[Feedback] Item Tooltip UI Adjustments for PC (image + text)

PC General Discussion
1

I wanna provide some constructive feedback for the Item Tooltop UI - specifically for the PC version – so in order to convey it effectively I made a mockup image / concept that illustrates the issues with the current design of the PC version of D4’s Item Tooltip UI and how it can be improved to make it better and easier readable for PC users:

Main Feedback Illustration / Image
https://i.imgur.com/kpz4S8D.png

Image of the reworked Item Tooltip Window on its own
https://imgur.com/zuBw7Hc

Illustrating the adjustments on another Legendary
https://imgur.com/LBytdgy

Illustrating the concept on a Runeword (Breath of the Dying)
https://imgur.com/at994mp

Further illustrating the idea of Affix Bullet Point Icons and Affix Grouping
https://imgur.com/nzzuqUk

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Reasoning / Intent behind these adjustments

— Major Adjustments —

[Item Image]
Moved to the left, which causes the “Innate Item Values” (like DPS, etc) to be moved further to the right, which creates a better distinction between the “Innate Item Values” and the Magical Affixes, hence, makes it better to read.

[Innate Weapon Stats]
— Damage per Hit, Attacks per Second, also related to DPS (also can be termed „Secondary Info“, though that term is not fully accurate) —

Reduced Font Size + made Italic and grey, which indicates that these kind of Information belong to the same groups, and the distinct location makes them easier to find when specifically looking for them.

[Tertiary Info]
— Sell Value, Durability, Class Requirements, etc —
Most importantly, they got moved to the bottom of the tooltip, which reduces the overall vertical size of the tooltip and having them in distinct places to easily find them. Additional adjustments: Italic, grey color, reduced Font Size.

[Broadened Tooltip Window]
Slightly broadened the Tooltip as a whole, which allows for more space.

— Minor Adjustments —

[Keywords recolored]
Keywords like Slowed, Distant, Close, etc (also Vulnerable, Overpower, Unstoppable, etc) now have a a slightly different color to make them quicker to find.

[Affix Bullet Point Icons]
Added a few Icons / Symbols as Bullet Point Icons to the left of Affixes, which communicates better what Affix Type Group they belong to, e.g.:

  • Crossed Swords for Offensive Affixes,
  • Shield Icon for Defensive Affixes
  • Heart Icon for Recovery / Sustain Affixes
  • Malteser Cross for Attribute Bonuses and / or Skill Bonuses, etc)
  • etc

[Affix Grouping]
Affixes of the same group (Offensive Affixes, Defensive Affixes, Proc / Lucky Affixes, Recovery Affixes, etc) are grouped together, and different Affix Groups are further distinguished from each other by a thin line of empty space between them, which makes them easier to read and to categorize when analyzing the item.

[Numeric Values]
now have a different color from the Affix Text to make it easier and quicker o find them for those that specifically look for them.

[DPS Value Font Size]
Font Size of the DPS Value got increased. It may not be the most important value, but it is useful for casual players and it fit neatly in this design. However, the font size can also be adjusted / reduced if necessary.

[Item Power Value]
moved to the upper right corner, which makes it easy to find for those that look for it. Should Blizzard consider the Item Power Value to be more important, than its Font Size can also be increased and its placement on the tooltip can be adjusted.

======================================================================

The user Zadok also made a rework concept in this thread.
Take a look here for his alternative concept.

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/172205021658611712/1094274327559540857/image.png

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For reference, I also shared this on reddit on the Diablo subreddit and the Diablo 4 subreddit.

https://www.reddit.com/r/Diablo/comments/127goq6/d4_feedback_item_tooltip_ui_adjustments/

https://www.reddit.com/r/diablo4/comments/127ge1m/feedback_item_tooltip_ui_adjustments_explanation/

The concept is not meant to be perfect, but rather to illustrate the suggested improvements, so additional adjustments (e.g. for colors, font sizes, etc) can of course be made.

Thank you!

9 Likes
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i definitely like your way of grouping. especially the innate stats of the weapon vs affixes.

2 Likes
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Giving the Innate Stats more a distinct appearance makes them indeed easier to distinguish from the Magic Affixes.

In the original, everything is merged / conflated into one amalgamation, like a text wall, which imo makes it very difficult to read and process easily.

ty!

Are you referring to the base image / the base concept in general, or more specifically the idea of “Affix Grouping” into Offensive, Defense, Attributes, Lucky Procs, etc Affixes, and distinguishing them with Bullet Point Icons and a line of empty space?

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Hello clueso, fancy seeing you here!

I like your ideas especially the icons for offense defense etc.

1 Like
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I really like that rework. I’m super curious on what different coloring would be.
(blue) I’d want to see this as the default original grey
(light blue) I’d want to see this as lighter grey or maybe white?

then the mods that have a range to them as blue, similar to the default 54% attk speed
but applied to stats like 11%, 13%, 14%, +3% and the items base 12%.

I get that D2 and D3 and even games like PoE have the blue text as the normal default but ehhhh, I’m kinda liking the current grey we have, just needs some better highlighting for quicker digestion.

the items icons we currently have are too big and seem to be too far in the top right corner. I again, prefer the d3 inventory mini imagine just pasted on the left, similar to your rework.

as far as like… the border of the item… I’d like to see grey/yellows as the simple basic border, I’ve seen a D4 border that had a bigger box bulky corner to them, and even has a sharp looking point, which looked way cooler. idk where that went. what we have now is just a basic square border, kinda bleh… boring…

then legendaries/future sets could have a border that’s upgraded, like D3’s ancient items

and unique/primals or whatever else that’s ‘super rare’ could have the primal ancient border, just something thats like woah cool.

of course all of these would have a color match, nothing too bright/vibrant but it’s like obviously a grey/yellow/orange/brown and green or w/e item.

my last maybe concern that I haven’t seen yet is orange legendaries and brown uniques. I worry that the beams when dropped, you won’t be able to really tell a unique dropped and think its just another legendary.

any who, awesome rework layout. I’d still tweak the coloring/borders. really hope we see something better at launch, and yeah, I still really like D3 items layout. maybe less black background, no weapon element background, its just so clean… why they completely revamped something that was pretty good instead of just update it is beyond me.

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I like the rework stats and affix tooltip changes too!
Someone should tag @blizzard admin for this. This is really great UI tooltip display!

1 Like
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Nice seeing you too here Bovie!

Yeah, they are great.
They really help to categorize the affixes more easily, which helps when analyzing them and comparing them to other items.

Thanks!

With more grey colors instead of blue for the Magic Affixes, it would look approximately like this:
https://imgur.com/fLcihpC

You prefer that?

1 Like
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Saw this on Reddit first. LOVE. The layout suggestion. All the information is available and much more compact while keeping readability. Excellent formatting job imo. I’d really like them to adopt it, or at least take inspiration. I know they don’t plan to address UI till after launch but this should be a quick css fix.

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Yeah, I made some adjustments since I posted it on reddit last week.
The main image you see here is not the same as the main image from the two reddit threads.

The most noticeable adjustments being the Tooltip Window being broader and the overall increased Font Size + specific keywords having a different color.

Yeah, that is my hope. At least for PC.

They certainly are allowed to copy it or take inspiration from it.

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hah, close… more like the original color hue, then the (slow,distant,close,execute) would either be something like… same as default hue just slightly lighter, or bold, or bold/lighter, or white like the current one (basic) and then all the numbers with a variable range would be that original blue (12%, 11%, 13%, 14%, 3%)

the smaller fonts you used and have some in italicized almost looks like a grey/blue hue, whereas the top right item power looks closer to true grey, could just be my eyes/monitor angle.

I do still like the aspect on bottom, only because d3 items kinda had their special line on bottom as well, and d4 had its there already too, but maybe im just used to that?

annnnnd to top it off maybe the base items affix ’ dmg to distant 12% ’ would have one of those -----------<-<>->-------------- art lines above the base affix as well, like it has below, and then I’d align that with the other affixs, same color font sizing but just right above, you know?

Im just super nit-picking at this point though, but that’d maybe be my rough draft starting point for items, then mess with the borders and whatnot.

have you seen the older ones with the bulkier corners and how it tapers off into a point? wonder why they got rid of it and gave us the basic square trim. you can google it and see what i mean im sure, and/or even checkout the borders on d3’s ancient and primals… it just added that extra layer of cool, you know?

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I like OP’s rework. It actually looks a lot better to me. Well done.

1 Like
12

Sorry to be blunt, but with your reasoning cited in this post and the “analysis” tooltip, you have created something that in the end is less readable and quite frankly, I do not like.

See my feedback of your tooltip design below:

Text scanning/reading direction

The original design at least lets you scan up and down the tooltip, which players will repeatedly do during each tooltip comparison experience.

With your design, you’re also forcing them to scan the tooltip diagonally and left to right with their eyes, as not everything is left aligned and you have some lines with more than 1 property.

Making players do that in a game where a good amount of time is spent comparing items will be taxing on the player, which will get players to stop playing.

Graphic on the left

Your tooltip is designed based on a bow being the weapon on display, which the text is curved around.

What if the weapon is a sword that is curved out to the left and down? This will feel cramped at the top next to “legendary” but while creating a lot of whitespace further down.

Different shapes of item icons is why the original design has it isolated to the right hand side of the tooltip. This allows the player to admire the graphic in some situations, while not being distracted by the graphic while comparing item stats.

Use of italics

The use of italics is way over done. Furthermore, you’re mixing and matching italics and normal text across parts of the tooltip that players will be comparing stats with.

Not only players have to scan their eyes in abnormal ways while being distracted with the item’s icon, but on top of this have to read 2 different styled fonts (where italics augments the shape of the text) while doing so.

Where as the original design has tried to keep the key text designed in uniform as much as possible.

While here, you don’t need square brackets around “Lucky Hit”. I prefer it coloured over having the square brackets which add distraction in an attempt to make “Lucky Hit” stand out.

Legendary stats at top

I also agree with others that say that legendary stats should be at the bottom.

You’re creating a break between the 2 item stat sections that would normally be read together when players compare items.

Before you designed your tooltip, did you explore some much more simpler fixes to the tooltip first?

Have you also considered how this tooltip will look in different languages, RTL and LTR text directions, with advanced tooltips switched on, or while items are being compared (which show the red/green diff stats)?

To the current tooltip that’s in the game, I would do the following changes:

  • Make all tooltip text have a slightly smaller font size and line height. Anything larger than that adjustment and some people will have troubles reading it
  • Make the tooltip wider. This will allow some hangover text to not happen and will reduce the height of the tooltip as a result
  • Make the text “Legendary Bow” the same font size as the tertiary “Account Bound, Rogue” text. Players will know it’s a legendary based on its colour without needing to read this text
  • Remove the text “(Fast Weapon)” unless this specific text has its own meaning beyond the numeric attack speed property (I’m not sure if it does)
  • Remove the square brackets from the damage range numbers and instead make this text white in colour. Players may find the current format hard to read or at worse misread it when square brackets can look like “1”
  • Make “Account Bound” and “Rogue” text appear on the same line, separated by a round dot. Players do not compare this information and there’s more than sufficient space for this
  • Tighten up the space a bit between the item power stat, the horizontal rule and the DPS number
2 Likes
13

Any hope of getting something approved needs to be made for console. Your absolute best bet for any UI related change is to build something for console, that also does what you’d like to see done for PC.

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It really depends on whom you ask.

Some people think / feel that one version is easier to read than the other.

There is no ‘one size fits all solution’, and neither side is right or wrong about it, as a lot of this also boils down to personal preference.

Either direction has trade-offs, depending on who you ask.

For some people, including me, the original is just a confusing amalgamation, a wall of text, and it is difficult to quickly / intuitively assess what kind of info I am looking at.

With certain information being moved more to the right, it (from my perspective and many others ofc) is easier to distinguish them from other kinds of information, while also always being at a distinct place, which keeps it quick to find.

But it really depends on whom you ask. Others will feel the complete opposite way about it.

I personally do not mind the Italic, but a good amount of other people on reddit have mentioned that they do not like it.

Should be an easy adjustment if needed.

That is a solid point and you are probably right about that one.

A good amount of people like the legendary affix on top e.g. because it makes it appear more special, but it is hard to deny that the legendary affix being at the bottom makes it easier to compare items.

Can also be easily adjusted.

It would change / adjust in a way similar to how the original tooltip is doing it currently.

If advanced stats are being activated, the text will get longer / take one more additional paragraph, similar to how it looks in these examples on the legendary special affix or the Lucky Hit Effect on the original.

https://imgur.com/LBytdgy

https://imgur.com/nzzuqUk

‘Hangover Text’ (as you call it) is not really a “problem” so to speak, or a problem that has to be solved at any cost, as that is something that simply comes with the nature of these tooltips, especially with Legendary Special Affixes or Lucky Hit procs (*), and it also is something that the original has to deal with…

… so if being stretched too far (pun intended) it can cause other issues, like the tooltip being too wide.

And thanks for your feedback! Appreciated!

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you inspired me to make this:

cdn.discordapp (DOT) com/attachments/172205021658611712/1094274327559540857/image.png

you’ll have to place the “(DOT)” with and actual " . " to see it, since I cannot post links here, IDK how you were able to. lemme know what ya think, I really like how the bottom half looks!

1 Like
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Gonna be blunt and honest here.

These reworks are not as nice as the originals.

Not as readable and understandable at a glance.

Much prefer the original designs they look nicer too.

The colour coding on the words I can get behind though.

Edit: you know I kept looking at them and maybe I jumped the gun a bit. They don’t look as nice but, perhaps are more readable with all the things you mentioned. Font size. Italics. Colour coding. But they look a bit ugly is all.

2 Likes
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Honestly, this looks a mess.
Moving the image to the left does not do what you say it does. It’s just personal preference, and having it on the right looks better to me.

Moving it doesn’t “cause” anything to be moved anywhere or cause a better distinction between values, it just moves an icon. The rest was a design decision by you.

All of this other stuff is hard to read. it’s all mis-align vertically and horizontally and is using multiple different font-sizes, styles, and colors. It’s clear from this that you have no background in visual design, even if you are adequate at photoshop enough to create something like this.

The “bold” title reduces readability of the name of the item and the border around that takes focus off of the numbers below it, they’re essentially invisible.

DPS should not be the focus on an item, item power should be. But that’s subjective, and because it’s actually the stats on the item that truly make the decision, not the item level or dps, neither of them deserve to be larger in size.

Just because you’ve made a bunch of stuff italic, doesn’t mean anything. There’s no inherent “these things belong together because they’re in italics”.

Making the text small, and putting some stuff on the left, with other stuff on the right actually makes it harder to read. Applying italics to everything also makes it harder to read.
The spacing between the text is so much smaller that it just looks cluttered, to the point that I don’t even want to read what the text says.

I’m ok with this, I don’t mind it being wider, but there needs to be a good reason for it, and you’ve only done this because your version of the tooltip requires it, not because you thought wider would be better. If you didn’t make it wider, all your text would be so much closer together that it would look terrible. I don’t think widening it will help resolve any of the issues that you pointed in the analysis (which is a somewhat fair analysis).

I don’t have any issues with that, although i’m not sure the colors you chose work, because I don’t think the attributes should be blue themselves. You want contrast, but not too much, and some people are color blind. So blue/blue could look just like red to some people, and red on orange is next to impossible to see (without being able to tell the difference between the keywords and the rest of the text either).

I think the affixes need to be ordered somewhat similar to how you’ve done it, as indicated by your 3rd image. Having the icons means that every possible thing that can appear on the tooltip has to have an icon, and there’s likely something that don’t. That’s extra effort both now and in to the future, and it detracts from the actual text.

I think it’s fine without the icons, but i’m not really against having them either.

As just mentioned, this is a good thing to have. Your line spacing is weird though because the distance between each ‘offensive’ affix is different to the gap between those and the lucky hit affix. They should all be equidistant or you’ll get a weird looking tooltip. Ordering by group is fine, but grouping visually with additional padding is not good.

The colors on the tooltips are usually reserved for things that can roll differently. Because you haven’t used the advanced tooltips you don’t see how that looks, so I think this change is premature. You need to look at the advanced tooltips, they’re better.

Already mentioned this. I don’t like that. I think they had something similar in an earlier beta actually, and it got annoying because at a quick glance you would see a high number and think its better, and then realize that it’s actually not the number you want to be high, possibly after already replacing what you had equipped (you don’t really spend a lot of time looking at gear when levelling).

I actually found this more difficult to find. I like that it’s the first thing on the current tooltip that you see, it’s essentially the most important thing before the actual attributes of the item. Having it in the corner and being all small kind of hides it, and I don’t want to have to ‘look’ for something when quickly hovering over items.

I don’t mean to nitpick, I like the fact that you spent time putting this together, and some of it i’m ok with, but generally I think the current tooltip is better.

You should take a look at not just legendary items, but also rare items. Include Sacred and Ancestral (i’m sure there’s some out there you can find), and look at jewelry and equipment, because not everything has a “dps” value - weapon tooltips are different from non-weapon tooltips.

If I were going to change the tooltips, the things i’d change are:

  • Remove the hierarchy lines and just bullet point the data - gives a little more space
  • Order the attributes in the same order as they would appear in your stats window (whatever that order is)
  • Change the ‘comparison’ tooltip (which you haven’t shown either) to list ALL of the differences in a separate section under the tooltip - currently it shows some of them in the tooltip (+ or - to the current value) and then the remaining ones underneath, this makes it really awkward to compare items properly
  • Possibly change the text of each attribute to be more uniform, such as:
    • Damage to Slowed Enemies: +11.0%
    • Lucky Hit: Chance to Execute Injured Non-Elites: +3.0%

It looks like you did the same thing on your 3rd image, this does make it easier to read imo, rather than having some start with the value, some end with the value, and some have the value somewhere in the middle.

2 Likes
18

This is better. Although I think you took some tips from the OP, such as tiny / italic text and hiding the name of the item in a title bar etc…

That doesn’t work for me, but I do like the attribute list.

Keep the top part the same as it is, and the bottom part, but your attribute list and I think we have a winner.

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Image for discussion. Basic concept image

I agree that the rework is more readable and easier to find affixes that are related. I also need them to make the tooltip compare put the affixes in the same order on two items being compared. It is currently just random and makes it much slower to compare items.

I am not sure I like the Italics though. Readability for low vision folks and for screen reading technology needs to be considered. Same for colorblindness options.

Note: Being able to post images that others can see on the forums is a function of forum “Trust Level”. It takes something like 100 days of reading, throwing out some likes, a few posts, and not getting suspended, to get to TL3. Unless, it is manually set which is the case for me.

3 Likes
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Please can you link an image of this one too?

https://cdn.discordapp.com/attachments/172205021658611712/1094274327559540857/image.png

It’s also really good and I think an improvement on OP’s.