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Dev blog: UI Modernization - Icon Strategy

First post
Author
Lil' Brudder Too
Pistols for Pandas
#21 - 2015-02-26 22:11:26 UTC
Sentry Gun icons? WTF? They currently resemble a Gun Turret....makes it easy to identify with...

Now they look like "c" ...ummm, okay, why? How does that remotely resemble a gun?

If the reasoning was because the POS's E-war mods needed to be different...great, well, you can make them different still...with the current Sentry Gun icon for the things that go boom. Just change the E-war stuffs.

ALso, why make the Custom's Office more complicated...just keep the same simple design.

Again, some of this seems like just change for change sake with no real thought or logic.
Gorongo Frostfyr
#22 - 2015-02-26 22:11:28 UTC
They seem to be designed mostly for an aesthetics aspect.
While on paper they look quite good, they look ingame far too similar. Drone type indicators are far too cryptic, but thats not the main problem, because that can be learned. The type indicator in the top right corner will be too small ingame.
In general I would add more asymmetrical features to the icons to distinguish them easier. Cruiser and frigate look almost the same, a little bit stretch does not help there.
Snucklefruts
Dirty Stinky Pirates
#23 - 2015-02-26 22:14:09 UTC
I absolutely love the new structure icons.

How difficult would it be to add color/other something else to them to allow players to differentiate between structures that are unanchored, anchored, online, and incapacitated?

Sometimes there will be blobs of modules and if you are calling targets from over 100km it can be very difficult to determine which modules have not be dealt with.

Awesome work!!
Michael Pawlicki
Mouth Trumpet Cavalry.
Mouth Trumpet Cavalry
#24 - 2015-02-26 22:16:18 UTC
Welp, there are NPC Titan and capital icons. Capital PvE confirmed/ Sleeper dreadnoughts.
Abon
Pandorum Research Incorporated
#25 - 2015-02-26 22:16:41 UTC
mmh looking around the image quickly it all melts down to a bunch of triangles with no clear differentiation. What?

We don`t need little pretty ship icons with barely any detail we need crisp and clear symbols. Identifiable as easy and quickly as possible. The eyes will tire very quickly trying to make out the tiny details on those....

Not trying to sound like a ****...but this seems a little lazy. You can do better boys!! Bear
Kopaka Newton
Center for Advanced Studies
Gallente Federation
#26 - 2015-02-26 22:21:35 UTC  |  Edited by: Kopaka Newton
I like the change, especially for structures and iconless objects.

I would need to test it for a few hours, but the ship icons might be difficult to distinguish. I did like the old squary ones, but I'm sure there is some way to improve this! I also think the capsule icon should remain as it is.

For the icons in the "Existing Icons" image, I have to say I like most of those, in particular items that where all the same or simply didn't have an icon (asteroids and cloud icons god yes! <3). However, I think the sentry gun icon should remain the same (plus the new icon distinguising them, that's neat) as they convey the idea of a gun better than the new one you are proposing. I also think that the new customs office icon brings nothing new and should remain as it is, as it's more simple.

And finally, as a wormholer, please let the wormhole icon as it is. It fits with the stargate and jump bridge icons, it's very iconic, easy to distinguish and don't really like the new wormhole icon you are proposing. It's blurry and less "clean".
BeanBagKing
The Order of Atlas
#27 - 2015-02-26 22:31:18 UTC
I think this is a huge step in the right direction. One thing I would like to see, looking at the huge existing icons image with the current and new overview icons, is trying to leave recognizable icons alone. Most of the ones I'm thinking of don't have a new icon yet, for example, star gates, planets, control towers, and wreaks. Most of these are very common things we see every day that already have a unique and recognizable icon. It would make the transition much easier if these were left as they were.

I feel like it's going to be easy to confuse a lot of the ship icons. It's still better than it is now, where you can't tell the difference between the majority of ships, but maybe there is still some work to be done here by the art department. For example, Carrier vs Industrial Command, or Mining frigate vs destroyer. Both of these icons, once reduced to a size small enough to fit on the overview, will be almost indistinquishable. I'm no UI designer, so I doubt this is a good suggestion, but maybe if the industrial ships weren't the same triangle appearance as the combat ships, so round or square off the nose? Or make them hollow?

Also, hostile NPC pods? 0_o =D

One person on Reddit pointed out that there is no super carrier, and while that is technically a carrier, there is a huge difference between a carrier and a super. If CCP goes down that road (which is something to consider), is it worth differentiating other classes? There's a big difference between T1 destroyers and the new T3 destroyers...

Love the look so far!
Nami Kumamato
Perkone
Caldari State
#28 - 2015-02-26 22:35:14 UTC
CCP Phantom wrote:
While the EVE Online user interface just recently saw some upgrades with a streamlined and improved NeoCom, we continue the modernization now with new in-space icons.

Instead of the small red or white crosses in space representing hostile or neutral ships, you will see new icons transporting additional information. Also icons for structures and other objects will be improved.

Read (and especially see) more about the new icon strategy in CCP Arrow's latest dev blog UI Modernization - Icon Strategy.

We welcome all your constructive feedback and opinions!


I'm usually very supportive of CCP new stuff.
But this time I have to say it - it's c&@p. Once I opened that devblog I was "could you f-kin not?!"

Sorry but it is - you're trying to reinvent the wheel when the wheel works just fine.
Personally I find the current icons to be superbly efficient (especially since you introduced those overlays).
But this is just noise - a lot of noise, very frustrating. Me no likey.

But as we all know, first step in the change process is denial/revolt so...
(BUT I still think it's too much and there's no need for it - especially when a lot of us wont distinguish between them anyways because 3 sq pixels...)

Fornicate The Constabulary !

Voxin Tulon
Hedion University
Amarr Empire
#29 - 2015-02-26 22:39:11 UTC
Another visual pollution.
Congrats.
Kim Jong Lui
Doomheim
#30 - 2015-02-26 22:39:45 UTC
lol the drone icons look like one of the ccp teams had a space invader session ahahahaha i almost died laughing if drones look like that i dont think eve will be so painful as too many people would be laughing there ships into self destruction lol
SamuraiGhost
Capts Deranged Cavaliers
#31 - 2015-02-26 22:39:57 UTC
NPC (neutral or enemy) icons don't need a "plus" just the color red or white to differentiate... use the same icons as all the rest.
Oberine Noriepa
#32 - 2015-02-26 22:40:45 UTC  |  Edited by: Oberine Noriepa
I've been waiting for this ever since the update that included the ISIS feature. Being able to identify a ship simply from its on-screen icon will be nice.

CCP Arrow
C C P
C C P Alliance
#33 - 2015-02-26 22:42:00 UTC
It is worth mentioning that all these icons are designed in vector and we store the icon sheets for that special day sometime in the future when we can start using vector icons instead of raster (bitmap) ones.

With 4K and even 5K monitors on the horizon we need to be ready and we want to be. So even though our current overview only gives us so much to work with, our design effort is to have icons that have a good base logic for their style and shapes which can work in various sizes once it becomes possible.

CCP Arrow   |   Director of User Experience   |   EVE Online   |   @CCP_Arrow

Myriad Blaze
Common Sense Ltd
Nulli Secunda
#34 - 2015-02-26 22:45:06 UTC  |  Edited by: Myriad Blaze
On Ship Group Icons:
It seems CCP is a) priorizing pretty over function and b) is working with large icons in the design process and then apply them to the overview and squeeze them into 12x12 pixels. The result can be seen in the picture linked in the devblog... all icons look more or less the same.

Please start the design process with the 12x12 pixel matrix (or whatever size it is), make sure that you have working icons that are easily discernable and then start making them pretty for usage in a large symbol. Alternatively and probably easier: Use different symbols for the overview and ISIS (and related views with large symbols). That way you could use very simple icons for the overview and small pictures elsewhre.

Also there's no need to reinvent the wheel: Tactical Symbols.

On Drone Icons:
Frankly, drone icons for the overview (and brackets) are hardly needed. In large engagements you remove drones from the overview anyway. Also the new icons use a lot more pixels than the old icons, which means that (almost) my whole screen will turn red (with brackets on) when a group of carriers deploy drones - no, thank you.

I'd suggest to make it way more simple. Stay with the old icon for standard S/M/L drones. Consider extra icons for Sentries, Fighters and Fighter Bombers, but make them much smaller than what you have now (make them comparable in size to the standard drone icon). And an extra icon to show the subtype of S/M/L drones is needed neither, imho. Logistics drones (when active) are easily recognizable by the "repair beams", for example. And if you intend to go with the "+ in the upper right corner to identify NPCs" idea, you'll get bad results if you also intend to use the upper right corner to have a sub type icon. (And don't forget that you already have an icon based on standings, which is actually important.)

On Icons for Structures:
We already have icons for various structures, why not use them?
The new icons neither look good nor do they seem to be functional. And please don't try to show size by just making the icon bigger. Instead slightly modify the icon, for example by adding a line or a point to show size tiers. Check the picture I linked for examples: Tactical Symbols

General Issues:
More icons in the overview does not neccessarily means more information. There is information overload, which is actually a real problem in the real world in areas where lots of information needs to be processed fast. If you go through with your idea to add icons to everything, please at least make it optional to use them. Atm I'm a little worried that the sheer number and size of the suggested icons will make the game nearly unplayable in certain situations... like large fleet battles with literally huindreds of drones on the grid.
Tippia
Sunshine and Lollipops
#35 - 2015-02-26 22:45:51 UTC  |  Edited by: Tippia
Yeah… put me in the “too similar” camp.

The current icons are ridiculously simplistic, which is why the small differences work: relative to the (non-existant) complexity of the icon, the mere shift in size and weight makes a significant and immediately recognisable change.

These seem to do the exact opposite: the icons are more complex, with less to differentiate them (sometimes as little as a 1-px line… which will be a sub-pixel difference on a scaled UI — and no, removing the option of scaling the UI is not the right solution even though it will be the one that your teams will instantly suggest). The question I immediately ask is: does this differentiation offer any information that's 1. necessary, 2. valuable enough to warrant the clutter, and 3. not better obtained through other means?

What's the value of being able to differentiate a mining frigate from a frigate? Why would you want to make it much harder to differentiate between NPC and PC? Why would anyone need to differentiate between 27 different utility drone icons when most people turn them off completely, and those who don't can already differentiate them by name (which are descriptive in and of themselves)? It's just clutter for the sake of clutter with no point to it.

But more than that, and assuming that the differentiation you're looking for is actually valuable: why have you chosen such a limited palette of cues to communicate these differences? You really only have two: size, and single-pixel decorations. Yes, there are some minor differences in shape, but they work completely at counter-purpose and just make it easier to confuse one size with another.

Why not use completely different shapes? Different directions? Better use of negative space? Sure, vary size with ship size, but let different categories within each size bracket be represented by something that isn't an arrow pointed up, with some squint-required markings to convey crucial differences.

The argumentation seems to be “it'll be familiar from ISIS” but that just suggests that the largely irrelevant ISIS icons need to be fixed and made to match what you'll see in space, rather than that the game-critical overview and brackets should be infected with the same muddied malady that ISIS suffers from.
Lokai Lassilis
VG-V Securities
#36 - 2015-02-26 22:47:33 UTC
The screenshot looks fantastic - just not sure how practical it will be
Sgt Ocker
What Corp is it
#37 - 2015-02-26 22:51:27 UTC
CCP Phantom wrote:
While the EVE Online user interface just recently saw some upgrades with a streamlined and improved NeoCom, we continue the modernization now with new in-space icons.

Instead of the small red or white crosses in space representing hostile or neutral ships, you will see new icons transporting additional information. Also icons for structures and other objects will be improved.

Read (and especially see) more about the new icon strategy in CCP Arrow's latest dev blog UI Modernization - Icon Strategy.

We welcome all your constructive feedback and opinions!

How does one give feedback on wasted time.
You say it took a "team" to develop this, what a waste of valuable resources.



PS; CCP Falcon, the new modernized Neocom - is simply bad.
Nothing says cheap shoddy workmanship more than monochrome icons that all look similar.

- - - - - - - -
EveOnline based in the future of living in space but with the added look of having been designed in the 70's by bored chimpanzee astronauts.

My opinions are mine.

  If you don't like them or disagree with me that's OK.- - - - - - Just don't bother Hating - I don't care

It really is getting harder and harder to justify $23 a month for each sub.

Rosewalker
Khumaak Flying Circus
#38 - 2015-02-26 22:52:45 UTC
I pity the poor bot developers who have to adjust to these changes ... NOT! Big smile

The Nosy Gamer - CCP Random: "hehe, falls under the category: nice try, but no. ;)"

Loraine Gess
Confedeferate Union of Tax Legalists
#39 - 2015-02-26 22:54:40 UTC
Michael Pawlicki wrote:
Welp, there are NPC Titan and capital icons. Capital PvE confirmed/ Sleeper dreadnoughts.




They've been there for a while. They appear as "backup" on some select missions.
Circumstantial Evidence
#40 - 2015-02-26 23:12:30 UTC
I have trouble distinguishing today, between some overview ship types, based purely on their bracket shapes. This counts as an improvement. But a triangle icon is... close to the same problem with a different shape. We demand they be as small as possible, to maximize amount of info packed into our overview lists.

As much as I like triangles, (they scream "this is a spaceship game!") - I think we need some additional shape variation. Consider rotating some of these triangles.