Topic

UI and Accessibility

Like I mentioned on Global, it would be good to have a space where Glitchen could provide feedback and responses on the new UI from an accessibility POV.

For example, the smaller and more unclickable + signs under the Bags, the white text which is low-contrast against the background, and so forth.

Thoughts?

Posted 7 months ago by hueman Subscriber! | Permalink

Replies

  • The white text and tiny font size in some parts of the screen are very difficult for me to read. Here is a list of the most difficult.

    * The tiny black numbers that indicate mood.
    * The greyed out (not moused-over) energy numbers.
    * The greyed out numbers for currants.
    * The numbers that indicate how many slots are used in a bag.
    * The greyed out numbers in the Imagination menu that indicate how many skills are available.

    There are also things that are hard to click on or to navigate to with the keyboard:

    * The tiny plus signs under the bags.
    * Fox brushing. I will leave it to others to do and trade for it, but note that, unlike most of the rest of Glitch, it is not playable for people who have trouble mousing/trackpadding. It would be good to warn new players of this before they spend their skills on it or get excited about it.

    I hope this is helpful feedback -- it's just what I've noticed in the last few hours of play. And I hope other people will contribute the specific things they've noticed.
    Posted 7 months ago by lizzard Subscriber! | Permalink
  • A different location for the Qurazy Quoins would be nice instead of blending in the chat when I tackle all the pigs and butterflies :/
    Posted 7 months ago by Raktivist Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Re the plus signs under the bags; you don't have to click the plus, just click in the space under the bag and it opens.
    Posted 7 months ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • @WebWeaver You used to be able to single-click anywhere on the bag icon itself to open the bag (a fairly large target) and now have to click a target with greatly reduced height (the bar under the bag, including both the size capacity and the +) to open it with one click. If you click the bag itself (the larger target) it requires two clicks since the first click opens a menu for the bag instead. It's definitely a change.

    Keyboard navigation of inventory seems unchanged to me, I think?
    Posted 7 months ago by Touya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yeah, I think the default click (the one with the largest target area) should be to open the bag as that's the thing you're most likely to want to do
    Posted 7 months ago by shhexy corin Subscriber! | Permalink
  • That's strange, in my memory I always got the menu when clicking the bag itself...
    Posted 7 months ago by WeavingTheWeb Subscriber! | Permalink
  • It'd be nice if after pressing z to bring up the iMG menu, one could navigate its options with the arrow or AWSD keys.
    Posted 7 months ago by Touya Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, I rely primarily on keyboard navigation, too...
    Posted 7 months ago by hueman Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Yes, switching back and forth between keyboard and mouse is clumsy.  Once on the keyboard, it's nice to remain there.

    Regardless of the thing with keyboard/mouse, loving the new UI. :)
    Posted 7 months ago by Tibbi Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I think the new UI is pretty much perfect. The only complaint I have is  when there are a lot of growl text notifications swooshing off in succession. But besides that, I love it!
    Posted 7 months ago by Muncey Mango Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I'd like an option to make the text in chat bigger, its not so much an accessibility thing for me but i mainly play on a small laptop and its really hard to read.
    Posted 7 months ago by ThursdayNext Subscriber! | Permalink
  • You can double-click a bag to open it.
    Posted 7 months ago by WalruZ Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Firstly, I have to say that I am LOVING imagination.  It really entices you to play, trying to get enough imagination to "buy" the upgrades you want for your character(s), AND having the random cards is a brilliant way to get us wanting to log in every time a new day comes.  GREAT!

    I haven't had a lot of time to play, thus far, but here are some things I've noticed:

    First, for those of you who like keyboard shortcuts, you can get to the imagination screen by hitting the "z" key.  Nice!  You can still type /home (and presumably /leave) to come and go.

    I'm not in love with the extra step to leave my home.  I liked the 'Back to world' button - one less thing to click on/type.

    The white text under the character is distracting and hard to read, but maybe more so because I'm used to the old way.  As a plus, the information mentioned is also in the chat box, where it's quite easy to read :)

    The upgraded bag interface is going to take some getting used to - I liked having the + sign beside the bags, but I haven't played with it long enough to comment more.

    That's it for the moment!  Great job on the update, staff & testers!
    Posted 7 months ago by Genkimama Subscriber! | Permalink
  •  i really like the new UI. sleeker, more stylish, its definitely an upgrade. 

    some things id like to see changed/added:

    + keyring
    + now that the map is downsized the destination alert looks out of place
    + move currants beside iMG (its weird having all your info in one corner yet your $ in another)
    + able to maximize the street map
    + more customizable chat windows. would love to open two group chats or group + IM chat windows at the same time or to minimize local chat entirely
    + able to set what does and doesnt pop up in the crawl text thing at the bottom and local chat
    + higher contrast text and buffs. my eyes are not that old but im also finding those not easily visible.
    + have zoom settings save (like open chat windows and sound settings)
    + hotkeys please please please for the love of giants :(
    Posted 7 months ago by Fur Subscriber! | Permalink
  • the text for energy and currants is impossible to read for me, unless its highlighted when my mouse hits it. Personally not being able to glance up and see the amount is a bit frustrating. other than that no complaints. The imagination update is GREAT!!!!
    Posted 7 months ago by Lyrical DejaVu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I generally find the new interface unusable, simply from being unable to read the low contrast text and having to click on or hover over things to get basic information that should always be displayed.

    And the change to bags is just awkward for someone used to being able to quickly shuffle between bags.
    Posted 7 months ago by Pinkhair Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The more I play, the less I like the transparent circles used for buffs. They are too small, and incredibly hard to read. Their indicators are NOT intuitive. I cannot tell at a glance how much time I have for anything. Having to mouse over them just to make them more readable is just plain inefficient and unhelpful.

    The same goes for energy indication and mood, which is only very roughly indicated by the avatar's state.

    Please: make the buff indications bigger, more linear, and more readable at a glance. There's got to be a better use of screen real estate for information than a giant picture of my glitchy face.
    Posted 7 months ago by Pascale Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I agree the buff circles are harder to notice and interpret. 

    I would also LOVE a way to always display mood %, instead of the cute-but-hard-to-interpret picture of my glitch. Right now I've taken to just keeping my mouse over the circle, but it'd be nice to not have to do that!
    Posted 7 months ago by Lanthala Starbreeze Subscriber! | Permalink
  • The countdown meters are a bit hard to see. Bit too faded out to me.
    Posted 7 months ago by Fauxfire π Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Love it.  
    Posted 7 months ago by Thursday Soleil Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Well, I'm actually going to post here, since everyone has different problems and I don't want things "fixed" without having had my say, at least! *laugh*

    I like the new interface, for the most part. It's a much more polished look and a more unified experience. I actually really like the white notification text on the screen, and find it perfectly readable. I much prefer it to chat-box notifications. My only problem there is that I play on a netbook, and I just don't have access to a high enough resolution so the text is half-covered by the crop-related dialog box (this plot needs x black box). Similarly, while before I could *just* see both rows of bags (the base row, and then whatever is opened) after I moved my taskbar to one side of my screen instead of on the top or bottom, I now can once again only really see one - the opened bag, so I have to close it to switch to a different bag. I otherwise like the new bag interface better. I'll see later tonight if moving my taskbar to its default location will fix that, or if I'll need to have it "hide", which isn't my preference but is a reasonable solution.
    I'm guessing the complaints about readibility with the mood and notification text is related to vision issues, and is arguably a fixable accessibility problem, so I can't really complain if that's altered to accomodate those problems.

    Also, while I know the Rock will be back in a new capacity, I really hope this is one I can see on screen all the time. I don't know why, but I've become attached to having zer there on my screen, looking around, even though ze says nothing generally. I guess it's because I can't play with global chat open (yeah, my netbook could use another stick of ram...), so ze keeps me company.
    Posted 7 months ago by Faranae Subscriber! | Permalink
  • I actually find the white text across the bottom of the screen much easier to read than the previous notices on the left side.
    I have noticed that the Dev's have added some accessibility features that were previously requested, so they definitely deserve kudos.  Among others, you now get a text notification when the Rube appears on your street in addition to the music cue.
    I agree that the buffs and timers are much harder to deal with than before.
    There's actually a lot of empty white space above the game screen, that I think could be put to use, perhaps for the currants meter, or some tweaks to the mood/energy display.
    Posted 7 months ago by KhaKhonsu Subscriber! | Permalink
  • Whilst loving most of the changes that have been made (and really surprised in a good way at some of the inventions) I have to agree with Pascale that the energy numbers need to be made more visible without needing mouse intervention and the buff timers are impossible to see. 

    Minor frustrations only, otherwise blown away by the direction Glitch is going - brilliant!
    Posted 7 months ago by JarkWoman Subscriber! | Permalink