New Board UI testing

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Bonatogether
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Re: New Board UI testing

#21 Post by Bonatogether » Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:19 pm

Jamiet99uk wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 2:16 pm
I don't like the white unit icons, they don't stand out very well.

I really don't like the pastel colour palette. Why change the colour scheme? The "old" map has colours which are much more authentic to the original board game. Please keep the traditional colour scheme.
this
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Re: New Board UI testing

#22 Post by kestasjk » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:46 pm

No worries; the color scheme and icons won't be much trouble to change. As others have said though I expect it's about what you're used to, since when people who only use other sites always dilike our colors etc.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#23 Post by Jamiet99uk » Sun Jun 05, 2022 6:56 pm

:razz: Well, our colours are a pretty close match for the board game, so we are right, and they are wrong. :razz:
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Re: New Board UI testing

#24 Post by Ferdack » Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:04 pm

qrzy wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 10:01 pm
Horrible. The old one is better, simplier.
Agreed. The current dropdown menu is much clearer than looking at highlighted provinces in the new version, and the new support move/hold arrows are easy to miss when looking at the entire map.

I find the current webDip map very helpful when trying to understand the full state of the board at a quick glance (IMO the most readable map out of the online dip sites), everything is well balanced and the arrows are contrasting enough.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#25 Post by V+ » Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:51 pm

New map looks great, y'all. Thanks for all the work you put on this! I'm an old-timer who doesn't pay on mobile, so I'm perfectly satisfied with the old map, but I'm game to innovate.

That said, I've got a couple of longtime webdip UI wonderings. Apologies if these have been asked and answered in previous threads (I don't really keep up with the Forum), but they seem relevant to this discussion...

Longtime map wondering: Why recolor territories (e.g. Syr gets shaded green after being occupied by Ita) at all? It's not a feature of the tabletop game, and it seem like it could be visually prejudicial against powers that occupy the larger territories on the map (poor Rus). Also, if this change adds some UI value, why not extend it to sea territories (e.g. MAO turns blue after being occupied by Fra) as well?

Longtime order-writing wondering: Why not allow players to submit invalid orders? This is a feature of the tabletop game, and removing it seems to make at least two not insignificant changes to gameplay. First, it limits the possibility of a player *mistakenly* entering invalid orders and making tactical errors that could cost them a territory or even a match. To me, this feels a bit like placing bumpers in or in front of the gutters in a bowling alley. Second, it limits the extent to which gunboat players can communicate with each other by writing *intentionally* invalid orders. For example, if Eng wanted to entice Tur to ally against Rus, there's precious little they can do to signal it until several seasons into the game when an Eng A StP could support a Tur A Sev to Mos. However, if Eng could submit the clearly invalid order (Eng) A Nor S (Tur) F Bla -> Sev, as they could in a tabletop game, things are a bit more complex and, in my opinion, more interesting.

Again, many thanks to the devs, mods, and everyone else who keeps webdip humming!
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Re: New Board UI testing

#26 Post by C0nd0r » Sun Jun 05, 2022 11:24 pm

V+ wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:51 pm
New map looks great, y'all. Thanks for all the work you put on this! I'm an old-timer who doesn't pay on mobile, so I'm perfectly satisfied with the old map, but I'm game to innovate.

That said, I've got a couple of longtime webdip UI wonderings. Apologies if these have been asked and answered in previous threads (I don't really keep up with the Forum), but they seem relevant to this discussion...

Longtime map wondering: Why recolor territories (e.g. Syr gets shaded green after being occupied by Ita) at all? It's not a feature of the tabletop game, and it seem like it could be visually prejudicial against powers that occupy the larger territories on the map (poor Rus). Also, if this change adds some UI value, why not extend it to sea territories (e.g. MAO turns blue after being occupied by Fra) as well?

Longtime order-writing wondering: Why not allow players to submit invalid orders? This is a feature of the tabletop game, and removing it seems to make at least two not insignificant changes to gameplay. First, it limits the possibility of a player *mistakenly* entering invalid orders and making tactical errors that could cost them a territory or even a match. To me, this feels a bit like placing bumpers in or in front of the gutters in a bowling alley. Second, it limits the extent to which gunboat players can communicate with each other by writing *intentionally* invalid orders. For example, if Eng wanted to entice Tur to ally against Rus, there's precious little they can do to signal it until several seasons into the game when an Eng A StP could support a Tur A Sev to Mos. However, if Eng could submit the clearly invalid order (Eng) A Nor S (Tur) F Bla -> Sev, as they could in a tabletop game, things are a bit more complex and, in my opinion, more interesting.

Again, many thanks to the devs, mods, and everyone else who keeps webdip humming!
Maybe having the water territories coloured very faintly?

I really like the idea of being able to support where units aren't to show a message, could be cool (might confuse people though).

Ultimately being able to choose these colouring options would please the most people, but I think how it is atm should be left as the 'standard'.

my 2.2 cents
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Re: New Board UI testing

#27 Post by Chaqa » Mon Jun 06, 2022 8:40 pm

kestasjk wrote:
Sat Jun 04, 2022 6:46 am
Yep sure, do you mean make them the same as the colors are now?
Mostly Germany being orange is kinda off

What about country colors as a user setting?

Actually, if I have some spare time that might be something doable as a dev effort, no?
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Re: New Board UI testing

#28 Post by wulfheart » Wed Jun 08, 2022 3:58 pm

Honestly I am underwhelmed. But I strongly believe it is a good foundation.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#29 Post by gimix » Thu Jun 09, 2022 4:49 am

Well, it looks better overall, no doubts. There are a few minor issues that may be addressed:
  • the Pause/Draw/Cancel buttons are a bit hard to find, hidden in the "Info" popup
  • where are the "need help" and the new "lodge suspicion" links?
  • where are the "rewind/fast forward" buttons?
But the two things I would really miss, and I'm afraid are not planned, are
  • the "old webDip" approach of showing a succesfully moving unit at its target province. I know many other platforms show the unit at its original province, but I believe this was a big advantage of webDip
  • a page showing the full order history, like the one we used to have
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Re: New Board UI testing

#30 Post by Yonni » Sat Jun 11, 2022 10:14 pm

Good points, gimix. Another thing I noticed is that the press is no longer labeled with the date or game phase, just time.

If you only want to use one of date and game phase to keep things clean, I would strongly suggest game phase. I often find it quite important to look back to see what phase press was sent during.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#31 Post by bartogian » Wed Jun 15, 2022 12:07 am

V+ wrote:
Sun Jun 05, 2022 9:51 pm
Longtime map wondering: Why recolor territories (e.g. Syr gets shaded green after being occupied by Ita) at all? It's not a feature of the tabletop game, and it seem like it could be visually prejudicial against powers that occupy the larger territories on the map (poor Rus). Also, if this change adds some UI value, why not extend it to sea territories (e.g. MAO turns blue after being occupied by Fra) as well?
Yes yes yes. Non-SC territories should not have their colour changed.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#32 Post by C0nd0r » Wed Jun 15, 2022 4:41 am

Are you still planning to launch today?
I am trying to be patient, but I love the new UI.

I mean even if it is just linking beta on the main site so I don't have to keep going to test.webdip
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Re: New Board UI testing

#33 Post by DougJoe » Wed Jun 15, 2022 3:56 pm

I miss the "Notes" tab for the power I'm playing in the press section.

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Re: New Board UI testing

#34 Post by kestasjk » Thu Jun 16, 2022 1:00 am

Thanks for the feedback all, and apologies for the lockups over the last 24 hours, we're trying to gently roll out the beta board to the live site for better testing, we'll address these various concerns but I think we'll be able to manage them all.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#35 Post by Salmaneser » Thu Jun 16, 2022 10:06 am

Wow, big changes. I've been playing Diplomacy on this site since 2006, and only on this site, I didn't really like Backstabbr or other platforms. So for me, the current map is how I picture Diplomacy, it will take a while to get used to the new interface. I'm sorry to see it go. I really liked the simplicity and clarity of the map and orders.

Some feedback for the new interface:

- Why is the press and info hidden behind a button? There is alot of space to the left and right of the map, why not place it there?

- Moving into a territory with nc/sc could be displayed better. I tried to move a fleet from Marseilles into Spain, and it didn't work at first, because I was clicking on the sc icon, which belongs to nc apparently. Perhaps it would be better if you could just click on the territory you want to move to, and then get the option nc/sc.

- The colors were more clear on the current map. There is little difference between Russia, France, England, and France, Italy, water. But you've already got alot of comments on that ;)

- In retreats, only the succesful moves and bounces are displayed on the map, the support moves have disappeared. Wouldn't it be better to display them too, so you have a full overview? Also, how do you disband a unit when you have options to retreat?
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Re: New Board UI testing

#36 Post by Johnny Big Horse » Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:45 pm

The water looks like land. It is too dark. Can't you make it noticeably lighter than all the colors so that it is immediately obvious what land and what is water?

The traditional board is great.

But you know, some may like the new one.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#37 Post by TemplarsBane » Fri Jun 17, 2022 3:46 pm

One point of feedback is that it would be nice to have links to people's profiles in non-anonymous games. Sometimes it's useful to look at someone's history and see how they normally play a given country. If you're England and they're France and you KNOW they opened to the Channel in their last 5 games as France then it's a TON of information and right now it's clunky to get to their profiles via the new UI.

Also, there's been a lot of votes against it, but I'll register the opposing view. I really like territories changing color regardless of supply centers so I can more easily see where my borders are and where my units are etc. A unit in a white space is confusing.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#38 Post by Yonni » Fri Jun 17, 2022 11:20 pm

Oh, I didn't think that was a dissenting view. Strongly in favour of territories changing colour. It's so much easier to see what's happening on the board.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#39 Post by TheFlyingBoat » Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:15 am

Things I want to say:

The new press box is absolute god-tier. Without a doubt the BEST implementation of any site I know of. Auto-message loading (drawback to almost every other web implementation), no refresh between tabs, every tab one click away (major drawback to backstabbr style), etc. The style will probably lead to more text message like press instead of the long 1000 worders I like to get, but I have accepted that I have lost this fight to the new age of play, so all the positives of it far outweigh.

Only thing I really want is the old style of units being at the end of arrows so I can see both phases at once on a board which is huge for reading the board in live games, but ultimately that's a tiny issue compared to all the good the redesign has done. Absolutely phenomenal job done by the redesign team. I can't overstate how much I love it.
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Re: New Board UI testing

#40 Post by TemplarsBane » Sat Jun 18, 2022 2:09 pm

TheFlyingBoat wrote:
Sat Jun 18, 2022 12:15 am
Only thing I really want is the old style of units being at the end of arrows so I can see both phases at once on a board which is huge for reading the board in live games, but ultimately that's a tiny issue compared to all the good the redesign has done. Absolutely phenomenal job done by the redesign team. I can't overstate how much I love it.
Strong agree here. Getting a one image view of what the board state was and who moved where is essential. If there were 3 units in a given area and they all stayed put I want to know who bounced for example without having to go back a page to see last turn's orders.
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