<div dir="ltr">Hi guys,<div><br></div><div>I just wanted to say that imho the new page is by far more readable and convenient. The list is a bit long so maybe we could consider a way to fold/expand the different categories, but the navigation on top replaces it and grouping by game and allowing to expand on request is really efficient. The icons are also super helpful to identify quickly a game family.</div>
<div><br></div><div>It's a very nice result, I don't understand why Filippos should revert to a far less convenient page. I agree with him when he mentions that we also could directly link to the SF page in that case. If the purpose is to get something ugly and unusable, let's avoid the cost of supporting the page as well.</div>
<div><br></div><div>Best regards,</div><div>Arnaud</div><div><br></div><div><br></div></div><div class="gmail_extra"><br><br><div class="gmail_quote">On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 5:54 AM, Filippos Karapetis <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bluegr@gmail.com" target="_blank">bluegr@gmail.com</a>></span> wrote:<br>
<blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0 0 0 .8ex;border-left:1px #ccc solid;padding-left:1ex"><div dir="ltr"><div class="gmail_quote"><div dir="ltr">Note: This message got too big with the attachments. I'm reposting it, and adding them as external URLs instead.<div>
<br></div><div>Old layout: <a href="http://s24.postimg.org/dlcshkuo5/demos_old.png" target="_blank">http://s24.postimg.org/dlcshkuo5/demos_old.png</a></div>
<div>New layout: <a href="http://s30.postimg.org/vr8m9ole9/demos_new.png" target="_blank">http://s30.postimg.org/vr8m9ole9/demos_new.png</a></div><div><div><div><br><br><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im">---------- Forwarded message ----------<br>
From: <b class="gmail_sendername">Filippos Karapetis</b> <span dir="ltr"><<a href="mailto:bluegr@gmail.com" target="_blank">bluegr@gmail.com</a>></span><br>
Date: Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 6:50 AM<br>Subject: Re: [Scummvm-devel] Demos page overhaul<br>To: ScummVM devel <<a href="mailto:scummvm-devel@lists.sourceforge.net" target="_blank">scummvm-devel@lists.sourceforge.net</a>><br>
<br><br></div><div dir="ltr">
<div class="gmail_extra"><div class="gmail_quote"><div class="im"><div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
<div><span style="color:rgb(34,34,34)">The added icons seem pointless, as already mentioned during previous</span><br></div>
discussion.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div>The added icons were added to distinguish different game titles, and to avoid having the page look like a huge wall of text. I don't see how this is pointless. Have you got any other suggestions to make this page more usable to the average user? Having to search through a huge list (around 300 items) of entries does not seem like the best way to handle this.</div>
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<div> <br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
Also please revert hiding multiple demos for each game, which makes no<br>
sense at all.</blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div>The rationale is to group similar entries into one. There are cases like "Putt-putt joins the race" where we got 8 different demo variants for one title. With the grouping, the demos page went from 9 pages to 4 by default (at a 1920x1080 screen resolution). This is the main reasoning for the grouping. Even the <a href="http://sf.net" target="_blank">sf.net</a> demos folder is split into subfolders:</div>
<div><a href="https://sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm/files/demos/" target="_blank">https://sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm/files/demos/</a><br></div><div><br></div><div>In total, the demos page has about 274 different demos (plus some which haven't been added yet to the XML). So, with around 300 files in total, it's a nightmare for users to find anything in that page, or even sit down and casually browse for a demo. There are just too many entries in there to put them all together in the same page (the "wall of text" mentioned already).</div>
<div> </div><div>Perhaps we can offer two different views, one with all the files thrown in the same screen, and one where they're grouped?</div><div class="im"><div><div><br></div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
We don't hide multiple versions of other files, and it<br>
isn't clear to users that they need to expand via the '+' icons to see<br>
all demos offered for each game.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div>The entries have been hidden to make it easier to distinguish what the individual demos are. Have you got any suggestion of how to group similar demos together? For example, without grouping, we got 28 entries for Putt-Putt games. With grouping, we got 6, so one can easily find out the exact game he/she wants, and then the version (e.g. DOS or Windows). The "+" icons are a functionality that users have already used in a tree-like interface (such as Windows Explorer).</div>
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<div>
<div> </div><blockquote class="gmail_quote" style="margin:0px 0px 0px 0.8ex;border-left-width:1px;border-left-color:rgb(204,204,204);border-left-style:solid;padding-left:1ex">
The game demos page is meant to provide quick access to download game<br>
demos, and doesn't need to be fancy. This is a web page, not directory<br>
listings, and not like a file explorer at all.<br></blockquote><div><br></div></div></div><div>But there is no quick access in that page, if everything is included in there! It's easy to get lost in there, and it's really not usable. It's a big blob of entries, and the only way for someone to find anything is if he/she already knows what to look for! This kind of defeats the point of having a page at all - we can just link to the <a href="http://sf.net" target="_blank">sf.net</a> demos page for that matter, which has everything grouped, and avoid the extra administration burden.</div>
<div><br></div><div><br></div><div>I'm attaching two screenshots of the whole demos page before and now, for reference.</div></div><div class="im"><div><div><br></div>-- <br>"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes" - Oscar Wilde
</div></div></div></div>
</div><br><br clear="all"><div><br></div></div></div></div></div></div><div class="im">-- <br>"Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes" - Oscar Wilde
</div></div>
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