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[Feature Request] A better UI for game switching #133
Description
Why
Collapse can be used as a launcher for several hoyo games. So, rather than switching through the drop-down list each time, why don't we make some modifications to Collapse's layout to suit players who play more than one MiHoYo game?
How
For example, here is Minecraft Launcher, which could launch Minecraft JE & Minecraft Dungeons - This is one that can be referred to.
Collapse's burger menu makes no sense currently - #131 also mentioned this. All buttons it contains, except "Home", can be moved to "Quick Settings".
It would be appropriate to turn them directly into a sidebar that is always displayed. Also, The sidebar can provide the ability to switch between games, just like Minecraft Launcher.
In this way, dropdown box on top could simply serves to provide a region toggle - or even simpler, eliminate the dropdown box and modify it to a region toggle button (pic below), as hoyo games have only 2 "regions" to choose.
Conclusion
I didn't find a similar Issue, sorry if I missed. I think this is a good UI change, or at least not a flawed one - except that the image area takes up a smaller percentage.
Activity
[-][Feature Requiest] A better UI for game changing[/-][+][Feature Requiest] A better UI for game switching[/+]bagusnl commentedon May 14, 2023
Hello, Alex3236! Thank you for showing your interest in the project and giving us feedback on UI/UX area of the Launcher.
About the #131, we already thinking about making the Collapse logo in the launcher always redirects to MainPage but haven't officially put in any commits or words about it due to IRL stuff and 1.70.x launch that we are preparing.
The current UI is designed to have separate menu to changing Game, Regions, and Pages (MainPage, Game/Cache Repair and Game Settings) associated with the Game, thus allowing us to easily add or remove parts that we want to as we add more features to certain Game.
Also, the problem with miHoYo games that technically not all of them has only 2 regions that we support, HI3 have 6 regions and making separate UI system just for HI3 is IMO unnecessary and will be quite unintuitive for some that plays HI3 in multiple regions and also other games in multiple regions too.
All in all, we really appreciate your feedback on the UI and we will discuss the matter with other contributors. If you don't mind, feel free to also make a Proof of Concept (PoC) on how the UI you imagined will look like considering the current feature sets that Collapse has while also keeping the modularity aspect of certain pages that can be added/toggled on the fly and maintains good UX for the users.
Thank you ❤️
alex3236 commentedon May 15, 2023
Here's my full design -
Principles
First,
we make some reasonable changes to conform to the design that follows.
This way, we have a more logical settings and buttons layout.
Then,
we add the new sidebar.
The window minimize and close button can be moved down, by moving down the social media area.
For a smaller sidebar, consider showing just the icons, or expand on mouseover.
"Notification" can be moved down with the minimize button, or placed in the sidebar.
Conclusion
With these changes, we get:
devrim6 commentedon May 15, 2023
Here's what my idea for a new game selection UI would look like. Icons could be a little smaller, but in my opinion this size was adequate. This design would still have the "warning pop-up skip" option in settings. With that option enabled switching only takes one click without adding more buttons and such to the sidebar or a similar location. Another feature that would work here is the ability to reorganize the icons in any order the user wants (probably not the most essential thing though).
alex3236 commentedon May 15, 2023
I had imagined this option. The reason for not proposing it is that the icons are a bit abrupt in the current ui style. Also, even with this option, I would prefer to move the region selection box down rather than keeping it in the title bar.
bagusnl commentedon May 16, 2023
Thanks for all the ideas that both of you posted, its a great feedback on the current UI we have.
While I like how @alex3236's idea about removing the burger menu and instead moving the options into the gear icon inside the launcher, I'm quite conflicted by the fact that we removed the burger menu just to add back a big sidebar on the main page just for a game list. On this topic I quite like @devrim6's idea better. Though it would take quite a while to adjust the icon positioning every time when a new game is added, but I'd argue that even HYV won't add new game all that often.
For the region selector it would be more effective to be put right next to the game selector as we can confirm what game and which region selected faster in just one look at the general area. So IMO its fine to still have the top bar as we still have the notification icon and the minimize/close button.
For telling which game is selected we can also put a nice bright border around the selected game and additionally grayscale the game selection that is currently not installed, so its easier to see which game we have installed.
alex3236 commentedon May 16, 2023
Yes, devrim6's solution is nice if you can make the selector less obtrusive while next to the icon.
The reason I think it's a bit ugly is that even if the selector and the icon use the same rounded corners, it's a bit odd to have them together. Maybe right-centering the selector (make it next to the notification, not the icons) would solve this.
gablm commentedon May 16, 2023
Based on devrim6's design and to people who play multiple regions, there could be a "pinned" functionality when a user could make the regions they play appear permanently in the navbar.
To distinguish regions, there could be a badge similar to the image with the region name or a symbol or its abbreviation.
That way, only the active region and the pinned regions are shown. If needed a region can be open or pinned thru the "+" menu.
alex3236 commentedon May 16, 2023
My other option is to display a drop-down list of regions when the mouse is moved over the icon, and the user can switch regions directly in the drop-down list, or continue clicking on the icon to use the currently selected region. But then, it becomes a question whether the confirm window pops up or not.
bagusnl commentedon May 16, 2023
We already have an option to disable Confirm Warning window in the new preview version so that is fine I think.
[-][Feature Requiest] A better UI for game switching[/-][+][Feature Request] A better UI for game switching[/+]bagusnl commentedon Aug 6, 2023