Guild Wars 2

I like the new one.

I enjoy the new layout too. I think it works well. Haven’t found it hard to work with.

I have to agree with the OP. While I understand the organization in the left panel (more events = more rows), the layout in the right panel is flashier but functionally inferior to the old layout.

For one thing, to be able to tell how many achievement points we have earned in uncompleted achievements, we have to either hover over the achievement or click on and then hover over. This makes it much harder to tally points in each section, especially with the category total removed. Why might we wish to manually tally our points? Every now and then achievements are bugged and it helps to know whether it’s a display issue or if we really did not get points awarded. This new layout is much less transparent than the old one.

Just give it a couple of weeks and you won’t even remember what the old UI looked like.

This one looks better, but the old one was more user friendly

You just don’t like it because you were used to the other one.

You just don’t like change.

Striker.9413:

Finally, the icons only show the titles of the achievements, not what you need to do. You have hover over the icon. The old one showed the task to complete without an additional action.

I literally facepalmed at this.
Dear god no!!! I have to mouse over!!!!!!!! Why must I suffer so????

Vol.5241:

You just don’t like it because you were used to the other one.

You just don’t like change.

This is such a lazy response. Just because it’s new doesn’t mean it’s perfect. Information that used to be readily apparent is now either hidden in a second layer or missing entirely. New doesn’t mean it can’t use more change.

new one is way better, looks nicer, and it actually shows which paths u have completed in dungeons. i like it

The new interface is ok, I just miss being able to see how many achievement points I’ve earned in a specific category (pvp for instance). Although, I didn’t look to hard, and maybe it was just an oversight.

I’ll leave it at one needs to get used to it.
It does look better imo.

The new one is much better, but takes some getting used to. I’d much rather have an interface that groups things, allows sorting and tells me what I have and haven’t done than the old one.

new one is more intuitive for me

Deaths Sensei.5317:

new one is way better, looks nicer, and it actually shows which paths u have completed in dungeons. i like it

Where does it show which paths you’ve completed? It shows the total number of paths (incl story) you’ve completed, which is no different from before, unless I’m missing something here.

Serenity.6149:

Deaths Sensei.5317:

new one is way better, looks nicer, and it actually shows which paths u have completed in dungeons. i like it

Where does it show which paths you’ve completed? It shows the total number of paths (incl story) you’ve completed, which is no different from before, unless I’m missing something here.

if you click it to open achievement details, hover mouse over text: X/X Paths Completed

The new one is good, the old one was bare bones, boring, and lacking info. This one is nice and fresh, fun to use and look at.

Deaths Sensei.5317:

Serenity.6149:

Deaths Sensei.5317:

new one is way better, looks nicer, and it actually shows which paths u have completed in dungeons. i like it

Where does it show which paths you’ve completed? It shows the total number of paths (incl story) you’ve completed, which is no different from before, unless I’m missing something here.

if you click it to open achievement details, hover mouse over text: X/X Paths Completed

Again, how is this different from before? You made it sound like it told you which path you were missing (e.g. Story, Path 2 and 3 completed, 1 and 4 missing). It only tells you the total (e.g. 3/5), which is what it used to do.

omg sorry, glanced at it fast earlier, i misread the info

Deaths Sensei.5317:

omg sorry, glanced at it fast earlier, i misread the info

Yeah… I wish it did what you thought it did. Now that would be nice.

This is going to be the same as what happens when YouTube change the channel layout. Some people will complain about it at first, but after a few weeks, they’ll act as though nothing happened.

Of course, if they’re still complaining in a few weeks, we either have some late comers to the new layout or something really is wrong.

Kuju.2153:

The new interface is ok, I just miss being able to see how many achievement points I’ve earned in a specific category (pvp for instance). Although, I didn’t look to hard, and maybe it was just an oversight.

This. I like the new interface, but I still would like to see how many points I have in each category.

Oddly the word disaster is what comes to my mind when I think about the old “interface”. I routinely scrolled around to find my kitten dailies or where the frack the current living story achievements were.

At first glance this one is at least easy to read.
Though it still doesn´t have the option to turn off the Achievement Spam all together.
Very much hoping for that. Those eyes simply need a 3rd state, as in crossed out.
So that upper right of the UI gets cleaner.

I like them, except that a lot of the same problems with the old UI persist with the new one.

For example, I don’t want to always have an achievement tracked! Seriously, some times I just don’t care, not even about monthly or daily, and I just want them off my screen!

This would have been a good chance to make that and many other improvements.

I tend to prefer text-based, information rich elements in a UI. But, that’s probably because I’m older and remember the good old days when the word reigned over the image. Times have changed. However, it’s possible to have both (cf. Edward Tufte’s work) and I do notice an improvement here and there like the display of achievements close to completion. I’ll bet they are not done with it yet and that we’ll see further refinements over time.

I think I like the new one, but I’ll know for sure in a week or two. Sometimes you just have to get used to something.

HawkMeister.4758:

Oddly the word disaster is what comes to my mind when I think about the old “interface”. I routinely scrolled around to find my kitten dailies or where the frack the current living story achievements were.

I always found that quite well ordered. Dailies at the top, Monthlies next, current Living Story was third. The (probably) most checked items at the top. They weren’t buried under sub-menus either.

Vol.5241:

You just don’t like it because you were used to the other one.
You just don’t like change.

I’m sure that’s part of it. But the page could have been improved upon with completely removing the nice parts. Adding sorting would have been easy.
This event reminds me of MS Office ribbons.

MrRuin.9740:

Striker.9413:

Finally, the icons only show the titles of the achievements, not what you need to do. You have hover over the icon. The old one showed the task to complete without an additional action.

I literally facepalmed at this.
Dear god no!!! I have to mouse over!!!!!!!! Why must I suffer so?

Why would they create the new system to require MORE user input without providing a benefit? It’s just poor design.

Raine.1394:

I tend to prefer text-based, information rich elements in a UI. But, that’s probably because I’m older and remember the good old days when the word reigned over the image.

I’m with you all the way. Surely I’m not the only one using command line almost every day.

Raine.1394:

Times have changed. However, it’s possible to have both (cf. Edward Tufte’s work) and I do notice an improvement here and there like the display of achievements close to completion. I’ll bet they are not done with it yet and that we’ll see further refinements over time.

Lets hope they continue to refine the interface. Maybe they can learn from Edward Tufte too (thanks for introducing me to this awesome guy).

Striker.9413:

The old list was clean, elegant, and easy to scan.

hmmm agree. but if we get new sets of living story achievements every month then it will become a very long list.

The additional categories were unnecessary. They only made the list 10 items longer and requires additional clicking to navigate to the category you want. Some categories only have a single sub-category anyways.

perhaps this mean there will be much more categories introduced in the future?

The individual achievement “list” is now a zigzag of icons. This makes it more difficult to scan and compare differences. The long progress bar also showed more detailed progression.

maybe we need some time to get used to it.

Finally, the icons only show the titles of the achievements, not what you need to do. You have hover over the icon. The old one showed the task to complete without an additional action.

hmmm a slight inconvenience. perhaps will need some time getting used to as well.

Overall, the interface requires far more actions from the user to get the same amount of information.

this, i agree. i hope it should save the last viewed category so i dun have to click so many times. time for a survey for that!

Vol.5241:

You just don’t like it because you were used to the other one.

You just don’t like change.

OP, thank goodness you now know what’s wrong with you! It’s not a preference, it’s a problem. Now you can go get the help you most desperately need. /sarcasm off

I don’t much like the new UI either, but I’m not gonna tell the people that do like it that they are wrong for liking it. Just wow….

I didnt read this thread, but wanted to start one just like it.

The new interface makes me want to vomit.

As original posted said: No list? Ordering left to side? What is this? A console game made for the crappy office ribon menu system? Since when is icons less cluttered than a list.

As original poster said: It doesn’t have the same ordering system as the old one. EG, wvw dailies were listed at the bottom. Now they are either all over the place or in the middle.

Summary page as the default? How about putting your new account bonuses in the corner instead of giving it a third of its own page. How about defaulting to something useful. Like, maybe a list of achievements, because that is why I came here.

As original poster said: Scrolling through categories to scroll through achievements is like having to open one box, to take out another box, just so you can eat your kitten cereal. Although, the historical category was ok. I imagine it would have been needed at some stage. But the rest?

As original poster: WHY DO I HAVE TO HOVER OVER EVERYTHING TO SEE WHAT IT IS NOW!? YOU ARE NOT AN APPLE PRODUCT! YOU HAVE MORE THAN ONE BUTTON AND INTERFACE DEVICE!

Why does the header of the page have to be dedicated to chests and a couple of numbers? Once you get these chests there are going to be great big gaps in time before this information is relevant. Or you know how when you open your inventory you get a little number in the corner that shows you how much currency you have? Why does this one have to be so big? No other players are going to see how big my number is. When they look at it is going to be small. Xbox.

In fact the only thing that has been very pleasant is the introduction of milestrones for points. I like shiny chests… wait a minute, this has nothing to do with the UI.

Did I mention that navigating this important functionality, as minor as it is, actually makes me want to not play the game.

I wonder why they removed the category total, makes no sense to me. Other than that, I like the new interface much more

I like it. Thanks, Anet.

I prefered having simple lists with texts and progress bars.

The new interface is shiny and cluttered.

So I guess it just confirm what most of us suspect – Your average person share more similarities with the Skritt than they think and ANET knows what to give them.

I don’t particularly like it either, it feels more cluttered, less easy to navigate.

My daughter feels the same.

My husband and son find it more intuitive.

I understand there are different ways that basic personality types observe, use, categorize data.

And that there were probably players who did not like the original version.

I will adapt. I won’t like it. But I will adapt.

PS: And if ANet changes it again sometime in the future, I will adapt once more.

PPS: It’s unfortunate that this new interface is not a toggle-preference. I’m allowed to make that suggestion, yes?

the two columns in the right panel make it difficult to scan quickly.

My vote also goes for the new one. Much improved

I thinks there should be option to hide completed achievements or move them to the bottom of the list by default. New interface is less compact (you can see less achievements on screen at once and need more scrolling) so every time I want to see unfinished achievements I need to scroll through completed records, and that is just annoying.

New interface is good but needs more polishing.

I also like the new interface, but a thing I direly miss is a separate tracker for daily/monthly and other achievements.

I agree with the OP, the new achievement interface is harder to use and less clear than the old one. I’d take the old one back anytime.

The new achievement UI is pretty, but it is harder to navigate and less user-friendly than the old one. The main problem is that the achievements take up too much space in the window. There is no reason to have such a massive, square-shaped box for each achievement.

I would prefer a hybrid design: the colours and extra features of the new UI, with the simple list-style of the old one.

I’m in two minds about the new UI.

• Achievement categories
  Good: With the introduction of new living story chapters and new mini-games, the list was growing longer and longer. Categories were needed.
  Bad:* The living story chapters are in random sort order – should be chronological. Yes, this bugs me.
• Zigzagging achievements list
  Good: Can’t think of anything to be honest.
  Bad: I vastly preferred the achievements in a list, but going over the entire distance of the table. The left-right-left-right adds nothing for me and makes it more difficult to find things at a glance. Also bad: prohibits efficient sorting options, see next point.
• Achievement sorting options
  Good: Finally, alphabetical sort order as well as sort by completion.
  Bad: Sort by completion is only possible in one direction. That means, if I look at my “to-do-list”, I always have to scroll down. It should be possible to list the uncompleted achievements first. (Clickable table headers would have been the easiest way to allow players to do this, but the new table layout does not facilitate table headers. Sadface.)
• More info on click
  Good: Allows devs to put in more details.
  Bad: We lost some at-a-glance info to the on-click action.
• Watchlist
  Good: For someone who tracks more than 5 achievements at the same time, the watchlist is essential.
  Bad: You can use either the watchlist or the dailies/monthlies display, not both. That means I can either deselect and reselect everything on my watchlist before/after doing dailies, or deselecting and reselecting all daily/monthly tasks for the watchlist (and they won’t even show up on top of the list in the game UI that still only displays 5). Clicking the “more” option in the game UI element in the top right corner does not take you to the watchlist, just the achievements panel itself.
• Almost completed
  Good: This is actually helpful for slayer achievements and weapon mastery and such.
  Bad: Event achievements that can no longer be gotten are displayed in this list, and take up valuble space while being completely useless here.

Some more findings:

• List of achievements is incomplete
  My Halloween and Wintersday categories are incomplete. Confusingly, they do list some of the achievements that I didn’t get, so a 0% success rate doesn’t seem to be the (only) criteria.
• Completion bars
  Are now shorter, and that means: less precise.

So, yeah, while I really appreciate some changes (i.e. categories, watchlist and sorting options), the implementation seems halfhearted, and leaves me with a UI that is different, prettier (although, eye of the beholder and all that) but not actually more useful than the old one – at least not nearly as much more useful as I imagined after reading the announcements.

Summary: different, but not necessarily better / more useful – an opportunity wasted.

I’m finding all the bright graphics to be a bit harsh on my eyes… it’s like too much visual stuff distracting from the actual information. I’d rather something a bit more simple and sleeker. I also dislike having to hover over everything. There’s so much room in each of the achievement boxes.. why not put some text in there? Personally it’s a bit garish and I’d love to have it tuned back a bit.. but I know that won’t happen. :P

To be honest the new one makes no sense to me what so ever.
The old one was clean and straight forward, the new one is too visual.

Even though I “will get used” to the new one this doesn’t change the fact it’s worse than the old one. Less = more.

Why add the “Almost Completed” list in the historical tab if you can’t complete them anymore?!
It would be better to remove them and only show those 100% completed achievements.

Unlike you OP i really like it

I liked the old one better too……It’s by no means a dealbreaker for me. I just think time and resourses could have been better spent on bug fixing or fixing things that are problematic (like the horrible broken camera!) than fixing something that was working just fine.

I have not heard one complaint about the achievement interface ever.

The new achievement UI is Windows 8 bad.

Honestly, I could go with either interface. Both have their perks and drawbacks. I like how the watch/track feature is implemented in the new one over just the check boxes in the old one for example. I like the increased number of watchables as well.

I don’t find it confusing, or any more complicated than the old one. The new one does give some room for additional sub categories of achievements though, allowing for some future expansion options.

The only thing would like (and I may have missed it) is a search option within it.

I didn’t like the old one and I don’t like the new one. But, I do dislike the new one a bit less than the old one. In particular, I like the categories tree on the left. I like the addition of the ‘almost done’ part, but I would like the option to hide achievements that I never intend to finish. I don’t like the switch in the right pane to large, bold graphical fields rather than the simple list we had before. The fields are hard for me to look at; it takes me longer to process that and find what I’m looking for. Which is not to say they should be removed; I think it would be ideal if there were an option to switch your display between ‘icon’ and ‘list’ view. I also hope to see more sort options added. So, while I’m not thrilled with the new interface, I think it’s a step in the right direction; if they continue to add more options to it, I will probably come to like it very much.

I do like it.

/15chars.