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UI considerations
It may seem I am nitpicking, but hear me out.
1) There is no reason to enumerate the dice for input! Since the values are 1-6, you can just directly enter the _values_ of the dice you want instead of figuring out what _position_ they are in! In fact I routinely made such errors, entering 1 because I want to keep the one, even though it is in position 2, for instance. It is an unnecessary cognitive load!
2) After selection, the dice are redrawn, but now they are in new positions. Even though your only option is to roll or stay and it does not matter what they are, it is jarring to see them move and get renumbered. Why not leave them in the same positions, but maybe dimming or removing the chosen ones?
3) The buttons would work better if 'stand' was farther away from 'roll'. Perhaps roll should be above and stand below the dice? Playing on the phone is harder because of this.
And thank you for making it for us to enjoy!
May 12 · 8 weeks ago
🐐 satch [👑] · May 12 at 16:26:
I would love it if you could have a second opportunity to hold more dice in case you missed a five or something the first time.
🚀 stack [OP] · May 12 at 17:13:
@satch: you can hold as many times as you want if you enter the numbers directly into the URL, like ../app?34.
🕹️ skyjake [👑...] · May 12 at 18:07:
Regarding point 1), are you suggesting that if you have several dice of the same value, you'd enter the same number multiple times to hold them individually?
Personally, I don't mind the current scheme, although since it's now a spatial ordering, it might indeed make sense to keep the dice positions the same until you manage to fill or start a new round.
Edit: I do have my own UI wish, though: there could be a shortcut to type instead of, say, 123456 when you want to hold all the dice. Maybe just type "all" instead of numbers?
🚀 stack [OP] · May 12 at 18:39:
@skyjake exactly, if I want to keep a one and a triple-5, I would enter '1555'. Instead of figuring out the position.
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 12 at 20:35:
1 & 2) I'm not against this, but the index numbers are central to a lot of the code and a refactor would take quite some time. I can put this on the "eventually" list, and work on keeping the ordering. I didn't think the moving of the dice was much of an issue since folks weren't picking any more after selecting anyways, but I can look into it.
3) I can see what a UI tweak looks like to help mobile
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 12 at 20:36:
@skyjake the idea also crossed my mind. I'll add to the todo list as well.
What about clicks?
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 13 at 00:39:
neat idea, though it takes up a lot of UI real estate. I'll ask the UI researcher what they think, @skyjake
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 13 at 00:44:
another thought - it might slow the game down too, and have a bunch of round trips to the server. and to stack's point on mobile - the links would need to be spaced to avoid accidental clicks, which is more real estate.
🚀 stack [OP] · May 13 at 01:02:
Dittos. Cumbersome, and you would have to read and click an awful lot...
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 13 at 01:47:
@skyjake - entering 'a' or 'A' now selects remaining dice.
@stack - I prevented url manipulation to select more dice.
As always, I appreciate the testing, inputs, and ideas
🕹️ skyjake [👑...] · May 13 at 03:50:
@gritty Great, the "A" shortcut will surely save some typing.
As to the individual links idea, I agree that gets unwieldy. Depending on one's network connection and/or location, the request roundtrips could be unpleasantly slow. On the other hand, an interface like that could make sense if you didn't have the big dice graphic displayed at all, as the sole interface to the game, and it is simpler and touch-friendier since it only requires clicking on links. It could also be potentially better for accessibility as it features screen reader compatible dice symbols and no graphics.
Maybe if you implement per-user preferences some day, there could be an alternative UI option for that? As the default UI, though, the text entry method seems more suitable due to being so flexible, and personally I much prefer having the big dice displayed.
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 13 at 04:10:
@skyjake - thanks for the input! I hadn't considered screen readers, so as you said that could be an option in the future.
"held dice" graphic has been recently implemented
🐐 satch [👑] · May 13 at 13:42:
@gritty it’s a bummer you went in the direction of stopping the URL manipulation. I think one should be able to continuously hold more dice until you hit roll or stand.
Sometimes it’s hard to think about all the dice at once and picking them up in chunks is very helpful. It doesn’t seem to violate the spirit of the game.
🚀 stack [OP] · May 13 at 14:34:
Much better now that the dice are not constantly moving around!
🍀 gritty [mod] · May 14 at 19:40:
@satch I hear what you're saying and I may enable it in the future. would have to test it locally first to make sure it's working right.