Questions to Devs (that they need to answer for themselves)

[Reenen]

Ok, as per other post, I am fairly passionate about UI, and Forge needs some of that...

Questions:

• Is forge a game, or a magic application (ie. should it feel like a game or an app)? Currently it feels gamelike, with an application/game GUI
• Should everything be part of the game? (Deck editors, Drafting, game play, AI settings, etc. etc.)
• Should it support multiple monitors (I'll tell you Forge is not happy being pulled about, and typically doesn't show more than 1 window at a time)

Once you've settled those questions, design the UI that way.

Game -> Make everything pretty (lots of icons and colours), simple, teaching, have a learning curve, achievements etc. (quest mode), use full screen, bury the non-image downloads far away, where only the specialist can find it

Application -> Use menubars, statusbars, keep away from buttons with text (that should be on the menubar), make things customizable, resizable, multiple windows, that can dock and pull and prod etc. Incorporate right click.


And just generally think about UI when busy with UI.

[jeffwadsworth]

I personally think Forge's UI is by far the best available. If you have any improvement ideas, please put them out there. Basically, I don't have any issues with it at all. As for the application/game stuff; do we need that distinction? Surely, it can be both.