if one who said the message is not on your screen. It
could be improved in a way that a message is always displayed on the
screen but in the edge of the message would be otherwise off-screen,
with a pointing arrow of some sort and the message could also be
smaller if the object is far away. But then, where would be the user's
name displayed? And also, it is possible to avoid overlapping messages,
but if we avoid overlapping then it may be very hard to distinguish
who is speaking.
I can think of two choices:
1. Improve the system we have now and forget about the user's name,
forcing the users to introduce before speaking.
2. Make the text to appear transparently in 5 lines (for example) to
the bottom of the display like: "Namhas: blah..." and then add the
user's name to the top of all objects to make it easier to distinguish
who is where and who is speaking. We could also flash the user's
name when one is speaking. This style is used in many games including
Everquest and Baldur's
Gate.
--
Tommi Leino / Majik 3D project
namhas@majik.netti.fi http://majik.netti.fi
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