Redesign the commands/toolbar

[Corbeau-1]

Firstly, to prevent such comments, I have now spent enough time playing with QT in order to be able to say that I've gotten used to it and to be able to judge its issues independently, and not because "it was different in GTK".

I'll make three suggestions here. First is to simply reduce space that the toolbar occupies. It is unnecessary for it to have two rows and there is a lot of empty space. I would also say that it's slightly ugly, but I'm deficient in that department myself and am unable to offer a nicer alternative. But even simply reducing space would make it just a bit nicer. See Fig. 1.

Here I have simply moved everything into the first row and cut the space in half.

Second: the ordering of the toolbar items is wrong. It is logical to have information first, commands/actions after that. Additional stuff like Messages and Chat should be either before or after everything else, but maybe also differently placed or marked because it is a different category.

Ideally, I'd order it like this:

1. Turn information
2. Nation widget (government, pollution...)
3. Tax/science bar
4. In whichever order: science info, financial info (two widgets, but could also be squeezed into one wth two separate sections)
5. In whichever order: Units, Cities, Nations

Third. This is where GTK comment comes in. I feel GTK had a better handling of all this, solely because there all the info was in one corner and here it is spread across the whole top of the screen. If you have all the relevant info in one corner, you can get everything in with one glance, your don't have to look around and it's less tiring for the eyes. Fig. 2 is a rough sketch made in Paint of something I feel is a bit better organised.

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Spinoff idea: create another full screen that would contain all the spreadsheet information - and no map - that you currently have to click to get: population, government, number of cities, happy/unhappy statistics, tax, units, finances, research, foreign relations... If you think it would be a good idea, I could try and make a rough design.

[lmoureaux]

Some comments in a pretty much random order (the issue doesn't make it easy to comment on specific items):

• You're using beta3, there were some visual changes in beta4.
• I agree that the top bar should have a single line. We should also reduce margins.
• As I see it, the menu bar will eventually disappear and be folded into the top bar and other actions.
• I don't think information should be on the left. Important info would be better located at the center of the screen, with the corners used for less important things. I agree that the ordering is wrong in the sense that it doesn't follow the F-keys logic, as daavko already reported
• The visual hierarchy in the top bar could be better.
• On my system, both the Gtk and Freeciv21 maps cover 1.7Mpx (taking obscured space into account for Freeciv21). I did customize the fc21 fonts (you may want to make them smaller), but we already have an issue about that (Bundle our own fonts #1292)
• I don't think the minimap should be hidden by default, or that the minimap toggling option should be made more visible in any way.
• I agree with "Chat" next to "Messages" and actually I wanted to merge them, but this was strongly opposed Merge the chat and message streams #952
• The Turn Done button has to be be very visible for newcomers, meaning big. The space is also used for timeout info in mutiplayer games.

[jwrober]

I would also point out that the top bar layout was just "done" that way by lmoureaux when he converted the side bar to the top bar. There have been lots of conversations on Discord on ways to improve the top bar. There are also a collection of open issues directly related to improvements of the top bar:

• Goals of the Freeciv21 Client #750 -- Has a lot of information related to the top bar
• Add Nation's Flag to the Map View Icon in Top Bar #1205 -- This is turn information in far left in Top Bar
• Change default fonts to more sane values #1273 -- this is another font issue related to Bundle our own fonts #1292.
• Going from Observe to Take loses buttons on top bar #1289
• Change the nations view button on top bar to an svg icon #1301 -- I would go so far to as want as many PNG -> SVG conversions to happen as possible.

Some other thoughts:

• I currently like the height of the bar and would still like the icons to be a bit more bigger/prominent.
• I am definitely in favor of eliminating the menu and moving to action buttons enabled from the top bar. This is where using the corners comes in handy.
• I also agree that the minimap should be enabled by default
• I also think we need to revisit the merging of chat and messages. I like the idea, just wan't thrilled with the first attempt's implementation.

[Corbeau-1]

• I never mentioned Minimap being disabled by default, simply the option to hide. This option doesn't have to be "more visible" (than what?), simply make it exist.
• What exactly do you mean by "merging chat and messages"?
• Item ordering shouldn't follow F-key logic, F-keys should follow logical item oredering

[jwrober]

In Beta.4 there is an option in the View menu to toggle the visibility of the Minimap. It is enabled (visible) by default.

re: merging chat and messages: hence the conundrum. There is not a fully defined version of what that means and how to implement it in code.

Yes, we could re-arrange both. But that means players who are quite used to the F-key pattern would have to experience a change. Not insurmountable, but a factor to consider.

[Corbeau-1]

Now I installed the beta4. Comments:

Map can be toggled off: good.

Chat can't be toggled off: bad.

That huge "Turn done" block feels like a stick in the eye. I checked and it looks perfect in FCW. Actually, the whole FCW design is very good, don't hesitate to steal from it, nothing wrong with it (just don't copy any of its functionality).

There is something I don't like with the unit widget centre-bottom, but I can't put my finger on it yet. Again, FCW is better in this regard, feel free to use it as... khm, inspiration.

I don't think anything should be at the centre-edges. I wouldn't mind unit orders be pushed to left or right bottom corner. Maybe arrange them vertically. The original QT was ugly, but things were well placed. Screens have more width than height, it's better to do something at the cost of width than at the cost of height.

Completely removing the top menu requires full reorganization and rethinking of everything. FCW did NOT do it well. I would prefer the menu to be left alone for as long as possible.

Some small details:

Minimap and "Turn done" have too fat edges. Visually too massive.

In-city data: there is a whole block of information with no empty lines or separation. Separate categories either by empty space or liner or color-code them or indent, font, bacground, whatever:

My choice would be two alternating background shades, but anything will do.

I still think improvements present in the city should be listed (also) by name. If no room, make room.

[jwrober]

@Corbeau-1 Have we sufficiently resolved the issue(s) here? Looks like the vast majority of the cross-linked issues have been closed now.

[Corbeau-1]

@Corbeau-1 Have we sufficiently resolved the issue(s) here? Looks like the vast majority of the cross-linked issues have been closed now.

Haven't downloaded the TWO newest versions yet. I'll let you know.

[Corbeau-1]

This issue is obsolete so it can be closed.

Did I miss how I can close it myself? It doesn't seem I can.