forum.webdiplomacy.net

So about half a year ago(?) i was discussing on vdiplomacy.net forums about the frontend of webdiplomacy (or vdiplomacy in specific).
it was by far not about revolutionizing the interface, but only to do some visual clean up and clarfication, logical regrouping of information and function, maybe better workflow and prioritization. It got some positive feedback back then, as well as some "we need no change" feedback.

Then quite a lot happened real life and i forgot about that project ... Now i found the old mockup urls again, and i thought it wouldn't hurt showing them in the dev forum rather than let them rot in the dark.

So here is the lastest version of this:
http://gestaltungssache.at/dip/index2.php

Please consider:
– I'm a graphics designer and frontend developer, i'm no server languages specialist at all, and some of the ideas may require ajax implementation
– It's a HTML/CSS/Jquery mockup, so it can be clicked etc. but it does not do anything but "show".
– It's somewhat responsive by default(as far as this game can be), could be improved though)
– It was done with vdiplomacy in mind, so colors are somewhat "brown" right now
– It's not finished, neighter in thought nor in execution, it was merely a draft to show ideas and talk about
– It's not tested intensively, i developed in firefox 30+, so maybe that's the best browser to have a look at it with for now

Some thoughts from top to bottom:
– Title area: some grouped menus, giving all relevant links but not occupying too much valuable room!
– Games overview area: all running and attention seeking games, separated from the main area of the active game
– Active game title: regrouped information (game parameters | time relevants | player relevants)
– Chat area with participants, facts about the chat partner, chat area with some new ideas, chat box and chat tools
– Map area with the idea of a instant-zoom, history and map tools
– Orders area with some ideas for setting orders and selecting target positions (see mouseovers for icons meanings), draggable/sortable units list (drag the unit icon), some sorting options, non-saved-warning and save/submit options
– Votes area with indicators for pending votes from others and yourself
– Players details tables (with game and meta-game statistics)
– (archive area missing yet)

Each of these sections can be minimized (arrow button to the left) to decide whats currently relevant.

What i can do if there is interest:
– discuss and visualize implement ideas
– help with crossbrowser frontend coding (anything that has to do with representation and interaction, but not manipulating data or server communication)
– go away if there is no interest (i just had nothing to lose by showing


Here's a interim version that came before the version linked above. It's layout is wider if space is available, so it uses more horizontal space which usually is plently on desktop and laptop computers, but the features are not as far fleshed out as in the current version:
http://gestaltungssache.at/dip/index.php

Whow.
I really like this improved layout. It's really much more modern than what we currently have.
That said, I think it's much too much work to make this happen on vDip, and this might change our code too much from the webdip-code, so it might be too much trouble to maintain.

If we could get this layout in the main webdip-code, this might be worth try. It looks really cool.

thanks for the feedback. we came to the conclusion back then in vidplomacy formums (can't find the threat anymore unfortunately) that *if* there is use for this and a chance for (partial) implementation, it'd be in the main trunk of webdiplomacy developement, not in the vdiplomacy branch.
That's why i came here after initial discussion to see which parts may be useful, which might be useful but (too) difficult to implement, and which parts are just bad ideas that can be scratched again.
so if there is interest in general for this, i think i should change the style (that's primarily the colors) towards a more neutral webdiplomacy look first, to have a bit more "clear" look on it than we have now. As much as i am used to vdiplomacy, their brown theme is not quite "optimum" regarding contrasts.


I have bookmarked that threat now to check in regularily.
As said above, if there is interest, i can contribute in the area of my experience (Graphics design, UI design, UI frontend coding). I didn't consider easy implementation so far, in fact it's quite a total re-write of the frontend html/css code – this may make it a bit more difficult to implement initially, but is also a chance to "get rid of old structures" that have naturally grown by adding features one after another.