[Scummvm-devel] Fwd: Demos page overhaul

Arnaud Boutonné strangerke at scummvm.org
Tue Dec 31 09:41:25 CET 2013


Hi guys,

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.

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.

Best regards,
Arnaud




On Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 5:54 AM, Filippos Karapetis <bluegr at gmail.com>wrote:

> Note: This message got too big with the attachments. I'm reposting it, and
> adding them as external URLs instead.
>
> Old layout: http://s24.postimg.org/dlcshkuo5/demos_old.png
> New layout: http://s30.postimg.org/vr8m9ole9/demos_new.png
>
>
> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: Filippos Karapetis <bluegr at gmail.com>
> Date: Tue, Dec 31, 2013 at 6:50 AM
> Subject: Re: [Scummvm-devel] Demos page overhaul
> To: ScummVM devel <scummvm-devel at lists.sourceforge.net>
>
>
>  The added icons seem pointless, as already mentioned during previous
>> discussion.
>>
>
> 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.
>
>
>> Also please revert hiding multiple demos for each game, which makes no
>> sense at all.
>
>
> 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 sf.net demos folder is split into subfolders:
> https://sourceforge.net/projects/scummvm/files/demos/
>
> 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).
>
> Perhaps we can offer two different views, one with all the files thrown in
> the same screen, and one where they're grouped?
>
> We don't hide multiple versions of other files, and it
>> isn't clear to users that they need to expand via the '+' icons to see
>> all demos offered for each game.
>>
>
> 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).
>
>
>> The game demos page is meant to provide quick access to download game
>> demos, and doesn't need to be fancy. This is a web page, not directory
>> listings, and not like a file explorer at all.
>>
>
> 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 sf.net demos page for that
> matter, which has everything grouped, and avoid the extra administration
> burden.
>
>
> I'm attaching two screenshots of the whole demos page before and now, for
> reference.
>
> --
> "Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes" - Oscar Wilde
>
>
>
> --
> "Experience is the name every one gives to their mistakes" - Oscar Wilde
>
>
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