A better interface for the FAF client.

[CristianMoisei]

I think the FAF client interface is long overdue an update, so if anyone is up for the coding challenge, I have the design.
I only made the Game page, but I can make the others if anyone can code it.



vs the old one

[ZLO_RD]

Sometimes there are alot more games hosted
Also it depends how big monitor you have...
I always use faf in fullscreen and most of time all games don't fit
Edit: also your "old" interface screenshot seems to be bugged... As not all info fits in.

We could also display more info when you hover over game

Edit2: but i do like style you use

[CristianMoisei]

ZLO_RD, I did consider using two columns of games and ditching the Join button, or giving users the option to chose which layout they prefer - personally, I don't mind scrolling if it means I get all the information about the game on one row and not cut off.

Either way, this is just a proof of concept, I will go into more details if the team behind FAF decides to use the design.

[Petricpwnz]

Looks nice, I like those minimalistic modern designs. I suggest that you contact these guys (Downlord, Aulex) viewtopic.php?f=2&t=10021 .
They are making an alternative client which is pretty promising and has good chances of eventually becoming a main one. And afaik they were searching for a designer, so definitely talk to them .

[Blodir]

Hi, the material design inspired look is very nice, but this design doesn't seem to add much in terms of usability. Some pointers:
- There's too many navigation buttons
- The purpose of certain navigation buttons is slightly unclear
- Each navigation button has the same amount of emphasis even though only a few see daily use
- There's no logical placement for future features (GW and Teamgame Matchmaker)

[yorick]

have you checked out the theming topic on here yet ? most of the stuff i'm seeing there might be possible to implement with a theme i.e. seperate files that define the ui already
basicaly the FAF client only needs certain buttons/"interactive stuff" to be implemented, but FAF doesnt care about the layout etc. There is quite a big conversion possible, check out exotics_retards themes for example

[CristianMoisei]

Blodir, I wasn't trying to add any new functionality or restructure the UI, the current one seems kind of hacked together anyway, and I think it will be easier to do if it only brings visual changes.

[CristianMoisei]

have you checked out the theming topic on here yet ? most of the stuff i'm seeing there might be possible to implement with a theme i.e. seperate files that define the ui already
basicaly the FAF client only needs certain buttons/"interactive stuff" to be implemented, but FAF doesnt care about the layout etc. There is quite a big conversion possible, check out exotics_retards themes for example

Yorick, I tried looking for themes but couldn't find anything on it. I'm also not a programmer - what coding language do they use?
Could you point me in the right direction?

[ax0lotl]

With your screenshot I understand that the old interface looks too cramped in a part and too empty in another part. That seems to be related to the high resolution. I use a 1280*1024, for me it looks like this:

faf.jpg (242.76 KiB) Viewed 3794 times

On my screen I prefer the old layout. I personally dislike the modern website layout where I have to scroll a lot, I prefer to get the overview at once as much as possible.
I'd say that ideally the interface would adapt to the screen resolution.

[Exotic_Retard]

http://forums.faforever.com/viewtopic.php?f=2&t=620
that stickied topic in general discussion : D

themes are made mostly in css, but there are other things such as .ui files which you might want to change for more customization

you can look at my themes (currently out of date - take about 15 minutes to fix) to see how they are made.