Cecrit
29-05-2011, 07:37 PM
Table Of Content:
1 Introduction
1.1 Keynotes for the design
2 New Features
2.1 Idle Mode
2.2 New PM
2.3 Score Screen
3 Layout
3.1 Overview
3.1.1 List of Users
3.1.2 Tabbed Channels
3.1.3 Tabbed Details Within Each Channel
3.1.3.1 Chat
3.1.3.2 Signing
3.1.3.3 Stats
1 Introduction
RGC is growing constantly and many new members join us. But even though RGC is a great place to play at the design dose not represent the quality of the client. The first impression of an user is one of the most important aspects for his/her further opinion. That is why I took some time and did some drafts to create a new "inviting" design for this client. I did many drafts but gave them up again because they did not really fit. After several tries I got a concept that might fit to the client and thats why I stop doing drafts for now.
At this early stage of the overall concept I would like to gather some feedback to see if I am heading into the right direction
Important is that this suggestion also contains suggestions about different functions, but more on that in chapter 2.
1.1 Keynotes for the design
It was really important for me to create an user friendly design, which gives an 'inviting' feeling. But even more important was to hide low-priority functions on the first sight. The client has to be clean and every function needs to be easily accessible without getting the user distracted.
An other thing that came to my mind is some sort of idle mode.
2 New Functions
Some new features come along with my suggested design and I will explain them now so that you know what is meant when it comes to the design itself.
2.1 Idle Mode
It is not uncommon that an user stays away from keyboard or just does not use the client for a while. Sure if you really do not need the client the best solution is to minimize or even disconnect from the client. But what if you are curently not playing, but want to be updated about what is going on? The Window is kinda big and rescaling does not really solve that problem.
The idle mode could solve that problem. It is simply a button that allows you to toggle between "full-view" and "idle-view". While the full-view covers every aspect of the client, the idle-view is limited to its basics. It has the size of common instant messengers and displays the admins, active users and your friends (maybe even clan member). The idle-mode allows you to send personal messages to these users but that is it. Nice to run in background to look up if some of your friends are online. And if you want to play again you have to press one button and the whole window collapses again.
2.2 New PM
Instead of opening a tab inside the client, a personal chat opens a new window. but only one instance at a time. Every further PM's are tabbed inside this new window. You might be thinking that this is really unnecessary, but it separates the channels from personal chats and allows you to chat with someone while having an eye on the global chat as well.
2.3 Score Screen
Since there are many kinds of information that hostbots can read out of a game, a score screen would be nice. Something like http://www.adotaparser.com/ does with replays. The place for it is described in 3.1.3.2 .
3 Layout
In this chapter I will present the general layout to you. 3.1 Will contain a raw overview of the layout. The numbers indicate the single elements which will be explained further on
3.1 Overview
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3000/rgcrawlayout.jpg
This is the raw overview of the suggested design. Real (hand drawn) content art will follow if I get enough feedback. You should decide if you like the raw concept and if I should go into further detail.
This Chapter is split into the different parts of the design.
- The list of users (3.1.1)
- Tabbed channels (3.1.2)
- Tabbed details within each channel (3.1.3)
3.1.1 List of Users
The list of users (whole left side of the overview in 3.1) contains groups for admins, active users and friends. Each of this groups is expandable and collapsible. The group 'admins' shows the admins that are currently online, the group 'active users' shows the users that are currently active within the chat (new chat system of 4.5) the value X/X indicates the number of users active in relation to the total users online. The group 'friends' shows the friends of you that are currently online. The X/X serves the same purpose as in 'active users', it indicates the amount of friends online in relation to the total friend count.
Possible groups: Clan / User defined
the group 'clan' would work the same way as 'friends' just with your clan members.
'User defined' could be groups that were merged by the user itself.
This list would also be the visible in the idle mode (2.1)
3.1.2 Tabbed Channels
Since I moved the PM's to a separate window the only thing that needs to be tabbed are the channels/rooms you are in. I moved them to the side to make them quicker accessible though the eye is leading from the user list to the channels so its passing these tabs without having to look them up first (no real problem, you won't even realize it). But the main reason is that it fits to the rest.
3.1.3 Tabbed Details Within Each Channel
Now where the top of the screen is clear I added tabs to it to navigate between chat, signing to games and your stats in the selected channel.
because it is much content I split this champter once again into these three parts.
- Chat (3.1.3.1)
- Signing (3.1.3.2)
- Stats (3.1.3.3)
3.1.3.1 Chat
Well there is not much to say here, it is simply the same chat as before just at another location.
3.1.3.2 Signing
You might ask why i made a whole tab for signing. Well this tab should also contain information about open games. Like a list of users it should show, who is in which game and how is it balanced (points).
It would also contain the score screen that is mentioned in 2.3.
3.1.3.3 Stats
This tab contains informations about your stats. (Once the new homepage is done and there is space for these information) It will be a profile for each room you play in.
Thank you for reading and feel free to comment or send me an PM
Cheers
1 Introduction
1.1 Keynotes for the design
2 New Features
2.1 Idle Mode
2.2 New PM
2.3 Score Screen
3 Layout
3.1 Overview
3.1.1 List of Users
3.1.2 Tabbed Channels
3.1.3 Tabbed Details Within Each Channel
3.1.3.1 Chat
3.1.3.2 Signing
3.1.3.3 Stats
1 Introduction
RGC is growing constantly and many new members join us. But even though RGC is a great place to play at the design dose not represent the quality of the client. The first impression of an user is one of the most important aspects for his/her further opinion. That is why I took some time and did some drafts to create a new "inviting" design for this client. I did many drafts but gave them up again because they did not really fit. After several tries I got a concept that might fit to the client and thats why I stop doing drafts for now.
At this early stage of the overall concept I would like to gather some feedback to see if I am heading into the right direction
Important is that this suggestion also contains suggestions about different functions, but more on that in chapter 2.
1.1 Keynotes for the design
It was really important for me to create an user friendly design, which gives an 'inviting' feeling. But even more important was to hide low-priority functions on the first sight. The client has to be clean and every function needs to be easily accessible without getting the user distracted.
An other thing that came to my mind is some sort of idle mode.
2 New Functions
Some new features come along with my suggested design and I will explain them now so that you know what is meant when it comes to the design itself.
2.1 Idle Mode
It is not uncommon that an user stays away from keyboard or just does not use the client for a while. Sure if you really do not need the client the best solution is to minimize or even disconnect from the client. But what if you are curently not playing, but want to be updated about what is going on? The Window is kinda big and rescaling does not really solve that problem.
The idle mode could solve that problem. It is simply a button that allows you to toggle between "full-view" and "idle-view". While the full-view covers every aspect of the client, the idle-view is limited to its basics. It has the size of common instant messengers and displays the admins, active users and your friends (maybe even clan member). The idle-mode allows you to send personal messages to these users but that is it. Nice to run in background to look up if some of your friends are online. And if you want to play again you have to press one button and the whole window collapses again.
2.2 New PM
Instead of opening a tab inside the client, a personal chat opens a new window. but only one instance at a time. Every further PM's are tabbed inside this new window. You might be thinking that this is really unnecessary, but it separates the channels from personal chats and allows you to chat with someone while having an eye on the global chat as well.
2.3 Score Screen
Since there are many kinds of information that hostbots can read out of a game, a score screen would be nice. Something like http://www.adotaparser.com/ does with replays. The place for it is described in 3.1.3.2 .
3 Layout
In this chapter I will present the general layout to you. 3.1 Will contain a raw overview of the layout. The numbers indicate the single elements which will be explained further on
3.1 Overview
http://img96.imageshack.us/img96/3000/rgcrawlayout.jpg
This is the raw overview of the suggested design. Real (hand drawn) content art will follow if I get enough feedback. You should decide if you like the raw concept and if I should go into further detail.
This Chapter is split into the different parts of the design.
- The list of users (3.1.1)
- Tabbed channels (3.1.2)
- Tabbed details within each channel (3.1.3)
3.1.1 List of Users
The list of users (whole left side of the overview in 3.1) contains groups for admins, active users and friends. Each of this groups is expandable and collapsible. The group 'admins' shows the admins that are currently online, the group 'active users' shows the users that are currently active within the chat (new chat system of 4.5) the value X/X indicates the number of users active in relation to the total users online. The group 'friends' shows the friends of you that are currently online. The X/X serves the same purpose as in 'active users', it indicates the amount of friends online in relation to the total friend count.
Possible groups: Clan / User defined
the group 'clan' would work the same way as 'friends' just with your clan members.
'User defined' could be groups that were merged by the user itself.
This list would also be the visible in the idle mode (2.1)
3.1.2 Tabbed Channels
Since I moved the PM's to a separate window the only thing that needs to be tabbed are the channels/rooms you are in. I moved them to the side to make them quicker accessible though the eye is leading from the user list to the channels so its passing these tabs without having to look them up first (no real problem, you won't even realize it). But the main reason is that it fits to the rest.
3.1.3 Tabbed Details Within Each Channel
Now where the top of the screen is clear I added tabs to it to navigate between chat, signing to games and your stats in the selected channel.
because it is much content I split this champter once again into these three parts.
- Chat (3.1.3.1)
- Signing (3.1.3.2)
- Stats (3.1.3.3)
3.1.3.1 Chat
Well there is not much to say here, it is simply the same chat as before just at another location.
3.1.3.2 Signing
You might ask why i made a whole tab for signing. Well this tab should also contain information about open games. Like a list of users it should show, who is in which game and how is it balanced (points).
It would also contain the score screen that is mentioned in 2.3.
3.1.3.3 Stats
This tab contains informations about your stats. (Once the new homepage is done and there is space for these information) It will be a profile for each room you play in.
Thank you for reading and feel free to comment or send me an PM
Cheers