New UI Discussion

Day 3 announcement is a new user interface coming in early 2014. Pics on Facebook.

Wonder what the tokens are for...

not diggin that UI its still touchscreen friendly and looks like PSN DLC page. Give me 360 scroll of 3D tables awww I gotta swipe twice how about if you WALKED down that row...yeah thats alot of PINBALL!

SKILL_SHOT said:

not diggin that UI its still touchscreen friendly and looks like PSN DLC page. Give me 360 scroll of 3D tables awww I gotta swipe twice how about if you WALKED down that row...yeah thats alot of PINBALL!

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How does it differ from Zen on consoles? Is that interface more or less usable?

Not trolling: just want to get an idea of UX in competitor products. :-D

No excuse Jrod! its cleary made for mobiles. I dont even have a PS4 and I think its lame. If I did have a PS4 I would feal very let down...I mean its a PS4!

SKILL_SHOT said:

No excuse Jrod! its cleary made for mobiles. I dont even have a PS4 and I think its lame. If I did have a PS4 I would feal very let down...I mean its a PS4!

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It's clearly made for mobiles

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You're talking about the interface on Pinball FX2 (thats what Zen Pinball HD is called on PS3, right) being made for mobile?

If it sucks on console, then I'm not excusing anyone. I do think you should probably wait until you actually experience the interface (that is, *actually* use it with a controller) before throwing it out the window.

SKILL_SHOT said:

how about if you WALKED down that row...yeah thats alot of PINBALL!

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That kinda thing was just a pain in their Pinball Hall of Fame games, though.

I welcome a new interface but would rather have backglass images as we have now than the ball icons shown in the mock ups.

Kevlar said:

I welcome a new interface but would rather have backglass images as we have now than the ball icons shown in the mock ups.

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I dig the new interface, but yeah I'd like some way to view the back glass art without paying the extra money for pro mode. A choice of icon would provide some modest amount of customisation so why not both? And by both I mean icons - I'll be very happy to see the back of the "wheel."

And as much as I don't find Zen pinball terribly compelling (I have Zen 2 on Wii U), the UI is pretty straightforward and clean, though I think there's a few too many menus.


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fenderbendr said:

Wonder what the tokens are for...

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The first thing that caught my eye as well.
Let's hope it has something to do with the table goals...

SKILL_SHOT said:

not diggin that UI its still touchscreen friendly and looks like PSN DLC page. Give me 360 scroll of 3D tables awww I gotta swipe twice how about if you WALKED down that row...yeah thats alot of PINBALL!

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Considering over half their business I think is mobile, kinda makes sense, no? And why is moving a cursor around like Zen does a bad thing? Seeing as many tables choices at the same time makes deciding which table to play easier, cleaner, and quicker. You will also have the ability to set filters so you can organize the tables better. Trust me, this UI puts you much more in control of what and how you see the tables.

SKILL_SHOT said:

No excuse Jrod! its cleary made for mobiles. I dont even have a PS4 and I think its lame. If I did have a PS4 I would feal very let down...I mean its a PS4!

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This isn't just for one platform. This will be used across EVERY platform. You can't honestly tell me this is a step backward from the 2 previous interfaces. And if you are even suggesting that the PHOF walk through the arcade UI is better, I'll be over here shaking my head! It's like when you throw in an older DVD, especially on a kid's title, and have to suffer through 2 minutes of menu animation before you can finally click 'play' and watch the movie. It might be fun the first time, but it's a huge source of annoyment every time after.

jaredmorgs said:

You're talking about the interface on Pinball FX2 (thats what Zen Pinball HD is called on PS3, right) being made for mobile?

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On Playstation it's called Zen Pinball 2. And Zen's interface is near identical to PBFX2's, whether it's console, Steam, or mobile. I don't think anyone wants to go back to the first Zen UI either, which had a cool pinball look but was a nightmare to navigate through.

I like the new menu. My one suggestion would be to make it more obvious if you're looking at standard or wizard goals. The current UI doesn't make it very clear either. Maybe have them both displayed, or have standard as silver and wizard as gold? Or something like that?

Or am I misreading the UI and the standard goals are red, and the wizard goals blue? That way the wizard goals overlay the standard. In which case that's exactly what I'm talking about!

For sure, the new UI looks overall better than the current one... but it's still so "mobile-cheap-style". (It makes sense though) But for consoles, it will always be awkward.

And adios the full table and backglass pictures. :/ (Why not a frame on the right which displays the table/backglass picture? And only a square of 3x3 icons)

But it's better than nothing, I guess.

I hope it will be possible to sort the tables by era/year.

The new UI pics looks like a big step forward.

Yeah, when you consider how much the interface has changed from the original style for the 360 it's a huge leap forward.

Tann said:

For sure, the new UI looks overall better than the current one... but it's still so "mobile-cheap-style". (It makes sense though) But for consoles, it will always be awkward.

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The tile layout never proved an issue for me on ZP2. Scrolling through the huge list without touch controls on the current TPA certainly does. Mainly because there's no visual cue (such as an arrow) showing which table is centre, so it just becomes a blur and you often miss the one you were aiming for.

Rudy said:

Yeah, when you consider how much the interface has changed from the original style for the 360 it's a huge leap forward.

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Was it the same as the first PS3 layout? I actually liked that one, but it wouldn't work with the number of tables they have now. For 10-20 tables it was pretty cool.

Espy said:

The tile layout never proved an issue for me on ZP2.

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I'm OK with tiles (the most convenient way to display a big number of tables), but this new UI looks like a basic DVD menu: it's good for a mobile touchscreen, but it's poor (even ugly) for a console (no table pictures, no frames, ugly background).

In this way, Zen Pinball's UI looks far better:



Compared to:



And the first TPA UI:



Maybe it was to difficult for the FS guy to mix the former UI (picture-based) with the new one (tiles-based)... to get something both handy and nice. -_-

But we have to wait... Maybe it will be some tweaks to the UI for the console versions (I hope so).

I definitely like the pictures of the REAL machines, it separates TPA from all the other digital pinball apps.

I think people are failing to notice all the other stuff that IS being displayed...

- Your table rating (which will help with sorting)
- Table goal progress (without having to go into the table and then it's menu)
- Your current top score for a table (again, without having to go into the table itself)
- Friend's score to beat (which I think will be whatever the nearest score to your own is)
- Table of the month table clearly visible (without having to scroll through 39 other tables to see which one it is)

You know what you're not going to see? Low res table or back glass images. Know this too, you've yet to see the actual table menu page or any of the pages associated with the various buttons you can see. These screens were posted in an effort to show there is progress since a lot of people were going to be expecting something new at the start of Season 3.

Also, FarSight might be trying to limit the size of the UI. I know with Sony they have a certain packet size that they cannot exceed beyond what was originally set up. With mobile I'm sure they're trying to limit how much space they take of your precious device. We know FS takes a one for all approach, why would that suddenly change now? Zen takes this same approach, and most seem to like the spit and polish that they apply to their product.

IT LOOKS LIKE SYT! my eyes work fine it looks like its made for mobiles oh wait Table of the Month HOF points yup its mobile.