Hi Gravling,
Certainly - if you want to explore that, I'm very open to do so. And by all means, Cory, if this is something that shouldn't be happening in this forum, by all means let us know.
As a small background from my end as well, I did work on usability in the past, did a fair amount of research, conducted usability tests for a while, and designed some interfaces for web applications. It is certainly a topic I am interested in as well.
One thing that I tend to do, though, when I have this kind of conversations, is to try to separate the problem from the solutions. The purpose of a usability test, as I see it, is to pinpoint problems - not to come up with solutions. That's the second step.
As such, I tried to focus my post on "my main annoyances with the current method" mostly on the problems I had, not on the solutions I thought would fix them. I do believe that the designers have much more talent and ideas than I could ever had - which isn't to say that if I were asked, I could try to come up with something on my own.
I will agree that the current interface is useful to a certain extent, especially if you _know_ where you're going. Which isn't always the case - you might have just finished a mission, or you are actually lost.
As I said, my main disconnect with the current scheme is:
- It is optimized to "move by intent". I.e. "I want to go to X place". It is fine when you're on a mission, but for someone who has recently started to play, he doesn't know where he wants to go. He has no destinations. Even today, I only resort to going to my usual hotel - the cheap one in Commonwealth - and a few connectors I know of. I'll cover the "explore" use case later.
- The mini-map selection would be a great navigation tool for such use case, but it only works in the same screen. I imagine it is by design, so I will not argue against it, since I do imagine that people did think long and hard about it, and decided to make that choice. I understand that there would be several considerations, like "what is an optimal route? one with lower heat, or one with lower distance?". I'm not delving into that, but I would like for the process to be easier.
- Long distance travelling by foot involves lots of clicking, at least one per neighborhood, if you're using the cardinal directions dpad, so that method still feels a bit like a compromise to me. The vibe I get is more of a "we can't use the mini-map to pinpoint a destination by foot in a different neighbourhood, so we are forced to use these arrows to do that on our own until we reach the desired neighbourhood". It works, but the only real benefit it gives me is that I don't have to click even more times - or constantly hold a button - as I wait for my character to traverse a neighbourhood.
- So, back to the explore use case. I feel that the CK world should be explored. It is huge, and full of detail. As such, the current way you have to explore either involves a set of clicks to move a few squares in the map, or for you to _intentionally_ navigate to someplace specific on the mini-map. Asides from that, when you're traversing the map in a set route, automatically, it's hard for you to stop yourself and branch out to explore - after all, you're on a set route because you want to go someplace already. Also, the act of "stopping" to take a look requires intent, once again. You have to click the screen for the character to stop. And then click someplace else to navigate.
I might just be saying a whole lot of nonsense here, but I tried to make this more or less as "unbiased" as I can, and as "clear" as I can. It might just be the case that the point I'm trying to make is wrong, or not really thought out
If you'd ask me for solutions at the moment, I'm not sure I'd have one. I can think of some, though:
- On-screen "regular" dpad? You'd probably get tired if you were using it to traverse the long map. Having to have your finger pressed to move the long map, where there isn't much "activity" going on would just make the experience lose a bit. But it would be cool for neighbourhood exploration.
- The cardinal dpad (the current one): great for traversing - if there are no bugs. Still, the auto-route sort of kills any attempt at exploration. Also, not optimal for long traverses - i.e. traversing lots of regions.
- Clicking on the map. Useful to specify in more detail where you want to go. Good for navigation in the current neighbourhood. Not particularly excellent for long traverses, nor for exploration, since you still have to have the intent to go to a specific place on the map.
- The mini-map. It's fun for exploring what's on each region. It's still a bit confusing, since we can only see one region at a time. So, if you're trying to get to a specific place in the map, you have to recall "ok. I'm starting at the neighbourhood at coordinates (2,2), and I want to go to the one that's at (4,5), so I need to click two times to the right, and three times up". It would help to be on the mini-map view and still have the small 6x6 grid with the yellow and red color (when applicable) for us to know what exactly we're looking at. Still, asides from that, it's pretty functional. Maybe having the pins in the mini-map all the time would give us a sense of what we can explore there, instead of having to scroll up and down on a list- Probably using a different color or something, per type. I don't know. Also, allowing us to navigate to places in other neighbourhoods just by clicking on them would be great.
I guess that the only exploration that currently happens is on the mini-map, or by scrolling the map and clicking where we want to explore.
Still, these are probably all just half-baked. And, most importantly: would I pick any of them over the existing methods? Not sure. I am just one player. I don't have "the" solution for everyone
Also, there are things that were decided by design, and so the decisions must be respected. Finally, are these the highest priorities for the development time of the team? Most likely not. I can certainly live with the current controls.
Does this help at all? I'm certainly open to questions, and I'd love to hear your thoughts as well. Once again, I want to make this clear: I would not scrap the current methods at all, and I am not saying that they are wrong or bad per se. This whole thread started because I was curious as to what was the new movement option
Cheers guys!
