Madden Franchise Layout (Fan Mock-Up)

[Toupal]

Quote: Originally Posted by CM Hooe

Right, so where's the "Play Game" button? I'm sure it's described in the long description, but my point is this: a UI which a new user who has never seen it before can't figure out how to use at first glance without a text description is not a well-designed UI. I don't know how to use this UI to manage my one team I control without reading a manual. The things I want to do in a franchise - play a game, manage my roster, improve my players - should be readily evident on the first screen I see and immediately accessible. Criticize the Things To Do paradigm all you want for its lack of atmosphere, but with that I can at least get to any action item which requires my immediate attention - playing games, spending XP, receiving trade offers, reacting to injuries, negotiating player contracts, etc. - in zero button presses. The items requiring my immediate attention are shoved right in my face the moment I load my franchise. It is nothing if not efficient, and anyone who sees it will immediately understand it. I recognize the completely valid concern about the lack of atmosphere provided by the UI for single-player franchises, and this proposal definitely does a good job of addressing that concern. However, given how slow Madden's underlying UI tech is (even on PS4 Pro), all this new design does is get in my way.

Don't get me wrong, I think a "things to do" hub is nice to have.

All I did was turn it into a week long schedule, that could be found under te "schedule" tab.

However, it doesn't have to take up as much space as it does.



The Yellow shows us what week it is 4 times. One of those times it takes up a 1/4 of the screen.

The green shows the waste of space. I don't need a weekly reminder on how scouting works.

The orange is another redundancy, It tells you your coach xp twice.

But my point is, I agree, it is nice to have a play now button for simplicity and for new users.
however we dpn't need it to take up THAT much space.

[RogerDodger]

Quote: Originally Posted by iFnotWhyNoT

I like it. I like it a lot. Reminds me of older madden where I could listen to the radio broadcast and newspaper style info, I loved that game. I like the NFL.com style main hub. If they ever implement this type of UI, I hope Madden can use the NFL Network layouts and packages for video and highlight's portion of the game if they ever get a highlights or recap feature back. Also, a great new feature with the NFL.com style hub would be to have a real time simulating schedule where you can speed up 1 o'clock grouped games by 2x,4x, or 8x speed or normal simulation and then 4 o'clock games and so on. Having the ability to just jump in and "watch" or "play" any of the games. Kind of like this.

In my opinion the newspaper style of presentation was weak. I never cared enough to read through a long story that would quickly be repeated anyway. NBA2k has it right with the social media element, that's how most people get their news now anyway and it's short and to the point. Their ticker is also useful and informative and cycles through stuff quickly which catches the attention better. I'd like them to improve on the social media news howevr because it's a weakness as it stands. I do also think that we should be able to play any game each week that we want in CFM. Especially because failing to make the playoffs automatically ends the season effectively, all sense of drama and anticipation is gone. Then there's the Pro Bowl, but I suspect I, drifting off topic. I'd also like to see them add a radio show similar to MLB The Show which reports scores and milestones. NFL Head Coach had NFL Network style pop up videos when some important news broke and it's a real shame that they haven't added anything remotely similar since.

[adembroski]

I'll admit, my weakest area as a designer is UI. I think artists should deal with that anyways, but I must say, beautiful as your mocks are, they'd be navigation hell.

Sent from my SM-G930P using Operation Sports mobile app

[Toupal]

Quote: Originally Posted by RogerDodger

In my opinion the newspaper style of presentation was weak. I never cared enough to read through a long story that would quickly be repeated anyway. NBA2k has it right with the social media element, that's how most people get their news now anyway and it's short and to the point. Their ticker is also useful and informative and cycles through stuff quickly which catches the attention better. I'd like them to improve on the social media news howevr because it's a weakness as it stands. I do also think that we should be able to play any game each week that we want in CFM. Especially because failing to make the playoffs automatically ends the season effectively, all sense of drama and anticipation is gone. Then there's the Pro Bowl, but I suspect I, drifting off topic. I'd also like to see them add a radio show similar to MLB The Show which reports scores and milestones. NFL Head Coach had NFL Network style pop up videos when some important news broke and it's a real shame that they haven't added anything remotely similar since.

I think you hit the nail on the head. Specifically with the ability to play any game you want.

[Valaskjalf]

Personally not at all a fan of the newspaper look - I think perhaps people get hooked by the nostalgia of how websites used to look 10+ years ago. Sorry no disrespect, but the clutter kills me.

I dont have any hang-ups about the look of the current Madden UI from a visual aspect. Nothing feels crammed in and white-space is actually a good thing, redundancy aside I don't think that's it's big downfall. The biggest issue I have is the functionality once accessing information and then leaving it. The constant re-loading of "pages" drives me mental.

For instance if I go into the Salary section, sort contracts by years remaining and select a player...when I close the player card why do I have to RE-sort the salary page all over again? It's as though the layouts are designed like a website whereby you click on links and repeatedly click on the back to the homepage button, instead of opening a link in a new tab, closing it and still having the first page intact the way it was left.

If they can simply change the "go back" option to be more like a "close the new tab" it would dramatically speed up the loading speeds of the menus. Also enabling the option to open mutliple player cards in order to compare players. That's one HUGE oversight if you ask me. I need to cut a number of players, I have 5 LBs and want to get rid of 3 - I want to open multiple cards and compare. Instead of going to the depth-chart area and horizontally scroll through a ton of stats, which be the way if I click "back" - reloads everything again from the start!

[CM Hooe]

Quote: Originally Posted by Toupal

Don't get me wrong, I think a "things to do" hub is nice to have. All I did was turn it into a week long schedule, that could be found under te "schedule" tab. However, it doesn't have to take up as much space as it does. The Yellow shows us what week it is 4 times. One of those times it takes up a 1/4 of the screen. The green shows the waste of space. I don't need a weekly reminder on how scouting works. The orange is another redundancy, It tells you your coach xp twice. But my point is, I agree, it is nice to have a play now button for simplicity and for new users. however we dpn't need it to take up THAT much space.

Please note that I never claimed that the current UI was perfect. You are correct that there is a significant amount of wasted space and there is redundant information present in this particular screen shot (more on that in a moment).

However, this UI unquestionably succeeds from the standpoints of usability for all players and ease of understanding for new players, two of the most important functions a UI for any computer program must perform.

I'd also like to note that your screenshot isn't from Madden 17, which uses space more efficiently than this (looks like Madden 16?). Notably, the "news" section is surfaced to the front page, the Things To Do section is slightly condensed, and elements within the Things To Do section have better sizing / spacing / readability. If we're going to break down UI, let's at least talk about what currently exists.

[4thQtrStre5S]

I can't stand the M17 UI in Franchise...As mentioned, it is redundant.. But from a personal perspective, it is unattractive, and provides no immersion...

Though I do not think it would take too much to make it better, as I really like the MLB 17 UI, and it isn't that far apart; I think it is the subtle differences. Whatever it is, M17's UI seems clunkier than MLB 17.