Unify the UI across different features
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Unify the UI across different features
User Interface (UI) / User Experience (UX) · World management · Created by epicname
accepted
UI menus interface
What functionality is missing? What is unsatisfying with the current situation?
Different parts of world anvil have different UI elements for the same functionality. Menus are in different places -- sometimes along the top, sometimes off to the side. The same functions are in different places depending on the world element or page type being edited and sometimes have different names. As an example, let's look at the graphic banner that's displayed at the top of pages in the header (just above the title). For an article, this is called "Article Cover Image (Header)" and can be found under the "Design" menu tab. However, when editing a category page, the "Design" menu tab is for something else (I'm only a Master, so I don't know what's behind that the same function -- setting the graphic banner on the page -- is found under the "Display" menu tab and is called "Page Cover." Even the functionality of setting the image is different between articles and categories, with the 'category' version offering a drop-down box and requiring the clicking of the "Save Changes" button in the right-margin column. In the 'article' version of the interface, I have to type the filename in a free-text field, and once the image is selected, the article saves automatically. This brings up another point that's tangentially related: some places seem to save changes automatically, while others don't. There doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason to it. As another quick example, the delete function is scattered all over the UI depending on what exactly you're trying to delete. The request is to unify the UI across all WA elements and features so that the editing experience is as similar as possible, regardless of what sort of thing you're working on (timeline, article, homepage, campaign, etc.) From a somewhat newbie's perspective, it appears as if different features have been bolted on to the WA core functionality without much attention paid to how their editing UI elements mesh or are cohesive with other things. Additionally, this request would involve combining menus in different places -- namely across the top and down the side -- into a single, unified menu. I understand that this would be a heavy lift. But for the sake of existing platform and to make new features added in the future better able to be integrated into a consistent UI, it could be worth the effort.How does this feature request address the current situation?
As it stands, finding the editing option I need is frustrating and often requires me to test things out when I've made changes, just to find out if the thing I changed was the right thing. Additionally, it will reduce the time spent hunting for a particular option/function. Having a unified and consistent editing UI and consistent menu options and placement of elements within menus would save time and reduce frustration.What are other uses for this feature request?
A consistent/unified UI framework could make the development of future features easier, and it would likely make adoption of those features more seamless for users.Follow up
The Team's Response
Thanks for the suggestion! This is already planned and we've been working on it for some time now. There is a UI upgrade in the works that will address, among other things, consistency. We'll keep this suggestion in mind as we develop it.
Current score
20/300 Votes · +4601 points
Votes Cast
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+100
by Aattoman
on 2023-08-21 22:54 -
+300
by dwparish
on 2023-08-20 22:55 -
+100
by twevan
on 2023-08-20 22:27 -
+300
by Vguadagno
on 2023-08-16 20:26 -
+300
by Rayna Fairbell
on 2023-08-09 17:33 -
+300
by Nimsy
on 2023-08-06 18:54 -
+1
by GreeneDragon
on 2023-08-06 00:39 -
+300
by redbeardcreator
on 2023-08-05 23:42 -
+300
by Pete Nelson
on 2023-08-04 23:30Agreed. I've often been confused by the WA UI as it stands today; though, I've gotten accustomed to the quirks and inconsistencies for the most part now. I think a UI refresh with special attention to consistency and functionality by a UI designer would benefit WA quite a lot.
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+300
by Enoris.leinwand
on 2023-08-03 22:48 -
+300
by PoppaeaSabina
on 2023-08-03 15:20 -
+100
by A Fluffy Mimic
on 2023-08-02 03:53 -
+300
by Calipheer
on 2023-08-01 19:37 -
+300
by fauxgiraffe
on 2023-08-01 19:16 -
+300
by johanfk
on 2023-08-01 16:25 -
+100
by AvalonArcana
on 2023-08-01 09:49 -
+300
by LoreParmenter
on 2023-08-01 06:31 -
+300
by ALIARE
on 2023-07-31 17:47I am all for creating better UI/UX as long as the current feature set and future stack are taken into account by the development team. I would love to see some prototype designs created by them and voted on by the community. There are things that make me scratch my head with the current design. Why is creating a map on the main sidebar but creating a to-do item is under advanced tools? Things like that.
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+1
by Rilameth
on 2023-07-31 02:42While I agree with most of the below user's points, there is one alteration I do think would be fair to ask to be made: If the deletion ability were in as consistent a place as possible, that would make it easier on people who have less common versions of colourblindness. Not everyone who is colourblind has the typical red/green version (that is common amongst biologically male humans, but biologically female humans can have blue/green colourblindness, for example). Having a button that serves the deletion function be in the same - or as similar as is possible for the layout at hand - location, would help those for whom the red colour does not aid in locating it. Since this would serve the purpose of accessibility, I think the time required to unify its positioning as much as humanly possible is warranted.
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-1
by Gaëlle S.
on 2023-07-30 20:11I don't agree with changing too much of how WA works. If I take your examples, it's true that having "design" indicate two different things is confusing but you only have to rename one of them for this to be fixed. As for the rest, articles and categories are simply two different things which don't require the same fonctionalities. This also explains why the menus are different and why one of them have auto-save on by default (which you can change in your account features): you change your articles content way more often than your categories which means auto-saving is necessary for the first one while impratical (in terms of performance) for the latter. For the delete option, it is already reconizable by its red color so I don't see why it would be hard to find/difficult to use. Mashing together menus may also reduce the number of fonctionalities because your screen can't possibly be as large or as tall as the number of items in the menus. Having them where they currently are can make it hard to get as a newcomer but it is better distributed and pleasing to the eye, which is important when you spend hours in front of it. You don't want to get sick of it while you work on your worlds. At last, it would ask a lot of work from the WA team and the oldest members of the site would have to get used to the new design/menus. Whereas if things stay the way they are and newcomers can't find what they're looking for when editing, they can use the WA codex. Everything is well explained there and once you get used to the menus, it becomes way easier. You just have to spend a bit of time discovering WA. I understand your concerns but as a newcomer myself, I'm getting used to things the way they are and I found out it's not that hard. I like WA the way it is. Love xx
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+300
by epicname
on 2023-07-29 14:32
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