[Kde-games-devel] KScoreDialog usability related question

[Burkhard Lehner]

Hi, everyone!

2007/6/13, Parker Coates <parker.coates at gmail.com>:
>
> On 6/12/07, Aaron J. Seigo <aseigo at kde.org> wrote:
> > voila, a default name. offer a menu item to change the name (or via the
> high
> > score dialog itself? you could ask at the start of the game as Burkhard
> > suggests, but that seems like an annoyance for something that the vast
> > majority of people would just click through as it would have the right
> info
>
> I think there's a major problem with these "don't ask for name every
> time" solutions. We're forgetting one of KDE Games' biggest user
> groups: the shared family computer.


I agree with you absolutely. I also don't like the idea of using the system
name of the user as entry into the highscore list, because most people like
to give themselfes a nickname ("Mastermind" or "Quick-Finger" or ...). As a
first guess the system name is okay, but the player should have an easy
option to change it to whatever he wants.

It also came into my mind how things work on multiplayer games on the Sony
PlayStation. Before you can start a multiplayer game, every player has to
enter his (nick-)name. I think that is really annoying.

I think my earlier suggestions can still be good solutions to the problem,
when they are implemented wisely:

1) The "Type in name on program start" can be optimized: The name of the
last player is stored in the rc file and inserted here. So it is only the
matter of pressing "Enter" for people who don't share their computer or user
id with others.
One could even integrate this "Players name" field into the recently
discussed welcome screens. Since the player has to press any button or
select any game configuration to start the game, no additional action is
necessary: He changes the name, if it isn't correct, and after that hits
"Play" or whatever. This would only mean one additional field to the welcome
screen, that is very easy to understand even for unexperienced users.

2) Same holds for my second suggestion, to have a small widget at the top of
the window, containing the name (also stored between games in the rc file)
and a small button "change" or similar. It would also be possible to just
have a line edit (or something graphically more pleasing) there. The player
can edit his name everytime he wants during the game (split personality?).
He just have to make sure that it is correct before he finishes a level. So
no extra action is necessary. This second solution has also the advantage
that the player is addressed on the screen (something like "Hello, XY! Your
score is ...! You are doing a great job!"), so we can "talk" to the player
personally, and show him that we love him. :-)

So, to summarize, I would say the best solution requires user interaction
only if necessary (so, only if someone else is playing the game than last
time). And changing should also be as easy as possible (just changing the
entry of a line edit, e.g.) And avoiding annoying popup windows when a new
highscore is reached is also important.
I also like the idea of a small slide-in-message-box. They are becoming more
and more popular at the moment, Google mail also uses them to signal
incoming new messages, and Windows uses them to inform the user of a broken
internet connection etc.

These are just my ideas, and since I don't have to implement them, the
maintainers should decide what they like most.

Cheers,
Burkhard
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