[Scummvm-devel] Fwd: Demos page overhaul

[Travis Howell]

On 31/12/2013 3:54 PM, Filippos Karapetis 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

If you want a direct comparison, use the Internet Archive:
http://www.scummvm.org/demos/
http://web.archive.org/web/20131104072622/http://www.scummvm.org/demos/

> ---------- Forwarded message ----------
> From: *Filippos Karapetis* <bluegr at gmail.com <mailto: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
> <mailto: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.

The added icons are shared between multiple game demos, and their images 
aren't unique enough to be able to locate game demos by scanning icon 
images alone. Which makes the icons pointless.

>     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 <http://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?

The game demos isn't that bad, users can select the section they want, 
and then scroll down the alphabetical list to the game demo they are 
looking for, or browse through the game demos from a single developer. 
The game demos page is already sorted into sections based on the 
developers, and all game demos are listed alphabetically, with an 
average page length.

>     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).

If the multiple game demo links were to be hidden be default, it should 
be based on the game name. Rather than simply showing the first matching 
demo, and hiding all other game demos by default view. But that still 
leads to requiring more clicks from users, to access the direct links to 
the game demos.

>     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 <http://sf.net>
> demos page for that matter, which has everything grouped, and avoid the
> extra administration burden.

I think you are exaggerating the issue, the game demos page may be 
large, but it is organized, especially compared to the simple directory 
listings on SF.

I can only see the large page been an possible issue on a tablet or 
similar device, since they have a much smaller screen area.