Building Statistics Window Redesign

[GunChleoc]

As discussed in the forum https://wl.widelands.org/forum/topic/1576/ The Building Statistics Window could do with a redesign.

We are going for a tabbed layout with a building icon grid, in the same order as in the fieldaction -> building tabs. On the bottom of each building icon, the statistics will be displayed. The icons and statistics will be clickable to show the buildings on screen. Tooltips will explain to the user how everything works.

Mockup attached, design like in the bottom row.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

Can we find a place to step through stopped buildings as well?

https://bugs.launchpad.net/widelands/+bug/849705

[kaputtnik (franku)]

Your're a workaholic ;) Great you work on this.

 I don't know how often other players stop a building, i do not often. More i could need a step through all buldings that are under construction. To explain: While enlarging my territory I often send out geologists to find ressources, even if have enough mines. Because the signs the geologist places disappear after time, i couldn't find the exact places to build a mine. So i place mines before the signs disappear but do not connect the mines to the economy. So they are "under construction" but won't be build. Later in game, when a old mine gets exhausted, i just have to connect the new mine.

Just a wish. I think everyone has other wishes (f.e. step through buildings which have productivity less than 50%, step through buildings where the working area isn't used much, and so on)

Stepping through all buildings is enough. By stepping through all buildings of one type every player reaches the building he wants to see/adjust/connect/start.

Please do not forget to add a shortcut for this window (if you do not have allready done). For example pressing "b" would bring up the building statistic window.

I couldn't test your branch because lack of time :-( Maybe somewhen this week, but this not shure.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

It will show up in the code reviews when it's ready for testing. There is a lot to do still.

The construction site thing had also crossed my mind. All the labels are buttons, so we can tie them all into something. For example:

Click on a building: Step through all buildings of this type
Click on production stats: go to unproductive of this type
Click on building stats: go to construction site of this type

[kaputtnik (franku)]

Hmmm... i am unsure about your suggestion. Most infos are allready displayed on the screen while gameplay. If a building has stopped the production, it is shown as "stopped". The productivity is also shown there.

Sometimes it is better to get less options as too many.... but if the function of each button is explained in the tooltips it might be a good thing.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

The 3 functions I suggested are the same functions that we have at the bottom of the table right now, so we shouldn't lose them.

The plan is to explain them on the bottom, so the user will know what to click without needing to go to the readme.

[Hans Joachim Desserud (hjd)]

I like that the sketch show the different buildings, allow you to sort based on size and make it less cluttered/overloaded by information. Oh, and random question: I don't know if the different background colors are supposed to signify something or if they are just random?

That said...

>The plan is to explain them on the bottom, so the user will know what to click without needing to go to the readme.

No offense, but if you need to explain how the window works, then it's basically a failed design. But we can talk about it, because I think there has to be a better way to convey how to use this.

One idea I guess is to do something similar to the current window, when a building is selected you get the controls to browse through it at the bottom.

An alternative I thought about, which I don't know whether our GUI framework would support is to display the arrows when hovering over a particular building. So if you move the cursor over the lumberjack hut you get context-aware left and right arrows next to which can be used to browse through the lumberjack huts and have tooltip saying "next [building type]" etc. And if you move your cursor over to the quarry, a new set of arrrows will be shown for that icon. Couple of drawbacks: I don't know how easy this would be to make, it might not be enough space in the window to squeeze it in in a good way, and thirdly it sounds like you plan to have different sets to browse through (working buildings, stopped ones, under construction) and I don't immediately see how that can be solved in a good way with this approach.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

The mockup has different designs in it, because we were discussing on the forum which design to pick. We decided for buttons without a bevel, like the building construction flagaction.

I dropped the idea of having a helptext at the bottom and went with tooltips instead. So, the user sees the functionality while hovering over a button. The buttons are also dynamic depending on the buildings available and whether they are buildable / production sites etc.

I have attached a screenshot so you get an idea.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

Redesign as per forum comments.

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

New screenshot

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

New concept for militarysites

[GunChleoc (gunchleoc)]

Fixed in build19-rc1.