Let it Flow - About PoE's User Experience

Really good post OP! I hope it is not in vein.

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Phoobrak wrote:

Greetings!
Thanks for reading :)

Sick post , I've never read more enjoyable feedback on these forums .

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Real_Wolf wrote:

I agree with pneuma, very good feedback.

A very interesting post - I thank you for it! You bring up very interesting things :)

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I like the two clicks for identifying rares, it feels more like an option, and I could easily right click on things I don't want to identify. I don't mind this setup

I'm genuinely interested in knowing more about this! From the point of view of a UI/UX designer, I'm always looking for occasions to learn more about users' habits and methods.

What are the occasions in this game that you have unidentified things that you want to keep as such? Does this comprise a majority of the time, or does this situation arise only seldom?

What are the occurrences where you currently right click on items (by accident or not), and how many times would you say this would happen in the course of a play session? Do you believe you would get used to being more careful with your right-clicking, or would this remain a hindrance to you throughout your time with the game?

Lastly, do you believe the time saved by not having to click twice for every identification would make up for the few identification mistakes that might happen?

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Zone resetting, I don't completely understand. Do you want to be able to reset the zone from INSIDE the zone, or do you want to not have to ctrl+click then click new. I support some shift+click which resets instance so you don't have to open the list of all instances, but resetting from inside an instance sounds wrong.

My gripe with the reset method is twofold. First, it uses a shortcut that is uncommon (Ctrl+Click to bring up options), and isn't used much (if at all) in the rest of the game. The best thing is to be constant with the use of shortcuts to make the experience as stable as possible - having interface options always appear on right-click seems like a great option here.

Secondly, having to load other zones completely for the sake of having access to the reset option slows down gameplay massively, and has been awkward in every group I've ever done this with (Ledge & Fellshrine mostly).

You bring up an interesting point: resetting an instance from inside said instance (using World panel, say) sounds wrong. Your use of the word "wrong" is what interests me here - can you elaborate on what you're referring to? I understand that details like where your character appears upon reset, or if you can actually reset the zone from any point or only from Exit points are things to consider, but I'm interested in hearing more!

To give a quick example of what I'm thinking, imagine you're running Fellshrine and come to the Crossroads exit. Currently, you will have to click on the Exit point, load Crossroads (which is pretty massive), Ctrl-Click on Fellshrine exit, click new (in the brutally clunky interface, but that's another issue), then load new Fellshrine instance. That's two loading screens, one of which was completely unecessary. Why not simply have the player open the World panel, Ctrl-Click (or right-click!) the Fellshrine area which will simply open up the loading screen and send the player into the new instance as though they just entered.

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Gear -> Some people don't like to share their build. if its something very unique, they dont' want everyone to be looking at their items. I understand this. Sure, it would be convienient to have it be an option, but an option only that has to be changed by the person, not automatically on.

Perhaps the most interesting point brought up (can you tell I have this issue at hear?)

Quite a lot of questions come to mind, but just a few here for now: Are you one of those people that wants to keep their build secret, or are you speaking theoretically? If you are one of those people, do you think someone simply looking at your gear setup will be able to guess what your build is, and steal it from you? What if you could only view people's gear that you are grouped with, or on your friends list (once the friends list is made less stalk-able, mind you)? Did you play any other MMO/ARPG's that had the inspection feature enabled, and did you have any run-ins with people stealing ideas or any other such negative experiences?

To be clear, I am not advocating being able to see people's actual build - although it would definitely be enjoyable to view my friends' builds ingame (via a link they would send, perhaps) rather than only offline. I'm only talking about actual gear worn, which hardly reveals any "secrets", in my opinion, and isn't even visible offline. However, I'm very interested in hearing more on this one also :)


Cheers!

Mostly good ideas, but some points:
-Right clicking to identify would be inconsistent behavior. Currently R-click is for "activating" an item (like a scroll), or to interact with subcomponents (ie. gems). Identification does not quite fit into either of these categories.
However, I can say that it would be nice if the ID process was quicker.

-Instance resetting is a temporary solution implemented for the purpose of helping people test. It will eventually be removed from the game.

-The order in which items fill a container should be based on a strategy that anticipates maximal packing of the container, rather than according to aesthetic reading order.

-Something you could add is that the game moves items from the ground to your cursor based on whether your inventory was open at the time you issued the click. It can be unintuitive because the unexpected behavior (item going to cursor instead of inventory) is based on something that occurred in the past (was your inventory open or not when you clicked) rather than the game state at the instant the unexpected event occurred (was your inventory open or not when you reached the item).

The "2-click to identify" method is OK, IMO. Sure, right-clicking an item, identifying it as long as you have scrolls for that might be just as well, at least for me. I don't really right-click on an item that often - might have never happened at all, so I don't think I would have "lost" anything to a one-click method.
An "identify all" button, however, could be more of a problem. Unidentified items sell for shards of transmutation, whereas identified ones sell for shards of alteration (and some other stuff depending on mods etc.). I for one run out of scrolls of wisdom quite often and then hoard blue items and sell them for shards of transmutation in order to get orbs which I can then sell for scrolls of wisdom. However, it would only be a problem if it was the only method of identifying - so, I don't think it is a big issue and certainly doesn't need fixing. A bit of polish, like you suggested, could be nice, but it's really nothing I want to see developers put work into just yet.
And I do like identifying stuff. I hate the way DIII handles magic items (and as a matter of fact, rares and legendaries as well, with that stupid delay).

Nice, I hope developers read it.

I missed one thing in your list: thumbs-up for posts on this forem..

a say +1 instead!

10/10 feedback.

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PolarisOrbit wrote:

Mostly good ideas, but some points:

Thanks for your post :)

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-Right clicking to identify would be inconsistent behavior. Currently R-click is for "activating" an item (like a scroll), or to interact with subcomponents (ie. gems). Identification does not quite fit into either of these categories.
However, I can say that it would be nice if the ID process was quicker.

Quite correct with the "activation" comment, and I agree that making this consistent throughout the interface is crucial. Would you agree, however, that right-clicking an item would feel similar to "activating" or "using" an item, in this sense the item being the actual unidentified piece of gear which in essence is being "activated"? If not, can you see any other ways of making the identification process quicker?

One of my ideas from the original post was to create special interface slots for Portal and Wisdom scrolls, with bindable keys. This would in essence remove at least the first click of the action, while retaining the "I'm using this effect on this item" feel of the two-step action. For example, I've bound my "H" key to Wisdom scrolls in my action keys at the bottom, open my inventory, hit H then click on an unidentified item, using up a scroll. Added speed and practicality, no loss of feeling of interactivity!

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-Instance resetting is a temporary solution implemented for the purpose of helping people test. It will eventually be removed from the game.

Well this is news to me. What is the proposed method, if any, for resetting zones? If there is no reset option for instances, what does the expected gameplay flow look like after it is removed? Are we to believe people will be jumping from instance to instance, Diablo 3 style, for their entire play session?

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PolarisOrbit wrote:

-The order in which items fill a container should be based on a strategy that anticipates maximal packing of the container, rather than according to aesthetic reading order.

This is an interesting comment! The first thing to say here is that reading order has nothing to do with aesthetics, and more to do with how brains, through repeated use and education, are hardwired with a certain logic for reading direction. Going against the grain will inevitably give a certain sense of discomfort which breaks up a user's flow.

Do you have an example of a game (or application/website) where the maximal-packing-order logic is applied? I've never personally witnessed it, so it might not be as jarring as the current method in use in PoE - I'd be curious to experiment with it, if you can point me towards a working example.

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-Something you could add [...]

Agreed 100%. Has been added to the Looting subsection, proper credits due!

Cheers :)

Great Feedback, agreed with probably all of it, especially liked the character selection, characters and looting!