New UI: A Mockup

[Pyrix]

Your idea is really, really good!


So of course Square Enix will completely ignore it and implement a far crappier idea.

[Onidemon]

Your idea is really, really good!


So of course Square Enix will completely ignore it and implement a far crappier idea.

More like they will ignore it and add even more menus and drop downs to the market wards to make it even more confusing and then call it "enhancements to the market wards"

[Antanias]

Thanks,

Kind of like that ver too

[SIZE=6]Gamepad friendly Mockup[/SIZE]

You and meowiewowie should redesign FFXIV's entire UI from the ground up

[Onidemon]

You and meowiewowie should redesign FFXIV's entire UI from the ground up

send SE the suggestion and maybe they would ask me to. :P

EDIT: if i redesign the UI i would the drop that 1997 look they got going on...

[Pyrix]

She should be running the UI design team.

[Vesper]

Wow was not expecting this many responses. Nice to see that overall most of you kinda get what I am going for. "Getting the ball rolling" with ideas to get a better search feature whether it be market or auction house, this system works for both. I will touch on a few points without quoting specific people as I am exhausted from work and do not have time to re-read all the comments again...

Basically, there are tons of threads saying add this, remove this, do this. I wanted to show something a bit more visual since more often than not no one takes the time to do this. I figured it would be something different being posted, on a topic that already has many many threads.

Yes, the UI is very busy. But its a mockup, I don't expect SE to completely say "ZOMG THIS UI RULES, IMPLEMENT IT AS IS STAT!" it was just to give them an idea of what I and many others would like to see.

Yes, the UI was designed with a PC player in mind. Again its a mockup, not a preview of things to come, just ideas to get not only the dev teams mind going, but to hopefully get enough of you guys on board so we can stop bickering about AH vs MW and just instead start pouring in ideas to make a great ui for whatever ends up being in the game in the end.

Simplified UI's. Honestly, I don't personally see the need to yank out the stat searches. They would be OPTIONAL use, if you don't want to use em don't use em. Besides, for controller players/PS3 players its not like it would be that hard to just yang those features and add a configuration option to use Advanced Market Search of Simplified Market search as a toggle.

Removing HQ or NQ toggle in search. See above paragraph.

Yeah, the UI is overall ugly. But as much as I love this game, the menu/ui is kinda ugly, I was trying to use official UI from the game to build something that looks like it would be part of the system.

Overall, I am glad to see so many people commenting positively about a system such as this. Keep the responses coming, keep the suggestions coming, make your own mockups and tweaks. The modifications you have made look fine, I am glad some of you are taking the time to think about it a bit. Let's keep the ball rolling!

[Vanguard319]

As one who has studied graphic design, please note that I'm being kind when I say your mockup is garbage. It contains way too much info, that alone makes it worse than the current UI. Not only is it complex, but the layout is cluttered and confusing as hell, a new player would ragequit the moment they had to find something using your proposed interface.

If the market UI is to be redesigned, it should have basic information, it must be understandable to many people, with various levels of computer skill, and it has to work not only with a PC, but with the PS3 as well, something you admit you did not take into consideration. Start with a category (item, weapon, etc) > sub category (sword, H2H, etc), then show who is selling it, at what price, and in what ward (which the current UI already does) Refinements to the interface could include showing whether or not the item being sold is HQ. You could also run an advanced search for an item based on a level range, usable class, or a certain stat. (i.e.: I want a body piece for a Crp @ r30, and which has control as a stat.)

Btw, all the ideas I just suggested can be implemented into the exsisting UI without making it overly complex. Aside from that the only other modification I would make is the option to make the item search available in the main menu while in the market words. That way, one can start a new search without having to first run to one end of the ward to access it.

[Bobjohnson]

Wow! That's pretty awesome, something like that would make the current system a hell of a lot better if they were really committed to keeping it!

[Vanguard319]

Looking at Oni's proposal, it is significantly better than what Vesper was proposing, as it is not overly complex, and the flow of information is more streamlined and understandable. I would suggest getting rid of the radio buttons completely though, since you seem to have a column on the search results that suggests item quality. I would also suggest removing the bazaar msg, since the search wouldn't be looking for specific individuals, making it redundant. (In the very least, it should be in the retainer's bazaar, not in the search itself.)

[Kyana]

I really like that "All in One" search UI. It would make looking for items alot faster and you'd have a better overview.
I have to agree that the first draft contained too many options.
The simplified version is very nice though. I like the version with the wider search result window the most. Most players use widescreen displays so it makes sense for the layout to use that to show more information.

Something I thought could be a useful feature to have would be a way to compare selected equipment with the equipment you currently use. Or compare to items of the same type you have in your inventory.
At the moment you just see if an item has better/worse defense, evasion, attack or accuracy for example, but you don't see the other stats some items give. (NM dropped weapons and gear for example)

I wouldn't get rid of the HQ buttons. Makes it easier if you are just looking for HQ or NQ items.

I also dislike the blue menus. The main menu looks nice with its transparent black background and I'd love to be able to change the color or even style of my UI to match that.

So I played around a bit too and made a few pics to give you a better idea of what I mean.

Simplified UI without bazaar message
Simplified UI with bazaar message
Simplified UI with bazaas message and item windows above search window

EDIT:
The next step would be to create a unified UI for retainer management.
I t's such a hassle to always switch back and forth between exchanging items and putting up items for sale.
And then let us repair gear without having to unequip it, switch class, open inventory and search the damaged item and select what you want to do with it before you can start to repair it before you can do the same steps again to reequip your equip and change class.
Why not just select the damaged gear, change class atuomatically (if you have the required class, rank and tool ofc) repair the item and change class back. It could be done with one...uno, 1, ichi, command.