Myself being a UX designer I believe the current UI/UX is pretty bad. User has to scour through so many menus to reach their destination and majority of menus are slow, clunky and bad. This game needs a native C++ based menu UI instead of opening a webpage. The old WC3 menu was immaculate in performance even though usability was not very good.
A lot space is wasted and menus are littered with lion heads and curly patterns that disturb the user, even if it’s not skeuomorphism this menu is intrusive and not very good to immerse the user inside the game.
Here is my concept of menu UI, which removes a lot of unwanted decorations and good use of space. I have not made every screen, this is what i was able to make in 1 day after extracting WC3 files.
Thanks and hope Developers at Blizzard consider this kind of an approach where user can quickly access important things every time wherever they are in the menu. I have not added any animations and I honestly think the animations slow the player down especially the new web UI is slow to slide down with the chains.
Here is Figma link
https ://www.figma.com/proto/gfRTQRvJIWcCzQqeRQnUcN/Untitled?page-id=32%3A183&node-id=32-184&node-type=canvas&viewport=1076%2C931%2C0.26&t=NaO8w5AezKICLUnW-1&scaling=contain&content-scaling=fixed&starting-point-node-id=32%3A184
Here is the imgur album
https ://imgur.com/a/NqBPwux
thanks a lot all, keep giving the feedback.
4 Likes
Trying to put so many destinations on the initial screen is too busy.
The first thing that jumped out at me was that the versus and the LAN belong under Multiplayer. Otherwise there’s no point to the Multiplayer button at all; just pull everything out of it and make it its own button. But that’s not a good idea since it would make it even busier.
2 Likes
WC3 players are used to many options and info overload. UX/UI is not about always catering to brand new users, the experience should scale up as users grow, every user becomes a power user once they get invested in a product, at that time asking users to still use basic menu is a big issue. Info overload also reduces as part of exposure. In this stage WC3 users are majority power users, everyone wants to quickly go through things and reach destination.
If we keep worrying about WC3 community and info overload then user research is not done properly.
Experience should scale based on users, also optimum number to not get burdened by choice overload is 7+2 or7-2
https ://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/The_Magical_Number_Seven,_Plus_or_Minus_Two
That is true, but you also have to cater to those who will be inevitablely lost to complex barriers of entry. Not everyone will stick it out to the power user phase, or even the familiar phase. Too much too soon will dissuade some potential users.
Conversely keeping things simple will cater to both cohorts: the easily dissuaded are less likely to leave, and the familiar/power users will be fine.
Another thing that jumps out is the focus on versus. If that’s going to be its own shortcut, then campaign and custom does too. But that will devalue the need for for those respective main buttons.
2 Likes
The UX is incredibly bad and outdated, very much appreciate your effort!
currently, it takes 5 clicks to host and start a game. thats 5 times menus appearing and disappearing + sounds playing. very obnoxious.
from the main menu, you cant start anything but always need to go to a submenu.
also, theres no way to go from e.g. singleplayer to multiplayer. instead you always have to go through the main menu, unlike more modern solutions like starcraft2 where you can always reach every aspect of the game from another.
your approach is very promising
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imo they should just get the wc3 1.29 patch, and remove their new web ui.
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agreed, but simplicity is very tricky word. Hiding things or reducing things is minimalism. Minimalism is a separate thought and it doesn’t have anything to do with simplicity, but people often confuse simplicity as minimalism is soothing for eyes and visuals is most important for human brain as humans are visual creature.
If we hide certain things or nest things for users who use it daily then it may become complex even though visually it may look simple. In fact many complex looking UI’s in the world are actually very usable and user friendly. We don’t have the subject matter expertise and thus feel overwhelmed.
Focus on versus is also important as many players play versus a lot and it’s the heart of WC3 along with custom games.
Appreciate your feedback and let us keep the conversation going let us make Blizzard improve WC3.
I do want to say that sans the couple things I mentioned, I do like the overall organization.
The locations of things placed around the screen are very nice.
2 Likes
maybe a little bit to transparent with words / background
1 Like