Gather System Expanded, Layout Fixed

medi0crates
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13 April 2016 - 23:10 EDT
#1
The new gather layout is pretty bad and the "7v7 casual" is never going to work. The gather menu is too small and doesn't let you see how many people are in the other gather or who is in it, chatbox feels weird on the right and vote menus are too large and yet hidden at the bottom of the page. Regather gets abused too much and that would be solved by adding a "Vote Kick" system. Also the chatbox space is used extremely inefficiently.

So I fixed all these things in Paint and I propose the gather page be redesigned to look something like this:

First page:
http://i.imgur.com/CDvffSY.png

Second page (after you've joined a gather):
http://i.imgur.com/9s3lbiT.png

(edit) fixed 4 phone: http://i.imgur.com/9nqbcUi.png

(edit) fixed 4 ydy: http://i.imgur.com/GeOhHzl.png


chris pls
phone
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13 April 2016 - 23:19 EDT
#2
for the first page, have the gathers be expandable to see who is in each gather. having to join a gather just to see who is in the pool is not desireable
medi0crates
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13 April 2016 - 23:24 EDT
#3
phonee says
for the first page, have the gathers be expandable to see who is in each gather. having to join a gather just to see who is in the pool is not desireable


or like this:
http://i.imgur.com/9nqbcUi.png
Mega
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14 April 2016 - 00:32 EDT
#4
i guess you never saw the currect webpage in 1024x768 resoultion :O

Let me show you:








MY Point is how will your version look then ?
medi0crates
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14 April 2016 - 01:00 EDT
#5
Mega_noComm says


MY Point is how will your version look then ?


The same but smaller? The resolution isnt really the issue here...

But I guess the Menu with the Join/Leave, Regather, Vote Kick buttons should be on top of the players (like it is now), for smaller screens.

I'd like to focus on getting the bigger ideas here implemented, namely the multiple gather system.
BauerJankins
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14 April 2016 - 04:16 EDT
#6
Haven't taken a look at medis pictures there, but i generally agree on the NEW gather layout being worse than the "old" one. (IMO)
http://i.imgur.com/hr1ud2u.png
chris
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14 April 2016 - 09:32 EDT
#7
medi0crates says
The new gather layout is pretty bad and the "7v7 casual" is never going to work. The gather menu is too small and doesn't let you see how many people are in the other gather or who is in it, chatbox feels weird on the right and vote menus are too large and yet hidden at the bottom of the page. Regather gets abused too much and that would be solved by adding a "Vote Kick" system. Also the chatbox space is used extremely inefficiently.

So I fixed all these things in Paint and I propose the gather page be redesigned to look something like this:

First page:
http://i.imgur.com/CDvffSY.png

Second page (after you've joined a gather):
http://i.imgur.com/9s3lbiT.png

(edit) fixed 4 phone: http://i.imgur.com/9nqbcUi.png


chris pls


Thanks for the ideas, these kind of mockups really help. I don't really have time to think about the design so external ideas help a lot in this area

I'm going to (attempt) to fix the sidebar and implement [sephy|simba]'s new gather group this weekend (as long as I've cleared out my backlog of work by then)

Re your specific points:
- Gather menu fixes: agreed
- Make voting menu more prominent: agreed
- Chatbox feels weird on the right: if I could make it work like twitch, would it be less weird for you?
- Chatbox space utilisation not good: I agree
- Vote kicking: I can't remember if we wanted to implement this. Atm, that ability is reserved for admins who can mediate/communicate with individual players. Anyway the call belongs to the admins
ydy
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14 April 2016 - 12:16 EDT
#8
medi0crates says
Second page (after you've joined a gather):
http://i.imgur.com/9s3lbiT.png
Either the player list ought not to resize vertically when people come and go or we ought to avoid placing anything interactive below it on the page. In your mockup here the three red buttons and the 1-line-tall chat input field all could be shifting up and down. In the build that's live right now we got this same issue now with the map and server votes. Just a small nuisance.
Mega
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14 April 2016 - 13:21 EDT
#9
Can i have the features that i requested ages ago plz:

1) IF somebody is not online on the Onlinelist on the left (Means he has the Page not open)
Remove him from the Gather instantly or with a 5 minute cooldown. (in 5 Minutes everyone can reboot their PC)

Like that you have less Players in the Gather that dont even have their PC turned on.



2) The Regather Option needs to be gone and needs to be Replaced with revote Captains

(Because the people that wait hours for a Gather dont get into the Regather cause they are missing 5 minutes it happends plenty of Times.)
medi0crates
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14 April 2016 - 20:17 EDT
#10
ydy says
medi0crates says
Second page (after you've joined a gather):
http://i.imgur.com/9s3lbiT.png
Either the player list ought not to resize vertically when people come and go or we ought to avoid placing anything interactive below it on the page. In your mockup here the three red buttons and the 1-line-tall chat input field all could be shifting up and down. In the build that's live right now we got this same issue now with the map and server votes. Just a small nuisance.


Yeah, I think it ought to just not resize vertically. You could put the joined players into 2 columns of 6 which never move.

Something like this
http://i.imgur.com/GeOhHzl.png

There's a lot of unused/poorly used space on the gather page.
medi0crates
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14 April 2016 - 20:25 EDT
#11
chris says
- Chatbox feels weird on the right: if I could make it work like twitch, would it be less weird for you?
- Vote kicking: I can't remember if we wanted to implement this. Atm, that ability is reserved for admins who can mediate/communicate with individual players. Anyway the call belongs to the admins


-Not sure what you mean by make it work like twitch, but generally speaking I think the chat needs to be more prominent. On Twitch, most of the viewer focus is on the video. But in gathers the chat is the first or second thing I want to look at, and on my screen it's hidden away on the right side of my screen, the last side I look at... granted, the chat you have looks much better on Mega's tiny ass screen, but I think if you're going to add multiple gathers you're going to want a global chat and a gather chat.

-As for vote kicking, I think anyone who plays gathers can tell you of at least 1 time they lost their spot in a gather due to a Regather that could have been avoided by a simple vote kick or "vote re-captains". I understand it's the admin's call, I'm just saying. The regather button by itself is dumb.

Also, calling a gather "casual" is a surefire way to make sure no one joins it, ever.

I'm glad you like these mockups. Making them is therapeutic to me, because I can envision a day when gathers don't suck.
medi0crates
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14 April 2016 - 20:45 EDT
#12
Also gathers need way more admins, and way more ACTIVE admins.
BauerJankins
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15 April 2016 - 03:39 EDT
#13
Don't worry, Hugh will be our next gather admin.
http://i.imgur.com/hr1ud2u.png
Tyr
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15 April 2016 - 04:49 EDT
#14
BauerJankins says
Don't worry, Hugh will be our next gather admin.


#NoPower4Bower
chris
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15 April 2016 - 05:51 EDT
#15
Mega_noComm says
Can i have the features that i requested ages ago plz:

1) IF somebody is not online on the Onlinelist on the left (Means he has the Page not open)
Remove him from the Gather instantly or with a 5 minute cooldown. (in 5 Minutes everyone can reboot their PC)

Like that you have less Players in the Gather that dont even have their PC turned on.

2) The Regather Option needs to be gone and needs to be Replaced with revote Captains

(Because the people that wait hours for a Gather dont get into the Regather cause they are missing 5 minutes it happends plenty of Times.)


medi0crates says

-As for vote kicking, I think anyone who plays gathers can tell you of at least 1 time they lost their spot in a gather due to a Regather that could have been avoided by a simple vote kick or "vote re-captains". I understand it's the admin's call, I'm just saying. The regather button by itself is dumb.

Also, calling a gather "casual" is a surefire way to make sure no one joins it, ever.


Thanks guys, I can do the cosmetic changes. But some of the process related things like vote kicking, booting inactive users, regathering process, captain revoting, etc, should be put to the admins.

Process changes are tricky because of the tradeoffs involved and they have a substantial impact on the gather community (moreso than design issues). And the admins are the people who spend a lot of time worrying about these tradeoffs to make the best decision they can. I won't make these decisions unilaterally. I've never thought about these tradeoffs in depth and I don't have time to put in the work the admins do. If you want process changes, best to ask the admins and then sephy, lome or simba will ask me to prioritise them.

But design changes, I can do those. And mockups are really helpful for ideas (though I may not do an exact copy)

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