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Limited time for the dialog boxes

Started by dndimitr, June 25, 2014, 08:56:12 PM

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dndimitr

Hi,

I have got an idea and I would like to share it with you. I think that the dialog boxes - when the playes click somewhere at map - must have limited time. For example, player click on the map to learn some things about a building. The dialog box that will appear, will be stayed there for a long time ( until player click on X button ).  I think that you could give the chance to the player to change the time that the dialog box is shown.

Furthermore, I would like to ask you which .c++ / .h files is used for the map, the time and the dialog boxes. 

DrSuperGood

Would this be a usability increase? How often do people encounter a case where they want it open for an extended period? (If ever?) What would be the ideal time for the window to be open? Should it be customizable?

You cannot just make changes to UI without evidence support why it could be better than the existing UI.

Personally I encounter very few situations I need to keep the tile info panel open for extended periods. I cannot even recall when I needed it open for more than 30 seconds. I also seldom encounter a case where I need tile info from more than 1 tile at a time. As such the tile info panel could be made mutually exclusive and with a 10 second timeout and it would possible reduce the number of interactions required (human input data) during playing (which is a quantifiable metric improvement). As long as people are not regularly leaving tile info panels open for extended periods it will probably have a positive (good) effect on average number of human interaction data to use the feature. The saving in interaction data would come from the removal of all the "positioning cursor on close" data and pressing close for the tile info panels.

However there are alternatives. Something like making the close window button bigger for the info panel would mean less interaction data is required to target it (smaller things use more interaction data as the cursor has to be positioned more precisely) which would also result in a saving. There is also the big question if using interaction data required for certain tasks as a metric of a UI usability is a good idea since maybe having something more intuitive would make it more user friendly than simply being easier to do.

Leartin

If I manually open a window, it should stay open as long as I want it to stay open. Usually these windows are vehicles, factories, stations, and all of them can be open for a very long time. But even normal city buildings might have a nice description that takes longer then ten seconds to comprehend. Now of course, there are info windows for bare ground, roads etc. which usually don't need to stay open long, although I don't click on them anyway.

Regarding interaction data, there are keyboard shortcuts. They exist for both, closing the topmost window and all windows. You can't create a closing button so big it's easier reached by mouse then by a key, and that key is even customisable.

captain crunch

I sometimes use the ground info window to see how many vehicles per month are passing a tile. It would be inconvenient if the window would close itself after some time.

Isaac Eiland-Hall

I do not think this will be implemented. Pressing the escape key closes the last active window. You don't have to click the button to close it.