Posted May 11, 2020
[Concept] Tile View Enhancement: “Expanded Panels”
Hello GOG community, hello GOG Galaxy developers!
Warning: this draft will be long (estimated reading time: 10 minutes). There’s a “tl;dr” list at the bottom if you don’t have the time to read the whole concept.
Introduction
This is a rather detailed concept regarding interface components that I consider to be an objectively considerable, vast improvement compared to the current mechanics in the Tile View, as it saves the user from unnecessary back-and-forth clicks and makes clever use of spaces. It’s intuitive and complements the current Tile View / Cover View well.
Currently users have to click on a tile artwork to gather information on an additional page. By doing this they leave the main page which contains their collection. This information page contains a little play or install button at the top. Information about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard” take up lots of space in the middle whereas game information can be found in “Overview” on the bottom right.
The Downsides of the Current Tile View
This means that the user has to turn pages back and forth and make at least two mouse clicks each time he wants to display information about the game or play the game (and even more if he changes the game throughout the process which the kind of user GOG is aiming for most likely does).
Back to the information page about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard”. For some reason GOG decided that these two parts are the most important things a user should see on his way to get to play a game. Maybe I’m totally wrong, but GOG Galaxy 2 is or should be mainly about real user advantages such as ... a user-friendly interface, the users being able to easily keep track of their entire collection, being able to manage it and start their games without detours and unnecessary click orgies. If you agree at this point, then I ask you to read on. If not, don't worry. Please read on anyway.
I won’t deny that the social and game time-tracking aspects, such as when you have started a game the last time, might be important to some users, that’s why this following proposal still has the option to get you to this kind of information if you want to—with the same ease, purposive and much more efficiently.
What Exactly Is This Proposal and How Does It Fit GOG Galaxy 2?
This proposal is mainly based on the Expanded Panels, introduced by the music manager iTunes last decade. A little later, they were also introduced by music management powerhouse MusicBee and others. The programs mentioned here are or were (iTunes got replaced by Apple Music in iOS) big players in terms of collection management on their respective operating systems. Expanded Panels certainly would be a step into the direction of what GOG Galaxy 2 wants to be in terms of game library / collection management.
Short and to the point: I’m convinced that the Expanded Panels would greatly improve GOG Galaxy 2 without a doubt as they are configurable and show the user exactly what he wants to see without having to click through several pages of the program’s interface. They get the maximum potential out of the Tile View.
What Are “Expanded Panels”?
Expanded Panels stand out visually because they are easily configurable and will pop-up / fold (collapse) underneath an artwork when clicked, displaying the content, trailers and other information about the game on the same page (!).
They can either automatically adopt solid main colour tones of the clicked artwork or additionally include slight colour gradients if desired. If the user doesn’t want auto-coloured panels, he can disable the automatic colour detection and enter a solid colour of his choice, which applies to each Expanded Panel.
With the inclusion of Expanded Panels, automatic background colouring in the tile view (left sidebar, right sidebar and header excluded) needs to be toned down or removed from the code in order to create a distinct contrast between Expanded Panel and the outer background of GOG Galaxy. However, the automatic background colouring with the big background pictures can and should still endure on secondary pages, as momentarily implemented, which contain further information about a game such as (an) overhauled page(s) which only include(s) your gaming activity information and / or social activity (friends leaderboard).
Other Mechanics
Double-clicking a cover / artwork will directly start the corresponding game. You can also start an installed game by clicking the “play button” within the expanded panel. If the game is not yet installed, a pop-up will appear, asking you if you want to install the game now. A right click on the cover / artwork will bring up the context menu as it is currently implemented.
The contents of the Expanded Panel should be configurable for the user (info texts about the game, release dates, developer data, genres, preview images, YouTube trailer videos ... etc.). Users should also be able to create their own info texts in order to display important individual data / information. The artwork inside the Expanded Panel can be displayed on the left or right; if you don’t like having the artwork / cover displayed inside the panel, there’s an additional option for this case.
The information inside the panel is displayed, by default, in two columns, and at maximum in four columns if there’s enough horizontal space. It’s up to the developers how to implement it as I can imagine this could be kinda tricky. In my mockup below I’m using a two-column panel.
Example scenario for an additional column: Without having the artwork / cover displayed you could create enough space for an additional column.
Collapsible Left Sidebar, Right Sidebar and Status Bar
Although not directly involved in this idea, the ability to hide the left sidebar and / or right sidebar (friend list and social functions) would give the user the ability to display more games of his library when needed. There are different ways to achieve this: A show / hide icon could be placed at the top or bottom left and right of the program for this collapsible feature; in additional a status bar could be implemented which shows some information at the bottom about the current selected game such as community integration and download progress.
Another option would be a collapsible left sidebar with icons instead of text as suggested and demonstrated by Reddit user u/Xsimon47 (google for “Mockup for Galaxy 2.0: Collapsable Sidebar”); however, personally, I prefer the first method with the inclusion of an optional status bar, but I’d be fine with any of these or even both as they would be tremendous enhancements anyway.
tl;dr
- expanded auto-coloured panel below a game’s artwork which contains info in two or more columns
- double-clicking an artwork starts a game / asks to install the game
- one-click play-button within the expanded panel
- time-saving by design (less back-and-forth clicking, less clicks to gather game information)
- collection in the limelight (collapsible left and right sidebar, much less page-switching)
- user-friendliness (high configurability and customisable content within the expanded panels)
- optional status bar (selected game integration info, current download status, etc. ...)
- context menus basically stay the same (except an additional context menu for the expanded panels configuration)
- expanded panels contain some (customisable) information about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard”; if you want to gather more of this kind of information you’ll have to click a link within the expanded panel which takes you to the respective page, similar to as currently implemented
(inspired by proven techniques used by well-known music managers such as MusicBee, iTunes and other projects)
Screenshots and Closing Words
Here are raw mockups (my image editing skills aren’t that great, but you’ll get the idea) and screenshots of how Expanded Panels look like in MusicBee.
[dot] Format Links
Mockup (Tile View with Expanded Panel): i.imgur [dot] com/d0aiNgu [dot] jpg
Mockup (Tile View + Left Sidebar): i.imgur [dot] com/N4q5Oaf [dot] jpg
Expanded Panels in MusicBee: i.imgur [dot] com/0GCzWIe [dot] jpg
Expanded Panel (Vertically Stretched + Mirror Effect): i.imgur [dot] com/evkXv5C [dot] png
(I’m not allowed to post links because I’m a new user, in case you wonder why I’m using [dot] instead of “.”)
I chose this platform in order to present and discuss this unique and elaborate concept for interface components among game launchers because I’m convinced that a suggestion like this shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle, and I’m excited to hear your opinions and thoughts.
Thank you for reading.
Hello GOG community, hello GOG Galaxy developers!
Warning: this draft will be long (estimated reading time: 10 minutes). There’s a “tl;dr” list at the bottom if you don’t have the time to read the whole concept.
Introduction
This is a rather detailed concept regarding interface components that I consider to be an objectively considerable, vast improvement compared to the current mechanics in the Tile View, as it saves the user from unnecessary back-and-forth clicks and makes clever use of spaces. It’s intuitive and complements the current Tile View / Cover View well.
Currently users have to click on a tile artwork to gather information on an additional page. By doing this they leave the main page which contains their collection. This information page contains a little play or install button at the top. Information about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard” take up lots of space in the middle whereas game information can be found in “Overview” on the bottom right.
The Downsides of the Current Tile View
This means that the user has to turn pages back and forth and make at least two mouse clicks each time he wants to display information about the game or play the game (and even more if he changes the game throughout the process which the kind of user GOG is aiming for most likely does).
Back to the information page about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard”. For some reason GOG decided that these two parts are the most important things a user should see on his way to get to play a game. Maybe I’m totally wrong, but GOG Galaxy 2 is or should be mainly about real user advantages such as ... a user-friendly interface, the users being able to easily keep track of their entire collection, being able to manage it and start their games without detours and unnecessary click orgies. If you agree at this point, then I ask you to read on. If not, don't worry. Please read on anyway.
I won’t deny that the social and game time-tracking aspects, such as when you have started a game the last time, might be important to some users, that’s why this following proposal still has the option to get you to this kind of information if you want to—with the same ease, purposive and much more efficiently.
What Exactly Is This Proposal and How Does It Fit GOG Galaxy 2?
This proposal is mainly based on the Expanded Panels, introduced by the music manager iTunes last decade. A little later, they were also introduced by music management powerhouse MusicBee and others. The programs mentioned here are or were (iTunes got replaced by Apple Music in iOS) big players in terms of collection management on their respective operating systems. Expanded Panels certainly would be a step into the direction of what GOG Galaxy 2 wants to be in terms of game library / collection management.
Short and to the point: I’m convinced that the Expanded Panels would greatly improve GOG Galaxy 2 without a doubt as they are configurable and show the user exactly what he wants to see without having to click through several pages of the program’s interface. They get the maximum potential out of the Tile View.
What Are “Expanded Panels”?
Expanded Panels stand out visually because they are easily configurable and will pop-up / fold (collapse) underneath an artwork when clicked, displaying the content, trailers and other information about the game on the same page (!).
They can either automatically adopt solid main colour tones of the clicked artwork or additionally include slight colour gradients if desired. If the user doesn’t want auto-coloured panels, he can disable the automatic colour detection and enter a solid colour of his choice, which applies to each Expanded Panel.
With the inclusion of Expanded Panels, automatic background colouring in the tile view (left sidebar, right sidebar and header excluded) needs to be toned down or removed from the code in order to create a distinct contrast between Expanded Panel and the outer background of GOG Galaxy. However, the automatic background colouring with the big background pictures can and should still endure on secondary pages, as momentarily implemented, which contain further information about a game such as (an) overhauled page(s) which only include(s) your gaming activity information and / or social activity (friends leaderboard).
Other Mechanics
Double-clicking a cover / artwork will directly start the corresponding game. You can also start an installed game by clicking the “play button” within the expanded panel. If the game is not yet installed, a pop-up will appear, asking you if you want to install the game now. A right click on the cover / artwork will bring up the context menu as it is currently implemented.
The contents of the Expanded Panel should be configurable for the user (info texts about the game, release dates, developer data, genres, preview images, YouTube trailer videos ... etc.). Users should also be able to create their own info texts in order to display important individual data / information. The artwork inside the Expanded Panel can be displayed on the left or right; if you don’t like having the artwork / cover displayed inside the panel, there’s an additional option for this case.
The information inside the panel is displayed, by default, in two columns, and at maximum in four columns if there’s enough horizontal space. It’s up to the developers how to implement it as I can imagine this could be kinda tricky. In my mockup below I’m using a two-column panel.
Example scenario for an additional column: Without having the artwork / cover displayed you could create enough space for an additional column.
Collapsible Left Sidebar, Right Sidebar and Status Bar
Although not directly involved in this idea, the ability to hide the left sidebar and / or right sidebar (friend list and social functions) would give the user the ability to display more games of his library when needed. There are different ways to achieve this: A show / hide icon could be placed at the top or bottom left and right of the program for this collapsible feature; in additional a status bar could be implemented which shows some information at the bottom about the current selected game such as community integration and download progress.
Another option would be a collapsible left sidebar with icons instead of text as suggested and demonstrated by Reddit user u/Xsimon47 (google for “Mockup for Galaxy 2.0: Collapsable Sidebar”); however, personally, I prefer the first method with the inclusion of an optional status bar, but I’d be fine with any of these or even both as they would be tremendous enhancements anyway.
tl;dr
- expanded auto-coloured panel below a game’s artwork which contains info in two or more columns
- double-clicking an artwork starts a game / asks to install the game
- one-click play-button within the expanded panel
- time-saving by design (less back-and-forth clicking, less clicks to gather game information)
- collection in the limelight (collapsible left and right sidebar, much less page-switching)
- user-friendliness (high configurability and customisable content within the expanded panels)
- optional status bar (selected game integration info, current download status, etc. ...)
- context menus basically stay the same (except an additional context menu for the expanded panels configuration)
- expanded panels contain some (customisable) information about “Activity” and “Friends Leaderboard”; if you want to gather more of this kind of information you’ll have to click a link within the expanded panel which takes you to the respective page, similar to as currently implemented
(inspired by proven techniques used by well-known music managers such as MusicBee, iTunes and other projects)
Screenshots and Closing Words
Here are raw mockups (my image editing skills aren’t that great, but you’ll get the idea) and screenshots of how Expanded Panels look like in MusicBee.
[dot] Format Links
Mockup (Tile View with Expanded Panel): i.imgur [dot] com/d0aiNgu [dot] jpg
Mockup (Tile View + Left Sidebar): i.imgur [dot] com/N4q5Oaf [dot] jpg
Expanded Panels in MusicBee: i.imgur [dot] com/0GCzWIe [dot] jpg
Expanded Panel (Vertically Stretched + Mirror Effect): i.imgur [dot] com/evkXv5C [dot] png
(I’m not allowed to post links because I’m a new user, in case you wonder why I’m using [dot] instead of “.”)
I chose this platform in order to present and discuss this unique and elaborate concept for interface components among game launchers because I’m convinced that a suggestion like this shouldn’t get lost in the shuffle, and I’m excited to hear your opinions and thoughts.
Thank you for reading.
Post edited May 11, 2020 by gonefading
