Feedback on
Chat System - Part I
NOTE: I'm posting in two parts, as it got pretty lengthy, and I fear that the forum software will choke.
I’m also thinking of making a Wishlist entry regarding improvements and changes I think are necessary (that will point back to my posts), in hope that GOG will listen.
Part II
here.
From the OP of the "My Account - big changes on the horizon" thread [emphasis added]:
-- Chat. Old and weary private messages are retiring and are transformed into a new, live chat system. Chat will be available from both GOG Galaxy and My Account. Don't worry, all your past conversations that were conducted via private messages will be imported and preserved in the chat (and you will now be able to continue them live!).
Allow me to say that the PM system was not weary at all. It had some limitations and could use some improvements, but its overall design and functionality served the purpose of private communication quite well.
One had a good overview of a decent number of the contacts at first glance (ten, IIRC), the area that displayed the messages was large enough to offer a good overview of recent and ongoing exchanges, past ones would expand to the bottom and make use of almost the entire screen space, the text box expanded while typing making proofreading and previewing one's entire message before sending it easy, basic formatting and making paragraphs was simple.
Now, people will argue that it had a number of issues - true, I have experienced most of them, if not all, myself. But allow me to say that this was due to GOG never working on it to improve it and fix bugs and glitches; if they had, it would have worked better and wouldn't have became "
old and weary", as if that happened all by itself.
Instead, in what seems to have become traditional GOG fashion, they chose, once again, to solve their problems by scrapping the PM system, and putting this new utterly impractical and user-unfriendly Chat thing in its place.
Because the PM system did not transform into anything, and the Chat system is not a replacement for it on any level.
Wikipedia provides the following definition for chat (other sites have similar ones) [emphasis added]:
[...] a real-time transmission of text messages from sender to receiver. Chat messages are generally short in order to enable other participants to respond quickly. Thereby, a feeling similar to a spoken conversation is created, which distinguishes chatting from other text-based online communication forms such as Internet forums and email.
I'd add PMs to the "other text-based online communication forms", as they resemble emails more than chatting, and say that the above definition perfectly fits the Live Chat system that GOG implemented, and seems to take quite some pride in doing so.
GOG's
shiny, live chat is designed for this kind of communication - real time, fast-track, and short-lived back and forth. One is supposed/ expected to use the Chat system in real time, when they and their interlocutor are both online, have a brief exchange and move on. Some of us didn't use the PM system exclusively in this fashion, and the Chat system does not lend itself to allowing us to conduct our private communications they way we used to; on the contrary, its overall design deters one from engaging in more lengthy, thought-out conversations.
There is already a
Wishlist entry for the return of the PM system. While I have voted, I have little to no hope that it will make it back, but if the Chat system could be improved and adjusted to offer us the same experience as the PM system, while being more desktop friendly, it could be seen as a somewhat usable replacement.
I've attached a screenshot I took that summarises some of the problematic points. I've cut out the top and bottom of the page, as their not part of the usable area; the bottom in particular is a huge waste of space taken up by the tall footer that GOG introduced with the
fresher, better GOG.
So, where to begin. Based on my experience so far:
1. Overall Chat area
1.1 The usable area is very limited overarching box, split into two smaller boxes, one for contacts to the left, and one for messages to the right. I call them boxes, due to the vertical scrollbar elements used which confine the area, wasting a lot of screen space. This is really a bad design choice, as it completely disregards desktop users with monitors of a greater size than 7 or 10 inches.
1.2 Two scrollbars, plus the page scrollbar makes for a lot of scrolling that needs to be done very carefully - if one's mouse pointer slides a tiny bit outside of each box while using the mouse wheel, they end up scrolling the entire page. Certainly not a problem for those using a mobile device with a screen of 7 or 10 inches, but not a good design choice overall; there are desktop users here, and they should not be treated as non-existent or second calls users.
2. Contacts area
2.1 The contacts box takes too much space up horizontally for no good reason. Each contact is displayed in a big rectangular that has too much empty space in it, both horizontally and vertically; for all that space, one would expect to see more info about each user than avatar, username and on/off-line status. Basic info on registration date and rep that were introduced in the PM system, are gone now. Will they return?
2.2 The user avatar and username are way bigger than what they were before, which makes me thing that users of mobile devices are again the criteria for the design choices.
2.3 There's no longer any distinction between GOG staffers and regular GOG members. The contact in my attached screenshot is actually a GOG staffer who first contacted me before getting his blue-text status that came with a change in username, yet he looks like any other user in my contacts, plus is stuck with their old username.
2.4 The tall rectangular of each user, combined with the "scrollbar box design", allows for a very limited number of contacts to be visible (about half of what we had in the PM system), and introduces the need for a lot of scrolling when one has a large contact list. As a desktop user, who doesn't visit GOG on a mobile or touchscreen device, I find this more cumbersome, especially when combined with the following.
2.5 Contacts jump around in random fashion, based on their on/off-line status, which can very well result in users that have sent one a message to fall off the visible area if they are offline and the contacts that are online are more than six at the time one checks their messages. This clearly demonstrates the character and intended purpose of the chat system, the push towards "talk to those that are online at the same time you are", and the cultivation of an artificial urgency to communicate with others before they go offline, things that I find extremely irritating and very impractical when one wishes to use the only available system for private communication in a different way. In the PM system, contacts that had sent a message were placed at the top, making it easy to check one's messages and reply.
2.6 The indicator for new messages that is placed next to a contact's avatar is such a faint shade of grey that it's almost invisible; it's quite likely that users with eyesight problems have more trouble seeing it. The number of messages inside that grey indicator is unreadable (it looks like an even fainter grey smudge). All this makes the push towards he "live communication" character of the system evident. I don't like being told how to conduct my private communications, and I'd very much appreciate it if GOG stopped thinking what's best for me in this area. Since the indicators are there, they should do their job properly.
2.7 Anyone on the forum that clicks on "Start Conversation" in the pop-up menu of another user's avatar can add themselves to that user's contact list, even if they don't send a message, something that worked differently and better in the PM system. And one is stuck with such contacts, as there's no option to remove people that have not sent a message. I think that a number of users have experimented with the pop-up menus in the forum, either out of curiosity or just for giggles; imo, having control over one's contact list is not an unreasonable request, as this could very easily turn from a mere annoyance to harassment.
2.8 In the PM system there were options to manage individual contacts via the "Block" button. While I never found myself in need to use it, it's a useful feature and should return. The options in "Privacy" (everyone, friends only, nobody) are too broad to be efficient. I think that same "Block" button also served to report a blocked user; if this returns, the two functions should be separated, even better the options should be "Block" and "Block and Report" (not sure if a separate "Report" serves a purpose), as one may want to block someone, but not necessarily also want to report them.
To be continued in Feedback on Chat System - Part II
