Lobby UI Design Thoughts

[AF]

I posted this on smoths forums but it seemed wiser in hindsight to post it here for more feedback. Talk on how the lobby itself should work is somewhat non-existent here beyond requesting features such as clans etc. Such discussion would be immensely helpful.

Ive done a few threads asking for ideas on lobby GUI design and basically everyone has taken tasclient or the existing design and suggested tweaks and minor modifications.

So this time I have an idea and I want feedback on it.

Ive been looking at that google chrome comic thing and I like the way it works, and its inspired me with a new idea.

So far the lobbies are makeshift. Springlobby has a side menu with pages and most thought has gone into the pages and then evolutions such as docking etc. TASClient had the basic primitive initial design followed by tonnes of bolt-ons. I have something similar in my lobby with arrays of tabs. Right now though there are no ideas floating around about how the entire lobby GUI should work that are well thought out, and the end users are unusually silent about this.

So one idea I have, is what if we took all the tabs and pages, and merged them into a single tab?

This tab would be rendered using html/css/javascript etc, Python widgets could embed themselves by generating more logic or by creating additional tabs. It would have slide open docks at the sides which would be hidden by default for things like contact lists and battle listings, and the GUI would be minimal.

I expect channels and battles and private messages would occupy the remaining tabs, as well as optional windows for lobby development that wouldn't normally show.

This should ease the customization process, and allow focus on usability and making the lobby far easier and simpler to understand. This should also make user involvement in the lobby development easier as they could work purely on the web end if they wish, and ladders and download sites and replay sites would be much much easier to integrate.

What do people think? Is it good (+1?) do you have suggestions? What about alternative ideas for how the whole GUI should be organised?

[SwiftSpear]

Crap split out. Argh: It's absolutely legitimate that AF wants to post a thread asking for developmental ideas and not get bombarded with hostility about his objectives/goals or technicalities over his use of language.

[Tribulexrenamed]

a picture is worth 100000 words (tldr but I saw the word python so its kk)

[pazer]

do it better

[el_matarife]

I think you need to post some sketches of what you're thinking. It is pretty difficult to make comments about a proposed design without a mock up so we can see exactly what you're getting at.