Shadow of Cerberus EVE Community Forum

Why UI? The New Show Info Layout

Usually, when a user interface change is made, it's because there's some readily apparent reason to do so. Compare the show info windows below (pointed out to me on Twitter by @Evelgrivion.) On the left, you have the old show info layout. On the right, the new show info layout as will be released with Odyssey 1.1.

Left: old; Right: new

Aesthetically, I do prefer each piece of information on a single row, even if it does result in more eye movement, perhaps more time required to gather information. While aesthetics are an important consideration in UI design, I certainly don't think that the old design was terrible to look at.

If the aesthetics are, more or less, equal, then you move on to usability. You make a change because it will enhance usability. In the case of moving from a double row design to a single row design, one could reasonably assume that this would result in more information being available in the vertical space, thus less scrolling overall to retrieve information. That would be a net usability benefit.

Yet, look at the two images. There's almost a negligible gain in vertical real estate with the design change. Which is a shame. Aesthetically a minor improvement; usability-wise, nada.

The obvious culprit that is limiting increased data in the vertical space are those icons. Look at the winged icon for the Inertia Modifier. There's a couple pixels that could be saved in each row over the double row layout, but again, that's not going to result in a huge gain in vertical space. For this new layout to really work, to really provide visual benefit, those icons need to be downsized.

It's not really a big deal. Just curious why CCP spent time on this change. Perhaps it was just a mistake. A dev assumed they would get some vertical real estate benefit from the new layout, and then once finished they angrily muttered "Crap! Stupid inertia modifier icon!"
Source: Why UI? The New Show Info Layout