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Flat Design Manu Bar

Started by admiralduck, November 07, 2017, 02:02:51 PM

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admiralduck

I hope it hasn't been suggested before but I recently came across the Flat Design Menu Bar done by Kuururi Ahojanen and immediately thought it would perfectly fit into pak 128.
Link (japanese): http://www.himawari-design.com/simutrans/index.html
Documentation (japanese): http://www.himawari-design.com/simutrans/data/guideline_menuicons.pdf
So my question is, would it be good, wanted and possible to incorporate it into pak 128 replacing some of the old icons? It is released under CC BY-NC-SA 4.0.

On the pro side:
+ It would give a nice contrast compared to the ingame graphics.
+ Different colors help distinguishing the items.
+ Fresh new look
Cons:
- personal taste

So what do you think?

Leartin

I think someone got inspired by my pak192.comic menu design  ;D

That's to say it's nice, I like it :)

gauthier

I agree that pak128's icons are old and it can be difficult to navigate through long menubars. Then it's a useful suggestion, thank you for bringing that up ;)

Anyway I would better go for a little discussion about what design should be used for pak128. I would find quite sad to just pick it up from an addon, though it's very nice. Pak128 should have its own style, right ? We also have to take existing addons into account, if the new style is too different from the current, icons from addons will make the whole menu look bad.

I will think about this and eventually come up with other design suggestions. If you have some, please bring them too.

Whatever we do, keep in mind that the next release of pak128 is not for tomorrow, as the last one happened a week ago.

admiralduck

I am glad I could hit some interest.

Pictograms in general can be an easy way to make the icons look uncluttered.
As a little sidenote: Some of the main bar icons contain the shortcut letters. I feel that this should be solved via mouseover instead. But the game itself doesn't support that at the moment right?

Many of the japanese way addons I use come with plenty of variations. To distinguish them they often place letters in the corners indicating the purpose of the item.
Having a colored bar at the top or bottom would be in line with this as it is the perfect place for at least two indications.

To be honest, I am glad that many of the addons do not share the same icon design hence it is easier to keep them apart.

gauthier

QuoteAs a little sidenote: Some of the main bar icons contain the shortcut letters. I feel that this should be solved via mouseover instead. But the game itself doesn't support that at the moment right?
Unless I missed something, no it doesn't. Having the shortcut on the icon is, in my opinion, a very effective way to learn these shortcuts. I would definitly keep them.

QuoteTo distinguish them they often place letters in the corners indicating the purpose of the item.
Fabio introduced something like that with ways and electrifications by adding a speed limit sign on the icon. There are also pictograms for bridges, elevated ways and tunnels that are helpful marks in these long toolbars.