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Pimm
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New Arimaa Client
« on: Dec 10th, 2008, 5:47pm » |
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Hi all, allow me to introduce myself.
My name is Pimm and I am a Flash/Flex (more specifically, ActionScript 3.0) programmer. I used to play Arimaa back when I was in school, and I plan to play online some more.
I offered Omar to develop a new Arimaa client, and he was positive about my idea. In the first months of 2009 I will have the time to actually work on it, however I want you (the players) to think with me before even starting.
There are two major problems I have with the current client as well as the "Development Flash Client V2". These are: I dislike the look, and I think the UX is too retro.
The first problem is really simple: I just think the grey "Windows 9x" buttons are so 2007. I'm not a designer (and we probably need one to build this client), but I'd use gradients and bright colors instead. I understand we should keep the current look intact: a preference screen where you can select your skin would take care of this.
The thing I mentioned, the retroness of the UX, might be a more flamable (not the same as flammable) issue. The current User Experience is basically: the interface has a lot of buttons and textfields, hovering over buttons places their description while the textfields are somewhat self-explanatory.
If it were up to me I'd remove all the elements that are not directly needed to play the game, and devide then into logical submenus. This way I'd make the interface a lot more basic with all the options intact, only inside submenus or sidebars or some sort. Simplicity would be an important word. This would not only make the client look better, but also easier to understand to new players.
Please tell me what you think about the two points above, as well as anything you'd like to see in our new potential client!
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omar
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #1 on: Dec 10th, 2008, 7:40pm » |
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Hi Pimm,
Since the changes are mostly for the look of the client, you might want to prototype just the look of the new client without adding any real functionality. That way it would be easy for everyone to look at the prototype and provide constructive feedback.
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Pimm
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #2 on: Dec 11th, 2008, 4:45am » |
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Thanks Omar,
That sounds like a good idea. But please note that I am not a graphic designer, nor am I a User Experience designer. This is why I'd love to hear what the rest thinks, too.
Also, obviously, changes for real functionality are also welcome!
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Tachyon
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #3 on: Dec 11th, 2008, 5:50am » |
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Hi Pimm
I have some significant experience in usability design so maybe I can help. I would suggest that we follow these steps.
1) Use the forum to elicit any complaints about the current client user experience and compile a list.
2) Use the list of complaints to generate a list of desired features for the new client.
3) Develop an visual prototype for early feedback.
4) Modify the visual prototype to adress negative feedback.
5) Use the visual design to develop an interactive prototype for stage 2 feedback.
I will be glad to help with the design of the visual prototype and the graphics for the inteactive prototype.
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| « Last Edit: Dec 11th, 2008, 5:52am by Tachyon » |
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IdahoEv
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #4 on: Dec 11th, 2008, 7:35am » |
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Pimm,
I agree with Omar that doing a mockup of what you're talking about before you begin is a good idea - get feedback from the veteran players on what would make their lives easier before you dive in. Photoshop what the interface would look like in a couple different states, and maybe do a flowchart of the behavior.
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camelback
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #5 on: Dec 11th, 2008, 12:59pm » |
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on Dec 10th, 2008, 5:47pm, Pimm wrote:| The current User Experience is basically: the interface has a lot of buttons and textfields, hovering over buttons places their description while the textfields are somewhat self-explanatory. |
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Pimm, appreciate your initiative on this.
The description text that appears when hovering some buttons covers the active board. In my experience this is sometimes annoying.
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Fritzlein
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #6 on: Dec 11th, 2008, 5:03pm » |
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Thanks for offering your time on this, Pimm. I think there is definitely room for improvement on the appearance of the user interface. My biggest complaint about appearance is that scaling makes the nice piece images look blurry. I don't know what causes it, but I can't believe that my pieces would have to be slightly smudged.
One minor complaint I have with the V2 interface is the assumption that I will set up pieces in order EMHDCHDC. The natural order of setup is EMHHDDCC, making the most important decisions first and least important last. The order (HDC) and (HDC) makes an assumption about those pieces being split, which is annoying to me these days when I don't split my horses.
I expect it to be tricky for you to balance the needs of new users with the needs of experienced users. There is all kinds of functionality that must be available if I am going to be happy, but, as you say, a large bank of buttons can be off-putting to a new user. The text tips are annoying to me (and camelback), but they are nice for a new user. There are so many can't-be-bothered-to-read-instructions people out there, that it would be very nice if the client were idiot-simple and held beginners' hands as much as possible. I think we would have better retention if we had instant gratification for impatient people.
Good luck, and thanks again for your interest in this endeavor.
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Pimm
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #7 on: Dec 12th, 2008, 9:29am » |
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on Dec 11th, 2008, 5:50am, Tachyon wrote:| I will be glad to help with the design of the visual prototype and the graphics for the inteactive prototype. |
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I agree with you on the steps. You offer your help and tell you have experience in usability design, so I ask you to help me out with anything UX related. I am a programmer, and I'd like to focus on the programming as much as possible.
camelback and Fritzlein, thanks for the ideas.
I was just thinking, how many of you have preferred setups that you use significantly more than others? If this tends to happen a template-style setup menu might be good, where you can quickly load a setup.
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IdahoEv
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #8 on: Dec 12th, 2008, 2:38pm » |
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on Dec 12th, 2008, 9:29am, Pimm wrote:| I was just thinking, how many of you have preferred setups that you use significantly more than others? If this tends to happen a template-style setup menu might be good, where you can quickly load a setup. |
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That's funny, I was just coming into this thread to request this feature. A couple of buttons to auto-apply the standard 99 layout and the standard fritz layout, for example, would make things a lot easier. Or a drop-down list of known layouts that appears on the first turn.
Particularly in blitz games, I often burn some of my reserve on the very first turn just because it's hard to set up in 15 seconds!
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| « Last Edit: Dec 12th, 2008, 2:39pm by IdahoEv » |
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Tachyon
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #9 on: Dec 12th, 2008, 3:36pm » |
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What about starting the clocks only after both gold and silver has completed their setup ?
It does not seem fair that one side or the other pay a time penalty just because their preferred setup takes longer to complete ?
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Janzert
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #10 on: Dec 12th, 2008, 9:01pm » |
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Maybe the current clients don't correctly display this, but it's in the rules and the I'm pretty positive the server correctly implements it that no matter what the time control each side is given a minimum of 1 minute for the setup. I actually ran into this since it was initially messing up opfor's detection of the time control because it would just take the time settings for the first move as the ones for the whole game. I almost reported it as a bug before finding the section on it. It's mentioned in the last paragraph on time controls in the match rules before the examples.
Janzert
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| « Last Edit: Dec 12th, 2008, 9:03pm by Janzert » |
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omar
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #11 on: Dec 14th, 2008, 6:03pm » |
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I would suggest not allowing templates with predefined setups; as this could become a disadvantage for the player who wants a setup that is not in the list. In the V2 client I tried to make the setup as easy as possible while trying to keep it neutral for different setups. The piece to place appears at the center of the board and you click on the square you want to place it on. But this also is not completely neutral because the order in which the pieces appear could be better for some setups than others. Currently the order is EMHDCHDC; Karl has suggested changing the order to EMHHDDCC. Perhaps we should try to do it as closely as possible to what happens in an over-the-board situation. Maybe place all the stronger pieces on the players side of the board but off the board and let the player drag and drop them into place on the board. But even this might not be setup neutral since some setups might require less dragging than others. Maybe the stronger pieces should be places in a random order off the board; as they would be if you dumped them out of the box.
Yes, Janzert you are right if the time per move is less than one minute than a minimum of one minute is given for the setup. Here is what the "Match Rules" page says:
For games which use a time per move of less than 1 minute, both players are always given 1 minute of time to setup the initial position in the first move of the game. If the setup is not completed in 1 minute then the reserve time (R) is also used. The unused time from the setup move is not added to the reserve time unless the player completes the setup in less time than the time per move (M) set for the game. If so then a percentage (P) of the unused time after deducting the time used from the time per move set for the game is add to the reserve time.
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woh
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #12 on: Dec 15th, 2008, 4:15am » |
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on Dec 14th, 2008, 6:03pm, omar wrote:| The unused time from the setup move is not added to the reserve time unless the player completes the setup in less time than the time per move (M) set for the game. |
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This is not how it seems to be working with the old client. In my latest game (91291) against Loc2007Blitz (15s/move) I used 13s for my setup and 47s was added to my reserve. Loc used 0s for his setup and his reserve grew with the full minute.
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arimaa_master
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #13 on: Dec 15th, 2008, 7:45am » |
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on Dec 15th, 2008, 4:15am, woh wrote:
This is not how it seems to be working with the old client. In my latest game (91291) against Loc2007Blitz (15s/move) I used 13s for my setup and 47s was added to my reserve. Loc used 0s for his setup and his reserve grew with the full minute.
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This works good I guess coz you made your setup in 13 sec, thus the reserve time WAS added because you DID your opening setup in LESS then 15 sec (that was 15 sec/per move game).
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woh
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Re: New Arimaa Client
« Reply #14 on: Dec 15th, 2008, 9:12am » |
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on Dec 15th, 2008, 7:45am, arimaa_master wrote:| This works good I guess coz you made your setup in 13 sec, thus the reserve time WAS added because you DID your opening setup in LESS then 15 sec (that was 15 sec/per move game). |
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Even when I use more than 15sec for the setup, the remaing seconds of the initial minute are added to my reserve, see this game.
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