Guild Wars 2

So, after playing around with the new UI for the equipment, dyes, and wardrobe functions, I found the UI to be very clunky. I would be in one section, back out, then click on the one I wanted. Oh wait, I need this piece of armor on before I apply this transmutation. So then I have to back out, click the equipment tab, then put my armor on, then back out, then back to wardrobe. Then, if I leave the dye tab when I close the hero window, it will go to that the next time it is opened instead of allowing me to see my equipment. It’s a lot of extra steps that while it may seemed organized, it is quite clunky in design.

I may have a solution for this that is simple and yet fairly effective, and I shall use the power of my feeble image editing skills to prove my point. So, the first image here is what we have now. We have three tabs each corresponding to equipment, wardrobe, and dyes. The window doesn’t do much except have a lot of empty space and a centralized area from where to work from. However, as stated before, this method seems to be very clunky.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e199/RedDragon2/Untitled.png
Figure 1: Current UI

What I propose is something like in the next figure here. We already have icons in place for these three tabs, so why not just do that? Use these icons as a means to flip easily through these without having to back out and going to another tab and then having to back out again. I noticed that there is a large enough area for the back button and the title of the tab that is currently in use. The icons would take over this space, and to make things clear, the name of the tab would have a tool tip displaying its name when a user hovered their mouse over it. To further indicate the current tab, the one that is being in use can be highlighted while the others are a bit more faded out.

http://i39.photobucket.com/albums/e199/RedDragon2/suggestedui.png
Figure 2: Suggested UI

I would like to suggest that when this is opened it automatically goes to the Equipment tab first. If there is a preference to a certain tab to be opened when the hero tab is opened, I don’t see why this couldn’t be implemented in the options menu of the game.

There is really only one drawback I can think of for this design. With your current setup, you have a lot of room for expansion. With mine, it will eventually be limited to the amount of icons available; however, I don’t see this as a very big issue and overall believe this suggestion to be better than the current designed that was released in the patch. I ,of course, would like to know what my fellow players think of this. Please feel free to share your thoughts.

Thanks folks!

~Drago

EDIT: couldn’t get the image tags working. You’ll just have to open it in a new tab. :P

I think this would be a great improvement. +1

Thanks much

I’m also trying to think of some improvements for the trait UI as well. That has also taken a small turn for the worst in my opinion.

More action bars!

Because as it stands right now, the current system requires a lot of “backtracking” to get things done. Your suggestion would make their new model more fluid.

+1 to this.

The point of the Hero panel was to be able to quickly view ALL information.
In other games you often have to open up multiple windows to see your stats and your gear etc. Hero panel let you see all of this at once – and now you have to open the hero panel and then open the equipment panel… It’s silly.
It should at the very least default to Equipment view.

Yeah, I agree. Really, they could have kept the old design but just added a new icon for the wardrobe system. I’m still scratching my head as to why they went with the design they have now

Agreed so much.

I hate the new system where I have to “close down” one section of my inventory in order to access the others. Its an unnecessary hassle. I miss the little “dye” button I had above my normal inventory screen pre-patch, it was so much more convenient than this. But these changes would make it decent again.

Changed the topic to better convey what I am saying.

@Electro- Yeah, I totally agree. It is a hassle, but as you said, their pre-patch UI worked just fine. That is what I hope to accomplish with my propose idea while having a “new” look.

I agree with the OP 100% and even posted something similar in the feedback topic.

Here’s a tip, you can right click on the item slot and equip items that way, from any of the three panels. So you can equip stuff even when you are in dye mode, or wardrobe mode.

However, I do agree with having all three modes accessible with one click, instead of needing to click once to go to an empty menu, then click again for what I want. It’s just one click but it’s something that we interact with very often and it becomes cumbersome, not to mention the transition animation is very slow …

Sithis.3564:

I agree with the OP 100% and even posted something similar in the feedback topic.

Yeah, this was another issue I had. There was just so much clipping off the character if you were a Charr. And with so much space, it makes it even worse.

Satakal.6971:

Here’s a tip, you can right click on the item slot and equip items that way, from any of the three panels. So you can equip stuff even when you are in dye mode, or wardrobe mode.

However, I do agree with having all three modes accessible with one click, instead of needing to click once to go to an empty menu, then click again for what I want. It’s just one click but it’s something that we interact with very often and it becomes cumbersome, not to mention the transition animation is very slow …

Ooh, I didn’t realize that. That certainly helps as far as trying to skin different items, being able to equip from that screen and not go back to the equipment tab is certainly nice since it seems you can only apply skins to equipped gear. Thanks for the tip!

Still think it could be streamlined better as in the OP though.

I just tested this, and yeah that does help. I’ll be using this as a means to cut some of the clunky UI navigation, but I would still prefer if they would use tabs as I suggested. Hopefully, someone on the team has/will read this and implement it.