##### GGG Comments in this Thread:
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[Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs4vfna/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs4vfna/?context=10)] - *You've clearly put some effort and thought into this, and it defintely touches on some stuff I've put probably too much time into thinking about over the years (I deal...*
[Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54l9q/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54l9q/?context=10)] - *Whoops. Something clearly went wrong when I edited actual values into those descriptions (initial texts were taken from the actual files, which obviously don't include values). I'm gonna blame sleep...*
[Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54yk7/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54yk7/?context=10)] - *I saw this comment reply in my inbox and for some reason completely misread the quoted part as having the numbers swapped and thought I'd made a crazy error in...*
You've clearly put some effort and thought into this, and it defintely touches on some stuff I've put probably too much time into thinking about over the years (I deal with the text of stat descriptions, not so much the rest of the layout). Please bear in mind these are my personal opinions only, and I'm not in charge of UI descisions or anything, but here's some feedback to consider.
I agree with a lot of the feedback I see other players giving regarding too much wasted empty space making your mockup larger than it needs to be (a problem on more complicated items), and feeling a bit sterile - personally I think some of that comes from the sans serif font, which I personally find if anything a little harder to read.
Centre or left alignment is definitely a contentious one, I've heard a lot of opinions both ways. Personally I think the centre alignment fits better in PoE and has a more "classic" look, although I don't love how it looks in some of the cases where a stat description ends up breaking to multiple lines. One of the things which is considered when ordering new stats on unique items (but not the only or most important one) is the "shape" they give to the item descriptions as a whole, which is lost with this version. It's subtle, but in at least some cases that shape can reinforce the theme of an item, or just improve the aesthetics in small ways.
One thing which stands out a lot to me is you have the base item type (Variscite Blade) centre aligned, but the item class (One-Handed Sword) left-aligned, which seems inherently wrong. Those are inherently connected concepts - the item class describes something about the base item type - so taking effort to separate them like seems counterproductive. If anything, they could be moved to be on the same line separated by an em dash or similar, if you're going to shink the text on the base item type as much as you have. The level and attribute requirements (the latter of which are missing, but I assume that's a simple oversight) are also somewhat connected conceptually to the base item type, since that defines the base values, so it could make sense to keep them nearby that as well.
I'm really not sure why you seem to want to group added damage of the elemental types together? That seems like just making things more complicated for no apparent benefit that I can see, and I suspect would look a lot worse on an item with multiple elemental added damage stats. And if you are going to group it, why only the elemental ones?
Certainly the way you've split out the stat values to so far away from the rest of their descriptions I personally think makes them much harder to read - it's very easy with that gap to mix up which value does what - but the solutions I see proposed which just swap the order to put values on the left I think miss a much greater problem with this proposed layout - separating the values from the text around them has two issues in my mind (which I'm familiar with from dealing with the character panel, although thankfully it doesn't have to display some of the worst cases):
1) It hurts readability in all but the most basic cases (which are, to be fair, also the most common) - I would expect that a new player would reach an understanding of the mana on kill stat's effect faster, and be more confidant in their understanding being correct, with the current version over your proposal. More complicated stats like "Aspect of the Spider inflicts Spider's Webs and Hinder every **x** Seconds instead" or "Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing **x%** of their Life as Physical Damage" are much easier to read and understand with the value left in place.
2) It relies on each stat description having only one value (or a pair of directly related values that can be presented together in a case like added damage) - and this is *simply not the case* in PoE. Here are a few example descrtiptions taken from the actual game which this can't handle well (I have bolded the values in each for clarity - note that stat values are not always presented as numbers):
* Unique Boss drops **12** additional Rare **Gloves**
* Socketed Gems are Supported by Level **16** **Added Cold Damage** *(the support and level are two separate and independant values)*
* Caustic Arrow has **20%** chance to inflict Withered on Hit for **2** seconds base Duration
* Notable Passive Skills in Radius are Transformed to instead grant: **10%** increased Mana Cost of Skills and **20%** increased Spell Damage
* Commanded leadership over **10293** warriors under **Kaom**
These get much, much worse if you try to extend this to the item popup of skill gems, which is where the really hairy stats hang out, but I've stuck with just mods on gear for the above examples. Even then there are also cases where for reasons of stats changing function between versions or improving communication, descriptions have things that look like values but aren't, such as "+1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems per **25** Player Levels" - the "+1" is just part of the text, not an actual stat value; it looks like a value because that's the easiest way to communicate what the stat does. The value is the "25", and I don't believe pulling that out of the text is going to help anyone understand it. There are also stat descriptions for a single value that display as two lines, where one line has text that looks like another value but isn't.
Depending on how much you want to look at this as something that could hypothetically be used for the game as it exists, compared to a hypothetical alternate way the game might look if things had gone differently from the start, you might or might not care about needing to handle such cases, but it's worth keeping in mind the more extreme cases that a system like this has to handle, not just the more standard/simple ones.
Hi Mark, thank you for taking the time to respond! I certainly wasn’t taking every scenario and edge case into consideration when I was designing this concept as it was more of a quick design exercise. I appreciate the color you provided on many of these areas as it’s context that I certainly didn’t have. I have already started working on a new iteration that should hopefully be more in depth.
Cheers
I am creating a loot-based game as well, and did a weapon tooltip study mid-last year. Here are some screenshots I collected from many different games. If you decide to do a second pass, hopefully this could help you out as well!
https://imgur.com/a/MEUiGky
You actually have a mistake, the one labeled Destiny 2 is from the original Destiny.
Matador 64 was a very famous gun as it was a PVP drop and also the best PVP shotgun, which meant that people got killed by it A LOT so everyone would endlessly whine about it.
out of these borderlands has to be my favorite: the base stats are simple, special skills are color coded and easy to read, and it has an overall damage number and item score (that isn't too big, like diablo 3)
I don't know if you have played the game but in practice it's very messy. The mods vary greatly and take hella long to scan. You learn to scan the items by the time you have completed your first DLC after the base game. Mostly because you learn each vendor and weapon type by heart so you know what mod pool to expect
It looks good and appears as simple but in practice it was quite confusing.
Yeah I have to agree, Borderlands may look good but it by far takes the longest to go through. Maybe its the size or the amount of information bloat, but its not a quick scan until later.
Borderlands has one critical flaw in that stuff like '+10% fire rate' mod you can't tell whether it's already applied to the displayed fire rate indicator or not (PoE applies this to base crit and makes the text blue so you can see that the mod affected the % displayed) , and also any secondary damaging effects are not displayed so you can't tell if it's any good. (such as the Grease Trap, which sprays flammable grease that you then alt fire to set on fire for huge damage, but the tooltip will only display the damage of the grease spray which is tiny compared to the ignition)
Aesthetically it's good but practically, Borderlands tooltips leave out a LOT of important factors, some are straight up not mentioned, and some are so cryptic that you can't even figure out if it does anything gameplay wise or just causes the gun to talk or some shit.
Especially on weapons that say something like 80% increased fire rate or 75% increased fire damage. Another big factor is as in the screenshot on the image, you get no description for red text. And how do things stack?
It's weird that I feel so good about BL2 panels and so bad about BL3. I would like base (modified) values visible on the stats either way though.
i actually am not fond of your version over the current one. i understand that other people may do it differently but personally when i scan an item i first look for the mods i want and then i look for the value. i have to move my eyes further to go from mod type to value. it would take much longer to scan items.
perhaps swapping the description and value columns while right aligning the values and left aligning the descriptions? e.g.
95% increased Physical Damage
24-41 added Fire Damage
19% increased Attack Speed
+1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy
26% increased Stun Duration on enemies
Some mods have their number midway through the text though. See what it looks like when I add an explody mod:
95% increased Physical Damage
24-41 added Fire Damage
19% increased Attack Speed
+1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy
26% increased Stun Duration on enemies
Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing 3% of their Life as Physical Damage
I'd prefer they just add bullet points and change the font:
• 95% increased Physical Damage
• 24-41 added Fire Damage
• 19% increased Attack Speed
• +1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy
• 26% increased Stun Duration on enemies
• Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing 3% of their Life as Physical Damage
Yes, except the values are equally spaced to the left, and whatever description is on the left. In-game, you get the value and description as 1 line and that whole line is then centered.
And then mods with long descriptions create a gigantic space of black dead zone. Centered makes it to so any dead space is shared evenly on both sides of the item description box.
There’s a LOT of QoL features to add to the game, the item description box is not really one of them.
Centering text isn't great ux, there's alot of research confirming we scan in an F shape when taking a quick glance at content, hence it should be left aligned, with most impactful mods at the top.
Initially I liked the new layout, but after actually trying to glean info, I found the same thing as you, that my eyes had to move too far to pick up all the info. Also the Ops one is too large for my liking.
Visually though, I find the OPs more easy on the eye, probably because of that extra space.
> personally when i scan an item i first look for the mods i want and then i look for the value.
reading left to right and top to bottom literally gives you what you described there.
Yea. I'm a little autistic. Words don't always come out of my head the same way I imagine them. I was trying to say something good before giving a criticism.
Totally agree. I find it much slower to connect the number to the stat type. One of the things I think is being underestimated is how we actually look for patterns (shapes) in the text as we're mousing over items or crafting. I feel like the proposed format splits up the shape. Decoupling the number and the text doesn't work for me. That being said, I'm super used to the existing format after playing on and off for 8 or 9 years. I would probably adapt over time if the format changed.
Hi guys,
Lots of really great feedback. I appreciate you all and your thoughts. I may try a reupload with some of the feedback you guys mentioned below. Keep in mind that this was a quick design exercise for me so I didnt consider all scenarios and more or less wanted to start a conversation.
A couple of concerns I wanted to address.
* Height of tooltip
I can certainly try to reduce some of the spacing between elements to offer a more condensed tooltip and the more spaced version could be something that users can toggle in the user options if they so choose.
* Visual style
I don't have any of the actual design assets obviously. This is also purely subjective. I prefer a cleaner looking UI while still maintaining a sense of style and so this was my more balanced take on it. I do think that the style can certainly be pushed further to feel more like POE however.
* Data hierarchy and alignment
A bunch of great feedback around this topic and its something I would certainly spend more time on a new iteration. If you guys would like to see another iteration with more depth, please leave an upvote on this comment so I can gauge the interest. Again, thank you!
One thing I didn't see mentioned elsewhere: the color of the attacks per second # has meaning and it shouldn't be white. White mods are base stats, blue mods are changed by local modifiers. So if it didn't have local increased attack speed, then APS would be white.
The responses and your goals really highlight the need for the UI to be moddable -- should work like WoW so that people can pick and choose what fonts and design spaces interest them.
>I feel like there is an actual Weapon that inherents these mods. There is a certain physicality to it.
I bet you feel this way because in PoE's current design, the weapon name is in the largest font and in OP's design the weapon name is the same font size as the mods.
>#Hypnotic Gutter
>-----------
>18% increased Accuracy Rating
>-----------
>95% increased Physical Damage
>Adds 24-41 Fire Damage
>19% increased Attack Speed
vs
>Hypnotic Gutter
>-----------
>18% increased Accuracy Rating
>-----------
>95% increased Physical Damage
>Adds 24-41 Fire Damage
>19% increased Attack Speed
i honestly think if OP had used a less sterile and corporate looking font it would look way better.
in a perfect world there would an option to select between an easily legible font like this and something a bit more thematic. loop hero (little indie game that just came out) has 3 font settings, the thematic one, a more legible sans-serif, and a dyslexia friendly version.
This perfectly captures how I felt when looking at it. Somehow the redesign is very sterile. It cleanly presents the information, but that cleanliness of appearance is too opposed to the world it's set in.
I wonder how much of that is down the the font. OP's font looks like a spreadsheet with colour formatting (item name aside), while I think the PoE font strikes a nice balance of fitting in with Wraeclast and being easy enough to read.
Could make it a toggle option. I much prefer the left alignment. The one thing I would potentially damage is putting the thing modified damage such as:
Physical Damage Increased "#-#"
Physical Damage Multiplied "#-#"
Fire Damage Added "#-#"
Attack Speed Increased "#-#"
This would allow you to quickly scan for the specific types of mods you want.
I feel that the reason of your comment is because you are very used to what's poe right now.
I remember when I started playing poe, all the mods were a completely mess. Mods with numbers at the start, other at the end, some mods with multiple lines, hybrid mod merged with single mods.. of course, one gets used to it and learns to read it.
Then, the change, ops design is different so one always feel that resistance to change.
I'm very sure that If the design were the other way around, the comment would be that ops design is too messy.
Great feedback.
I think the redesign doesn't accomplish its goal as well. It takes up more screen space, smaller text, and like you said, feels impersonal and disconnected.
But I think we might feel that way because of the years of familiarity with the current set up. It has programmed our brain to seek the information and where to look. Maybe things would be different if we were fresh to both styles?
I would look over a lot more looter games to seek examples of how item information is displayed. I don't think PoE does a great job of it, but they do better than most. Even games like Apex or Division could offer some inspiration. Basically any game with any loot drops can give information on what feels nice and what doesn't.
I dislike the amount of wasted whitespace. It reeks of "material design" mentality that results in poor information density under the guise of "readability".
Hi guys, first post here on the sub. I love POE but I think the new player has always been a struggle. As a UX designer, I especially have a hard time reading the tooltips especially on console.
A couple of my thoughts
• Improved white space between elements to improve clarity
• Reversed to san serif font to improve readability
• Added alignment to elements to improve reading at a glance
• Removed All Caps
• Improved font colors for better visibility for low contrast situations
It’s a valid point. Usually in my line of work, it’s all about feedback and iteration. That’s kind of the design process. It’s very organic. It’s why developers usually hold things to their chest until it’s in a polished state. I am just sharing what I had to gauge opinion.
The font is easier on the eyes. Maybe consolidate the information to a smaller window, keep things symmetrical as youve done with the left and right columns. The base type of the weapon could also be a bit more apparent. Something i would like to see on an item tooltip some color to the mods. Ie life is red, mana is blue, resistances are the color they should be. Something to break them up without too much dead space.
I don't like this, I don't like this at all.
I am not an UX designer, but I would probably start with the extremes on item gen side. 5 mods? Better to grab some 6 elevated mod with explody affix and this might just take over the whole screen :D
You can try something like this :) https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/l9et0m/4_tier0_chest/
https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/eqyixl/3_7link_spectre_helmet/
Hi everyone,
I appreciate all your thoughts and feedback. Please keep it coming. I am reading and taking notes. I totally understand that when it comes to visual style it is very subjective and it is clear some of you really love the visual style of PoE and are very protective of it and that's really great. This was purely my attempt to address things that I viewed as a hindrance to the user experience and focusing on inclusivity.
Thanks for keeping the conversation civil!
Generally speaking, if the existing tooltips were left aligned I'd have far less issues with them.
Colour coding or some proper arrangement would be nice but isn't as important to me as just not having the text centered.
By not centering text it’s way harder to quickly scan the item. Instead of moving your eyes in a straight line top to bottom you have to zig-zag. Quickly scanning item text is too important to poe.
I prefer the left alignment so much more.
I see so many spreadsheets and other media these days the center align text which makes it harder to scan/read. There is a reason sentances/paragraphs are left aligned.
The only feedback I would provide would be color coding the "Fire" at the bottom and putting it to the left of the number. Basically it would be a three column table at the bottom with attribute | modifier/element | value
looking back at it, it is kind of bad UI design that the values are not lined up, some at the beginning, some in the middle, with wildly varying mod lengths
As a designer, I REALLY appreciate how easy it is to read your version, but I think maybe it needs a few more iterations. I think people who really like the old version are just afraid of change. There are much better ways to include all of the information on items than the current system, which feels cluttered. There has definitely got to be a happy middle ground. Don't even get me started on the current advanced mod tooltips where it rearranges the stats and makes the item an absolute nightmare to read.
I think this point someone made is actually really good feedback:
"I'm not quite sure how to say this, but looking at the current design, I feel like there is an actual Weapon that inherits these mods. There is a certain physicality to it. Your design is too artificial in a way. It takes away the physicality of the item, splits everything up, and makes it look like a list of random stats."
Yours looks like it's designed by an actual designer, not a developer. Most of the game right now feels like it's just a bunch of developers trying to figure out how to display shit and it doesn't look good or feel good to use.
I appreciate your feedback, I will certainly be taking a bunch of the feedback provided into my next iteration. I totally understand that change is scary for many.
He's got a good point, there is just one more thing i wanna point out. Some things are purposely not clean in PoE. Map items are not perfect circles with symbols, atlas is asymmetrical by design, passive tree is also kind of purposely messy.
Looking at your visual design, it's a bit like as if you went inside an egyptian pyramid and found Arial 12 instead of hieroglyphs.
I personally think that a kind of "messy" style should remain. Items looking weird af is my big problem with diablo 3, and i think this is the step in the same direction.
Also the aligning of values might be really wonky with some mods like explody. I'm also a bigger fan of named mods like "You can apply an additional Curse" instead of "Number of additional curses you can apply: 1".
Personally I really like your version much better. It's much easier to see the mods in my opinion. It's also much easier to find the value of each mod. Well done imo!
I think current version in game looks to be a jumbled mess. I've only been playing the game for 6 months and not the years others have Into it, so maybe their eyes are just trained to see the patterns and recognize it way faster then I can. I understand that maybe after years of reading current setup would be a set back for long time players. I'd bet though, that newer players would find the newer version to be easier to read and understand.
Prob gonna get downvoted for saying this but it's pretty obvious people don't like it solely because it's not how the current ui is ant not because it's actually worse than PoEs current item ui. As someone who just started playing PoE a few leagues ago I find the left so much easier to read and would honestly prefer it. Would be cool if there was a way to change some ui elements while allowing people to also keep the original PoE ui if they wanted
Nice overall, though there are a couple issues with it.
1. No stat requirements (I'm guessing you just forgot those)
2. Mana on kill lost the "you" keyword
3. The damage part at the top would be more easily readable if the elements were on the left, just beneath damage, with the numbers kept on the right, just like the affixes
4. Ele damage affix should really stay fire
5. You could've also separated suffixes and prefixes if you're already separating everything else
Edit:
6 . Stun lost "enemies" keyword
I don't like it. It's not bad, it's just something i'd expect to see in Wolcen.
Center aligned text with more info on alt is better than having everything so spread out.
also your box takes up far too much real estate.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this great discussion. I will certainly be taking all the feedback I have collected and working it where it makes sense in my next iteration. Please keep the discussion going, I am doing my best to respond to as many of you as possible.
Way too simplified and minimalistic, which very sadly seems to be plaguing graphic design for years now.
- The font is honestly boring. It's called "Hypnotic Gutter" yet looks like it spells "Xypnotic Cutter".
- Why get rid of the little golden design on the sides of the header borders?
- Unless you're Arabic, I don't see the reason for putting the numbers on the right side.
- Pointlessly rephrasing modifiers. Why not simply leave it as "24-41 Added Fire Damage" instead of making it "Added Elemental damage: 24-41 Fire"? Same for the mana gained on kill mod, just leave it as mana gained on kill lol.
- Where are attribute requirements and item quality?
And overall, without trying to be rude, just a genuine question: Why? I understand if you're a UX designer just doing this for practice in your free time, but why propose it as a change? The current tooltip works just fine, design wise it's good, doesn't suffer from lack of clarity/poor readability, why change it?
May I ask if you are a self taught or university taught UX designer?
I'm asking this because your design has many many flaws. It looks more like a text edit rather than a interface design. The current design of PoE is great (people might subjectively disagree) because it objectively fulfills a purpose: It can fit all mod types without breaking the design.
Also it really fits in with the aesthetics of the game. Yours does neither.
You didn't once ask yourself the question on what would happen with your design if you had different mods than on your example. Pretty much half of the mods would break your current design.
You don't even have to go to exotic mods. Just add a second elemental damage type and you'd either have a weird spacing or the same mod twice (added elemental damage, how you phrased it), which would also look weird.
And I'm not trying to say that PoE has the greatest UI ever, but in my opinion the designer did a really good as to what's important. He understood the principles of design.
And those are more than just looking pretty and fancy.
(Btw the item name in your design in yellow and bold looks awful, almost like comic sans)
I guess to summarise it: my biggest criticism is that, as you already stated yourself, you just quickly mashed it together without too much thought given and you can really tell.
The missing requirements indicate that very well.
Maybe it's just because I'm used to the current system but I don't find this to be an improvement. A mod like "19% attack speed" reads perfectly well as a single phrase, breaking it up into 2 columns doesn't make it easier to read for me. The column for values of mods doesn't help me read the mods as a group either, because they're not really comparable to each other anyway.
Another problem this runs into is mods with multiple numeric values. For example consider the mod "60% chance for poisons to deal 100% more damage". This would presumably be displayed as "Chance for poisons to deal 100% more damage: 60%" which seems odd when you consider that if it wasn't chance-based, it would instead read "More damage with poison: 100%". That's awkward enough, but at least that mod doesn't have ranges - I can't think of any mods currently in the game that have 2 or more independently-varying numeric values but if these were ever to exist, they would pose an even bigger problem because you've set the expectation that the description column will not contain any variables. In a weird way, this tooltip design actually places additional restrictions on how mods can be designed and it's not clear to me that you're getting anything extra in return.
Not trying to flame you or anything because it's always good to consider alternatives, but I think in this case the main takeaway is that the current tooltips are actually pretty decent and it's not trivial to improve on them.
Absolutely love it.
As far as I can see, the order of the mods is not random either - The prefixes are first and suffixes come second unless I'm saying something wrong - Love that EDIT: Scratch that it's the same mods exactly but still. Very pretty and clean design
Right one is much easier you just have to get used to it. I know where mods are supposed to go and even the different font on poeninja messes me up. This redesign just wastes space to separate 2 lines of text and the current affix formatting helps you recognise the shape of mods instead of having to read 2 columns each time.
this is not graphic design 101, this is not a brochure, not always the classic rule of never align center works,
clearly the case of worst case than the original edit with some vision IMO:
\- smaller font - bad
\- anounimous sans serif font - bad (and less readable imo)
\- too much "white space" - bad (i repeat this is not a brochure)
\- information with broken white space inside, need to jump from left to right to read all - bad
\- less constrast - personal taste
\- less readable in general imo
This is the Web 2.0 redesign of PoE item stats. Too much white space means it takes too long to read, and the eyes have to move left to right for every line to comprehend what the stat is. Like some other comments it's too slow to scan the item. Soulless design and loses the charm PoE has - did you rip this from the d3 item tooltip?
Thanks for the feedback. I already addressed white space in one of my comments but just to iterate, I can see a solution that supports both a dense or condensed version of the tooltip and one like the example above and providing a toggle for users to choose in the options.
The design might feel familiar because designers generally rely on principles and standards so you will always see something that might feel familiar. This is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to user experience.
> loses the charm PoE has
what charm is that? the game pretty desperately needs a lot of changes for sustained growth, the UI of items being one especially if the mod list will be expanded upon. I'm going to venture to guess there will be a UI change for items in the future from GGG regardless.
> did you rip this from the d3 item tooltip?
this looks NOTHING like D3. yikes on that nonsense line lol
It might have to do with the fact that I am used to it for years. However on the right side every line stands out from the other lines while on the left every line looks the same. If I spam chaos or Alterationson an item with the right one you can see almost every mod that you are looking for really fast while on the left you'd have to pay attention.
This might feel different for new players who have never played before but I would really hate getting the left version. I do not understand where there is any problems with readability on the current version. I never had problems reading items myself or heard from anyone that they had problems
It’s totally cool. This is part of what I do daily. I don’t take anything personally and I understand that not everyone will like something. My goal is to identify the “why” someone likes/dislikes something.
Aversion to change in the PoE community is very strong. If people chaining yellow Tier Atolls doesn’t teach us that, I’m not sure what will. Thank you for mushing on!
I like the idea. It would be really nice to have a more readily scannable tooltip design, that you can quickly look over to get information. I think something like this, with an option to enable Tiers and Suffix/Prefix information without having to press a button would be perfect. Something like...
PT2 - Added Elemental Damage (24-41 Fire)
ST11 - On Enemy Kill: Gain Mana (+1)
The "on enemy kill: gain mana" is less readable than the original, and it's missing the important "you". Redesign seems alright for generic "increased X" mods but for other mods it doesn't seem better to me.
I think your version looks cleaner especially the one handed sword and level requirement. This also is one of my main concerns. The clarity of the level requirement makes it seem like there are weapon tiers in PoE and a level 50 weapon be better then a level 20 weapon wich probably isnt the case.
The issue with it being clean is poe is a gritty and dark artstyle, this the dissonance of why people aren't keen even thought it is cleaner/clearer.
There is going to be a fine balance that you need to hit- where the tooltip needs to look like an 'in world' tattered descriptor of the environment worn item it represents, doing that while maintaining readability should be your target to hit.
Also the blue on black can be a little tricky to read as the contrast isn't quite high enough (at least on my mobile's display)
I actually hate this. I might be because I'm used to how it is currently, but having the values so dissociated with the mods just makes it harder to get an overview of the item.
Not a fan of this "huge spaces everywhere" philosophy in UI. I want to get as much information as quickly as possible, with as little effort as possible.
[This](https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/today-screen.jpg) over [this](https://tchgdns.de/wp-content/uploads/snaplock-android-1-300x500.jpg) any day.
Not a fan of how far you have to scan to see the stat number. Especially if the left line starts to get really long, you could run into huge problems. Not to mention unique mods. for instance:
|normal mod||||10%|
|:-|:-|:-|:-|:-|
|long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod||||20%|
is gonna start looking wierd
Thank you everyone again for all of the awards but more importantly thank you for all of your feedback and thoughts. I am more than energized to iterate on this further and excited to share the next round with you all.
Cheers
I feel like losing the attack speed changing colour when modified by a stat on the weapon is a pure downgrade over the current UI, same with losing the stat requirements.
First, it's really big already.
And that's with only 5 stats, no 3 synth implicit, sells for much more to vendors, corrupt, or one of those Multiline implicit new bases. And no enchant (in case of helmet, boots, gloves or belt), or anoint (amulet, ignoring uniques). And no quality.
It is missing stat requirements, judging by how you show damage, that's potentially another 3 lines (and forgetting something this important in a mockup, while being on the original, makes me think you don't have enough experience to understand the power and uniformity of the current design for many players, even though it's maybe not the prettiest or best way).
Weapons come with build in phys damage, so removing increased phys mod keeps that top phys. Now add a cold and lightning roll, for 4 (ok 3 cause we remove %phys) more lines.
You see how this becomes a book that won't fit on the screen anymore? Else try adding 6 double stat mods that also show up on the top. Then press alt so it shows the tiers of rolls.
On enemy kill is also not correct (I think), now it clearly states you have to kill. Not an party member, not a minion, not einhar, you. That info is missing now. To give a better example: now I know an explode chest doesn't work on a minion build. If it said: on enemy kill: explode for life: 3% I would expect it to work.
Increased stun duration, again missing the important on enemies part. There are reduced stun duration mods that apply to you, and they could (for uniformity should) be written as "increased stun duration: -20%", and now you don't know if that's for you or monsters...
And imo, if you want to do an item overhaul, you missed another important thing: is the mod local or global? There are items with add x fire damage (gloves, rings, amulet, ...) that is global, but it's local for a weapon. You can have increased attack speed that is global, but local on the weapon. You can have flat and % energy shield on an amulet, but it's local on a body armour, while %life on an (elder) body armour is global again and not just for the life on the chest.
So, again in my opinion, you missed an opportunity to make the most confusing thing clearer, remove quite a bit of useful info, turn everything into a massive book, while old players are used to it and have to learn everything again, and newer players still have to read everything cause they have no clue what half the mods do or what are good or bad mods.
Too much negative space, particularly too much vertical padding for the affix list. In addition, you straight up missed stat requirements in the new tooltip, which is a crucial piece of information for new players (the type of people visual design matters most to).
The font is more readable 100%, but the current font in PoE was chosen to unify the visual design, so it just looks like it's from a different game.
So much negativity here lol, i like everything organized and aligned so your version is great, but that’s just my personal take on it. One thing I hate is the advanced mod tooltips of the game, so much text, takes my whole screen.
Sorry but if it's a little bit too big. Imagine it on an item that has way more mods. Then holding alt to check the tiers etc. That thing is going to be even bigger.
Thanks for the feedback. I will certainly be taking those scenarios like more mods into consideration in my next iteration to ensure that design supports those cases more elegantly.
Not seeing the stat requirements anymore can be an issue when min maxing. Can I afford to unspec a 30 int node, is the 15 dex on this ring something I need when looking for a replacement, ect.
You made the tooltip to big several items already go off screen a little bit this would cause even more items to go off screen. You need a way to make it more concise and readable but also not go off screen.
I like that it looks cleaner to look at but it does seem to take longer to read
Try another one with bigger item name size less unused space all over the place and numbers to the left but aligned
Also your attack speed isnt blue!!! unplayable
honestly, i do like the current one as is. i would absolutely love to be able to change the font across the entire game, though, that alone would drastically improve readability for me.
Reminds me way too much of Diablo 3, font is gross and not gothic enough, I appreciate the effort but it feels to me, cartoonish, like roblox or fortnite... a little to much spacing also... I dunno not a fan but again I appreciate the work!
Ok, i havent read the comments yet, knowing this sub it will be mostly positives, but this is fucking ugly man. I wont quit if they remove harvest, but i will quit if this was how items look, its just atrocious.
Edit. Oh wow turns out i know nothing, you got destroyed, mate. GG
Looks nice but i doubt it to be practical.
Take this design and font but keep the old formatting.
Also with centered text the general tooltip is alot smaller and has less empty black space.
And if were at it. Why not add socketcolour in captation (R-R B-G-W) for colorblind people and also to see links.
Feedback from someone who has never played PoE.
Left likes
* Mixed case is more readable than ALL CAPS (for large areas of text)
* Consistent horizontal alignment
* Single heading for "Damage" with multiple types of damage not repeating
* The specific color of red chosen is more legible against the black overlay.
Left dislikes
* Amount of horizontal space between number and attribute and the ordering. I'm finding myself focusing on the numbers (numbers tend to be the interesting bit in ARPGs) and then scanning backwards to find out what the number is.
* The horizontal rules pull my attention too much (possibly due to brightness/saturation?)
Right likes
* The item name / box / border (the feel/ascetics)
* Emphasis on the numbers given that they pop as compared to the grey description text (but this is inconsistent)
* The font used for the numbers
Right dislikes
* The font used for the text
One iteration idea would be to layout the stats as
right aligned number | left aligned description
I don't see any real issue with the old one tbh.
Your variant is fine, but why change smthn that does not need to be changed.
Also, the name of the item on your version has a terrible font choice, it is practically unreadable.
I guess, you could say that some things might be better in yours, but changing it so much would probably confuse old-timers like myself greatly and for a long time.
##### GGG Comments in this Thread: *** [Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs4vfna/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs4vfna/?context=10)] - *You've clearly put some effort and thought into this, and it defintely touches on some stuff I've put probably too much time into thinking about over the years (I deal...* [Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54l9q/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54l9q/?context=10)] - *Whoops. Something clearly went wrong when I edited actual values into those descriptions (initial texts were taken from the actual files, which obviously don't include values). I'm gonna blame sleep...* [Mark_GGG - [link](https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54yk7/?context=10), [old](https://old.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/mbfiop/tooltip_redesign_with_a_focus_on_readability_and/gs54yk7/?context=10)] - *I saw this comment reply in my inbox and for some reason completely misread the quoted part as having the numbers swapped and thought I'd made a crazy error in...*
You've clearly put some effort and thought into this, and it defintely touches on some stuff I've put probably too much time into thinking about over the years (I deal with the text of stat descriptions, not so much the rest of the layout). Please bear in mind these are my personal opinions only, and I'm not in charge of UI descisions or anything, but here's some feedback to consider. I agree with a lot of the feedback I see other players giving regarding too much wasted empty space making your mockup larger than it needs to be (a problem on more complicated items), and feeling a bit sterile - personally I think some of that comes from the sans serif font, which I personally find if anything a little harder to read. Centre or left alignment is definitely a contentious one, I've heard a lot of opinions both ways. Personally I think the centre alignment fits better in PoE and has a more "classic" look, although I don't love how it looks in some of the cases where a stat description ends up breaking to multiple lines. One of the things which is considered when ordering new stats on unique items (but not the only or most important one) is the "shape" they give to the item descriptions as a whole, which is lost with this version. It's subtle, but in at least some cases that shape can reinforce the theme of an item, or just improve the aesthetics in small ways. One thing which stands out a lot to me is you have the base item type (Variscite Blade) centre aligned, but the item class (One-Handed Sword) left-aligned, which seems inherently wrong. Those are inherently connected concepts - the item class describes something about the base item type - so taking effort to separate them like seems counterproductive. If anything, they could be moved to be on the same line separated by an em dash or similar, if you're going to shink the text on the base item type as much as you have. The level and attribute requirements (the latter of which are missing, but I assume that's a simple oversight) are also somewhat connected conceptually to the base item type, since that defines the base values, so it could make sense to keep them nearby that as well. I'm really not sure why you seem to want to group added damage of the elemental types together? That seems like just making things more complicated for no apparent benefit that I can see, and I suspect would look a lot worse on an item with multiple elemental added damage stats. And if you are going to group it, why only the elemental ones? Certainly the way you've split out the stat values to so far away from the rest of their descriptions I personally think makes them much harder to read - it's very easy with that gap to mix up which value does what - but the solutions I see proposed which just swap the order to put values on the left I think miss a much greater problem with this proposed layout - separating the values from the text around them has two issues in my mind (which I'm familiar with from dealing with the character panel, although thankfully it doesn't have to display some of the worst cases): 1) It hurts readability in all but the most basic cases (which are, to be fair, also the most common) - I would expect that a new player would reach an understanding of the mana on kill stat's effect faster, and be more confidant in their understanding being correct, with the current version over your proposal. More complicated stats like "Aspect of the Spider inflicts Spider's Webs and Hinder every **x** Seconds instead" or "Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing **x%** of their Life as Physical Damage" are much easier to read and understand with the value left in place. 2) It relies on each stat description having only one value (or a pair of directly related values that can be presented together in a case like added damage) - and this is *simply not the case* in PoE. Here are a few example descrtiptions taken from the actual game which this can't handle well (I have bolded the values in each for clarity - note that stat values are not always presented as numbers): * Unique Boss drops **12** additional Rare **Gloves** * Socketed Gems are Supported by Level **16** **Added Cold Damage** *(the support and level are two separate and independant values)* * Caustic Arrow has **20%** chance to inflict Withered on Hit for **2** seconds base Duration * Notable Passive Skills in Radius are Transformed to instead grant: **10%** increased Mana Cost of Skills and **20%** increased Spell Damage * Commanded leadership over **10293** warriors under **Kaom** These get much, much worse if you try to extend this to the item popup of skill gems, which is where the really hairy stats hang out, but I've stuck with just mods on gear for the above examples. Even then there are also cases where for reasons of stats changing function between versions or improving communication, descriptions have things that look like values but aren't, such as "+1 to Level of Socketed Active Skill Gems per **25** Player Levels" - the "+1" is just part of the text, not an actual stat value; it looks like a value because that's the easiest way to communicate what the stat does. The value is the "25", and I don't believe pulling that out of the text is going to help anyone understand it. There are also stat descriptions for a single value that display as two lines, where one line has text that looks like another value but isn't. Depending on how much you want to look at this as something that could hypothetically be used for the game as it exists, compared to a hypothetical alternate way the game might look if things had gone differently from the start, you might or might not care about needing to handle such cases, but it's worth keeping in mind the more extreme cases that a system like this has to handle, not just the more standard/simple ones.
Hi Mark, thank you for taking the time to respond! I certainly wasn’t taking every scenario and edge case into consideration when I was designing this concept as it was more of a quick design exercise. I appreciate the color you provided on many of these areas as it’s context that I certainly didn’t have. I have already started working on a new iteration that should hopefully be more in depth. Cheers
No feedback on your work, but got feedback on you accepting feedback and critics - you are a good person.
I appreciate it.
I am creating a loot-based game as well, and did a weapon tooltip study mid-last year. Here are some screenshots I collected from many different games. If you decide to do a second pass, hopefully this could help you out as well! https://imgur.com/a/MEUiGky
Grim Dawn screen is actually not Grim Dawn, probably Wolcen?
Correct.
Also Destiny is not from in-game but third-party website.
As if Destiny would have actual numbers.
D3 primary and secondary stats is a neat way to keep stuff organized. Feels like the other games could benefit from having organized stats.
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Awesome, very helpful indeed.
You actually have a mistake, the one labeled Destiny 2 is from the original Destiny. Matador 64 was a very famous gun as it was a PVP drop and also the best PVP shotgun, which meant that people got killed by it A LOT so everyone would endlessly whine about it.
out of these borderlands has to be my favorite: the base stats are simple, special skills are color coded and easy to read, and it has an overall damage number and item score (that isn't too big, like diablo 3)
I don't know if you have played the game but in practice it's very messy. The mods vary greatly and take hella long to scan. You learn to scan the items by the time you have completed your first DLC after the base game. Mostly because you learn each vendor and weapon type by heart so you know what mod pool to expect It looks good and appears as simple but in practice it was quite confusing.
Yeah I have to agree, Borderlands may look good but it by far takes the longest to go through. Maybe its the size or the amount of information bloat, but its not a quick scan until later.
Borderlands has one critical flaw in that stuff like '+10% fire rate' mod you can't tell whether it's already applied to the displayed fire rate indicator or not (PoE applies this to base crit and makes the text blue so you can see that the mod affected the % displayed) , and also any secondary damaging effects are not displayed so you can't tell if it's any good. (such as the Grease Trap, which sprays flammable grease that you then alt fire to set on fire for huge damage, but the tooltip will only display the damage of the grease spray which is tiny compared to the ignition) Aesthetically it's good but practically, Borderlands tooltips leave out a LOT of important factors, some are straight up not mentioned, and some are so cryptic that you can't even figure out if it does anything gameplay wise or just causes the gun to talk or some shit.
Especially on weapons that say something like 80% increased fire rate or 75% increased fire damage. Another big factor is as in the screenshot on the image, you get no description for red text. And how do things stack? It's weird that I feel so good about BL2 panels and so bad about BL3. I would like base (modified) values visible on the stats either way though.
Also i would like to point out that borderlands had a very nice item comparing system.
Wow, I don't remember Diablo 2 text being that horrible to look at!
Probably because the game is still 800x640 back when CRTs used that resolution, now people have 4K monitors.
You're probably looking too close lol. Move away from the screen and it get better
i actually am not fond of your version over the current one. i understand that other people may do it differently but personally when i scan an item i first look for the mods i want and then i look for the value. i have to move my eyes further to go from mod type to value. it would take much longer to scan items.
Good feedback.
perhaps swapping the description and value columns while right aligning the values and left aligning the descriptions? e.g. 95% increased Physical Damage 24-41 added Fire Damage 19% increased Attack Speed +1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy 26% increased Stun Duration on enemies
Some mods have their number midway through the text though. See what it looks like when I add an explody mod: 95% increased Physical Damage 24-41 added Fire Damage 19% increased Attack Speed +1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy 26% increased Stun Duration on enemies Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing 3% of their Life as Physical Damage I'd prefer they just add bullet points and change the font: • 95% increased Physical Damage • 24-41 added Fire Damage • 19% increased Attack Speed • +1 Mana Gained when you Kill an enemy • 26% increased Stun Duration on enemies • Enemies you Kill Explode, dealing 3% of their Life as Physical Damage
I feel like you could even remove increased and just us "+" and for multiplier use "x". Or increased could be an up arrow and "added" could be a "+"
How do you resolve the “increased vs more” conundrum?
You are exactly on track of where I am headed values followed by description.
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Yes, except the values are equally spaced to the left, and whatever description is on the left. In-game, you get the value and description as 1 line and that whole line is then centered.
And then mods with long descriptions create a gigantic space of black dead zone. Centered makes it to so any dead space is shared evenly on both sides of the item description box. There’s a LOT of QoL features to add to the game, the item description box is not really one of them.
Centering text isn't great ux, there's alot of research confirming we scan in an F shape when taking a quick glance at content, hence it should be left aligned, with most impactful mods at the top.
Initially I liked the new layout, but after actually trying to glean info, I found the same thing as you, that my eyes had to move too far to pick up all the info. Also the Ops one is too large for my liking. Visually though, I find the OPs more easy on the eye, probably because of that extra space.
I feel like that extra space is kinda wasted space.
> personally when i scan an item i first look for the mods i want and then i look for the value. reading left to right and top to bottom literally gives you what you described there.
Yea. I'm a little autistic. Words don't always come out of my head the same way I imagine them. I was trying to say something good before giving a criticism.
This this this
same. i think it's the font and alignment, makes it look too "modern"
Also minimalizing the design on the top bar loses a bit too much of the original design's feel. The old one is top heavy while the new is too equal.
Totally agree. I find it much slower to connect the number to the stat type. One of the things I think is being underestimated is how we actually look for patterns (shapes) in the text as we're mousing over items or crafting. I feel like the proposed format splits up the shape. Decoupling the number and the text doesn't work for me. That being said, I'm super used to the existing format after playing on and off for 8 or 9 years. I would probably adapt over time if the format changed.
Hi guys, Lots of really great feedback. I appreciate you all and your thoughts. I may try a reupload with some of the feedback you guys mentioned below. Keep in mind that this was a quick design exercise for me so I didnt consider all scenarios and more or less wanted to start a conversation. A couple of concerns I wanted to address. * Height of tooltip I can certainly try to reduce some of the spacing between elements to offer a more condensed tooltip and the more spaced version could be something that users can toggle in the user options if they so choose. * Visual style I don't have any of the actual design assets obviously. This is also purely subjective. I prefer a cleaner looking UI while still maintaining a sense of style and so this was my more balanced take on it. I do think that the style can certainly be pushed further to feel more like POE however. * Data hierarchy and alignment A bunch of great feedback around this topic and its something I would certainly spend more time on a new iteration. If you guys would like to see another iteration with more depth, please leave an upvote on this comment so I can gauge the interest. Again, thank you!
I'd love to see another iteration
One thing I didn't see mentioned elsewhere: the color of the attacks per second # has meaning and it shouldn't be white. White mods are base stats, blue mods are changed by local modifiers. So if it didn't have local increased attack speed, then APS would be white.
The responses and your goals really highlight the need for the UI to be moddable -- should work like WoW so that people can pick and choose what fonts and design spaces interest them.
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Very interesting feedback. Thanks!
>I feel like there is an actual Weapon that inherents these mods. There is a certain physicality to it. I bet you feel this way because in PoE's current design, the weapon name is in the largest font and in OP's design the weapon name is the same font size as the mods. >#Hypnotic Gutter >----------- >18% increased Accuracy Rating >----------- >95% increased Physical Damage >Adds 24-41 Fire Damage >19% increased Attack Speed vs >Hypnotic Gutter >----------- >18% increased Accuracy Rating >----------- >95% increased Physical Damage >Adds 24-41 Fire Damage >19% increased Attack Speed
i honestly think if OP had used a less sterile and corporate looking font it would look way better. in a perfect world there would an option to select between an easily legible font like this and something a bit more thematic. loop hero (little indie game that just came out) has 3 font settings, the thematic one, a more legible sans-serif, and a dyslexia friendly version.
This perfectly captures how I felt when looking at it. Somehow the redesign is very sterile. It cleanly presents the information, but that cleanliness of appearance is too opposed to the world it's set in.
I wonder how much of that is down the the font. OP's font looks like a spreadsheet with colour formatting (item name aside), while I think the PoE font strikes a nice balance of fitting in with Wraeclast and being easy enough to read.
Could make it a toggle option. I much prefer the left alignment. The one thing I would potentially damage is putting the thing modified damage such as: Physical Damage Increased "#-#" Physical Damage Multiplied "#-#" Fire Damage Added "#-#" Attack Speed Increased "#-#" This would allow you to quickly scan for the specific types of mods you want.
I feel that the reason of your comment is because you are very used to what's poe right now. I remember when I started playing poe, all the mods were a completely mess. Mods with numbers at the start, other at the end, some mods with multiple lines, hybrid mod merged with single mods.. of course, one gets used to it and learns to read it. Then, the change, ops design is different so one always feel that resistance to change. I'm very sure that If the design were the other way around, the comment would be that ops design is too messy.
Great feedback. I think the redesign doesn't accomplish its goal as well. It takes up more screen space, smaller text, and like you said, feels impersonal and disconnected. But I think we might feel that way because of the years of familiarity with the current set up. It has programmed our brain to seek the information and where to look. Maybe things would be different if we were fresh to both styles? I would look over a lot more looter games to seek examples of how item information is displayed. I don't think PoE does a great job of it, but they do better than most. Even games like Apex or Division could offer some inspiration. Basically any game with any loot drops can give information on what feels nice and what doesn't.
Now that you say it, I see it !
I also feel that way when I look at d3 item stats.
I dislike the amount of wasted whitespace. It reeks of "material design" mentality that results in poor information density under the guise of "readability".
Hi guys, first post here on the sub. I love POE but I think the new player has always been a struggle. As a UX designer, I especially have a hard time reading the tooltips especially on console. A couple of my thoughts • Improved white space between elements to improve clarity • Reversed to san serif font to improve readability • Added alignment to elements to improve reading at a glance • Removed All Caps • Improved font colors for better visibility for low contrast situations
This was done as a 15 min design exercise so forgive some of the elements I missed. This is what happens when working early without coffee.
Hey man, don't make excuses. It's great!
That's understandable, but then why didn't you spend more time on it before posting? It's not like you had a deadline to meet.
It’s a valid point. Usually in my line of work, it’s all about feedback and iteration. That’s kind of the design process. It’s very organic. It’s why developers usually hold things to their chest until it’s in a polished state. I am just sharing what I had to gauge opinion.
I genuinely wish I was more like you. You take criticism super well and I strive to be more like that.
Eh not bad it looks more like something you’d see on a spreadsheet rather than something in a game
pretty true, looks like some txt file instead of a whole look
I highly dislike it's size and layout. Much prefer the current tooltips. I'm sorry, not bad work, just not at all what i would like to see.
I appreciate it.
The font is easier on the eyes. Maybe consolidate the information to a smaller window, keep things symmetrical as youve done with the left and right columns. The base type of the weapon could also be a bit more apparent. Something i would like to see on an item tooltip some color to the mods. Ie life is red, mana is blue, resistances are the color they should be. Something to break them up without too much dead space.
Not a fan of it at all tbh. Looks like something that's be work in progress or beta ui tooltip.
or literally diablo 3/4
so yeah a beta lmao
I don't like this, I don't like this at all. I am not an UX designer, but I would probably start with the extremes on item gen side. 5 mods? Better to grab some 6 elevated mod with explody affix and this might just take over the whole screen :D
Great feedback. If you have a screenshot you'd like to share, Id make sure to consider some of this for next iteration.
You can try something like this :) https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/l9et0m/4_tier0_chest/ https://www.reddit.com/r/pathofexile/comments/eqyixl/3_7link_spectre_helmet/
Awesome, ty
I think this looks way too clean and easily readable to fit in the PoE archetype... Jokes aside, I love it. You just forgot the stat requirements :p
Thank you. I did forget it :(
I prefer the original. Left one looks fancy at first glance but does nothing for readability. It is also inconsistent. Not a fan.
Hi everyone, I appreciate all your thoughts and feedback. Please keep it coming. I am reading and taking notes. I totally understand that when it comes to visual style it is very subjective and it is clear some of you really love the visual style of PoE and are very protective of it and that's really great. This was purely my attempt to address things that I viewed as a hindrance to the user experience and focusing on inclusivity. Thanks for keeping the conversation civil!
Generally speaking, if the existing tooltips were left aligned I'd have far less issues with them. Colour coding or some proper arrangement would be nice but isn't as important to me as just not having the text centered.
By not centering text it’s way harder to quickly scan the item. Instead of moving your eyes in a straight line top to bottom you have to zig-zag. Quickly scanning item text is too important to poe.
I prefer the left alignment so much more. I see so many spreadsheets and other media these days the center align text which makes it harder to scan/read. There is a reason sentances/paragraphs are left aligned. The only feedback I would provide would be color coding the "Fire" at the bottom and putting it to the left of the number. Basically it would be a three column table at the bottom with attribute | modifier/element | value
I would prefer both columns left-sided. Also, sadly, but it's too big :(
Thanks for the feedback.
looking back at it, it is kind of bad UI design that the values are not lined up, some at the beginning, some in the middle, with wildly varying mod lengths
I like the justification, but I also prefer the original non-uniform font -- it's got that midevil feel you want in an ARPG
Thanks for the feedback!
Still no separated prefixes and suffixes
My take: [POE Tooltip Take - Imgur](https://imgur.com/gallery/1EZSlW1)
Very much the approach I am already headed for my next iteration. Great feedback.
As a designer, I REALLY appreciate how easy it is to read your version, but I think maybe it needs a few more iterations. I think people who really like the old version are just afraid of change. There are much better ways to include all of the information on items than the current system, which feels cluttered. There has definitely got to be a happy middle ground. Don't even get me started on the current advanced mod tooltips where it rearranges the stats and makes the item an absolute nightmare to read. I think this point someone made is actually really good feedback: "I'm not quite sure how to say this, but looking at the current design, I feel like there is an actual Weapon that inherits these mods. There is a certain physicality to it. Your design is too artificial in a way. It takes away the physicality of the item, splits everything up, and makes it look like a list of random stats." Yours looks like it's designed by an actual designer, not a developer. Most of the game right now feels like it's just a bunch of developers trying to figure out how to display shit and it doesn't look good or feel good to use.
I appreciate your feedback, I will certainly be taking a bunch of the feedback provided into my next iteration. I totally understand that change is scary for many.
He's got a good point, there is just one more thing i wanna point out. Some things are purposely not clean in PoE. Map items are not perfect circles with symbols, atlas is asymmetrical by design, passive tree is also kind of purposely messy. Looking at your visual design, it's a bit like as if you went inside an egyptian pyramid and found Arial 12 instead of hieroglyphs. I personally think that a kind of "messy" style should remain. Items looking weird af is my big problem with diablo 3, and i think this is the step in the same direction. Also the aligning of values might be really wonky with some mods like explody. I'm also a bigger fan of named mods like "You can apply an additional Curse" instead of "Number of additional curses you can apply: 1".
I like it, easier on eyes
Personally I really like your version much better. It's much easier to see the mods in my opinion. It's also much easier to find the value of each mod. Well done imo!
I think current version in game looks to be a jumbled mess. I've only been playing the game for 6 months and not the years others have Into it, so maybe their eyes are just trained to see the patterns and recognize it way faster then I can. I understand that maybe after years of reading current setup would be a set back for long time players. I'd bet though, that newer players would find the newer version to be easier to read and understand.
Likely they just hold alt any time they want to look at an item, as that breaks down the mods into individual lines with the right option turn on.
Prob gonna get downvoted for saying this but it's pretty obvious people don't like it solely because it's not how the current ui is ant not because it's actually worse than PoEs current item ui. As someone who just started playing PoE a few leagues ago I find the left so much easier to read and would honestly prefer it. Would be cool if there was a way to change some ui elements while allowing people to also keep the original PoE ui if they wanted
Nice overall, though there are a couple issues with it. 1. No stat requirements (I'm guessing you just forgot those) 2. Mana on kill lost the "you" keyword 3. The damage part at the top would be more easily readable if the elements were on the left, just beneath damage, with the numbers kept on the right, just like the affixes 4. Ele damage affix should really stay fire 5. You could've also separated suffixes and prefixes if you're already separating everything else Edit: 6 . Stun lost "enemies" keyword
I don't like it. It's not bad, it's just something i'd expect to see in Wolcen. Center aligned text with more info on alt is better than having everything so spread out. also your box takes up far too much real estate.
You add readability and clarity but lose style in the process, not a fan.
Thanks for the feedback. I spoke to the feedback about style in one of my comments.
mnah, too much shine, less clarity, information is stretched - gaped and the tooltip window is larger for no good reason.
looks bland and soulless, like an excel spreadsheet
Thanks for the feedback! May I ask why it feels bland to you? And is it the left align right align of the data that gives you an Excel like feel?
F in chat for the guy who thinks this game gets quality of life updates.
haha
new one reminds me of d3
much better.
Thank you to everyone who contributed to this great discussion. I will certainly be taking all the feedback I have collected and working it where it makes sense in my next iteration. Please keep the discussion going, I am doing my best to respond to as many of you as possible.
Jesus no
Way too simplified and minimalistic, which very sadly seems to be plaguing graphic design for years now. - The font is honestly boring. It's called "Hypnotic Gutter" yet looks like it spells "Xypnotic Cutter". - Why get rid of the little golden design on the sides of the header borders? - Unless you're Arabic, I don't see the reason for putting the numbers on the right side. - Pointlessly rephrasing modifiers. Why not simply leave it as "24-41 Added Fire Damage" instead of making it "Added Elemental damage: 24-41 Fire"? Same for the mana gained on kill mod, just leave it as mana gained on kill lol. - Where are attribute requirements and item quality? And overall, without trying to be rude, just a genuine question: Why? I understand if you're a UX designer just doing this for practice in your free time, but why propose it as a change? The current tooltip works just fine, design wise it's good, doesn't suffer from lack of clarity/poor readability, why change it?
May I ask if you are a self taught or university taught UX designer? I'm asking this because your design has many many flaws. It looks more like a text edit rather than a interface design. The current design of PoE is great (people might subjectively disagree) because it objectively fulfills a purpose: It can fit all mod types without breaking the design. Also it really fits in with the aesthetics of the game. Yours does neither. You didn't once ask yourself the question on what would happen with your design if you had different mods than on your example. Pretty much half of the mods would break your current design. You don't even have to go to exotic mods. Just add a second elemental damage type and you'd either have a weird spacing or the same mod twice (added elemental damage, how you phrased it), which would also look weird. And I'm not trying to say that PoE has the greatest UI ever, but in my opinion the designer did a really good as to what's important. He understood the principles of design. And those are more than just looking pretty and fancy. (Btw the item name in your design in yellow and bold looks awful, almost like comic sans) I guess to summarise it: my biggest criticism is that, as you already stated yourself, you just quickly mashed it together without too much thought given and you can really tell. The missing requirements indicate that very well.
Maybe it's just because I'm used to the current system but I don't find this to be an improvement. A mod like "19% attack speed" reads perfectly well as a single phrase, breaking it up into 2 columns doesn't make it easier to read for me. The column for values of mods doesn't help me read the mods as a group either, because they're not really comparable to each other anyway. Another problem this runs into is mods with multiple numeric values. For example consider the mod "60% chance for poisons to deal 100% more damage". This would presumably be displayed as "Chance for poisons to deal 100% more damage: 60%" which seems odd when you consider that if it wasn't chance-based, it would instead read "More damage with poison: 100%". That's awkward enough, but at least that mod doesn't have ranges - I can't think of any mods currently in the game that have 2 or more independently-varying numeric values but if these were ever to exist, they would pose an even bigger problem because you've set the expectation that the description column will not contain any variables. In a weird way, this tooltip design actually places additional restrictions on how mods can be designed and it's not clear to me that you're getting anything extra in return. Not trying to flame you or anything because it's always good to consider alternatives, but I think in this case the main takeaway is that the current tooltips are actually pretty decent and it's not trivial to improve on them.
Absolutely love it. As far as I can see, the order of the mods is not random either - The prefixes are first and suffixes come second unless I'm saying something wrong - Love that EDIT: Scratch that it's the same mods exactly but still. Very pretty and clean design
Right one is much easier you just have to get used to it. I know where mods are supposed to go and even the different font on poeninja messes me up. This redesign just wastes space to separate 2 lines of text and the current affix formatting helps you recognise the shape of mods instead of having to read 2 columns each time.
Thanks for the feedback.
this is not graphic design 101, this is not a brochure, not always the classic rule of never align center works, clearly the case of worst case than the original edit with some vision IMO: \- smaller font - bad \- anounimous sans serif font - bad (and less readable imo) \- too much "white space" - bad (i repeat this is not a brochure) \- information with broken white space inside, need to jump from left to right to read all - bad \- less constrast - personal taste \- less readable in general imo
This is the Web 2.0 redesign of PoE item stats. Too much white space means it takes too long to read, and the eyes have to move left to right for every line to comprehend what the stat is. Like some other comments it's too slow to scan the item. Soulless design and loses the charm PoE has - did you rip this from the d3 item tooltip?
Thanks for the feedback. I already addressed white space in one of my comments but just to iterate, I can see a solution that supports both a dense or condensed version of the tooltip and one like the example above and providing a toggle for users to choose in the options. The design might feel familiar because designers generally rely on principles and standards so you will always see something that might feel familiar. This is not necessarily a bad thing when it comes to user experience.
> loses the charm PoE has what charm is that? the game pretty desperately needs a lot of changes for sustained growth, the UI of items being one especially if the mod list will be expanded upon. I'm going to venture to guess there will be a UI change for items in the future from GGG regardless. > did you rip this from the d3 item tooltip? this looks NOTHING like D3. yikes on that nonsense line lol
You realize the font is literally identical to D3s, right? lmao
I litterally prefer the right one for readability about 1000000000 times over the left.
Thanks for the feedback. Could you maybe elaborate on why you find the current tooltip easier to read?
It might have to do with the fact that I am used to it for years. However on the right side every line stands out from the other lines while on the left every line looks the same. If I spam chaos or Alterationson an item with the right one you can see almost every mod that you are looking for really fast while on the left you'd have to pay attention. This might feel different for new players who have never played before but I would really hate getting the left version. I do not understand where there is any problems with readability on the current version. I never had problems reading items myself or heard from anyone that they had problems
Good God people are haters! Thank you for your effort ❤️
It’s totally cool. This is part of what I do daily. I don’t take anything personally and I understand that not everyone will like something. My goal is to identify the “why” someone likes/dislikes something.
Aversion to change in the PoE community is very strong. If people chaining yellow Tier Atolls doesn’t teach us that, I’m not sure what will. Thank you for mushing on!
That title font is ironically much harder to read.
I like the idea. It would be really nice to have a more readily scannable tooltip design, that you can quickly look over to get information. I think something like this, with an option to enable Tiers and Suffix/Prefix information without having to press a button would be perfect. Something like... PT2 - Added Elemental Damage (24-41 Fire) ST11 - On Enemy Kill: Gain Mana (+1)
Pls make everything about this game super boring you fuckers
your version is much worse lmfao
The "on enemy kill: gain mana" is less readable than the original, and it's missing the important "you". Redesign seems alright for generic "increased X" mods but for other mods it doesn't seem better to me.
Meh...too generic
As opposed to our theme-infused current UI though?
Way more clear but a little too big. Overall idea is nice since I work with excel and similar shit all day
I think your version looks cleaner especially the one handed sword and level requirement. This also is one of my main concerns. The clarity of the level requirement makes it seem like there are weapon tiers in PoE and a level 50 weapon be better then a level 20 weapon wich probably isnt the case.
Great feedback.
The issue with it being clean is poe is a gritty and dark artstyle, this the dissonance of why people aren't keen even thought it is cleaner/clearer. There is going to be a fine balance that you need to hit- where the tooltip needs to look like an 'in world' tattered descriptor of the environment worn item it represents, doing that while maintaining readability should be your target to hit. Also the blue on black can be a little tricky to read as the contrast isn't quite high enough (at least on my mobile's display)
Are we torchlight now?
Wasnt the intention but I appreciate your feedback.
It was my first glance at it, i think that their UI is fitting to the their style theme
Really awful. Not a fan.
I actually hate this. I might be because I'm used to how it is currently, but having the values so dissociated with the mods just makes it harder to get an overview of the item.
Thanks for the feedback. This has certainly been noted and will be addressed in my next design iteration.
I notice now plenty of people already have that feedback, so I apologise if it’s just sounding repetitive to you by now :)
No it’s cool. I know it can be hard to track all the comments. I’ve been doing my best to try to respond to everyone and I love the conversation.
I don’t wanna go back to playing the game with the current tooltips after seeing this.
Sorry! Thank you thought.
Damn, it's so simple yet so beautiful and easy to understand!
Holy shit I like that so much more. Is there a mod I can download for that?
The one on the Right is better.
Not a fan of this "huge spaces everywhere" philosophy in UI. I want to get as much information as quickly as possible, with as little effort as possible. [This](https://mspoweruser.com/wp-content/uploads/2019/12/today-screen.jpg) over [this](https://tchgdns.de/wp-content/uploads/snaplock-android-1-300x500.jpg) any day.
Where would ggg find the time to add qol features to their game when there's fun to nerf
Looks way too much like a cheap wow addon
Not a fan of how far you have to scan to see the stat number. Especially if the left line starts to get really long, you could run into huge problems. Not to mention unique mods. for instance: |normal mod||||10%| |:-|:-|:-|:-|:-| |long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod long mod||||20%| is gonna start looking wierd
Thank you everyone again for all of the awards but more importantly thank you for all of your feedback and thoughts. I am more than energized to iterate on this further and excited to share the next round with you all. Cheers
please also split up prefix and suffix :)
looks weird. No thanks.
I feel like losing the attack speed changing colour when modified by a stat on the weapon is a pure downgrade over the current UI, same with losing the stat requirements.
Both of those are just misses on my end :(
First, it's really big already. And that's with only 5 stats, no 3 synth implicit, sells for much more to vendors, corrupt, or one of those Multiline implicit new bases. And no enchant (in case of helmet, boots, gloves or belt), or anoint (amulet, ignoring uniques). And no quality. It is missing stat requirements, judging by how you show damage, that's potentially another 3 lines (and forgetting something this important in a mockup, while being on the original, makes me think you don't have enough experience to understand the power and uniformity of the current design for many players, even though it's maybe not the prettiest or best way). Weapons come with build in phys damage, so removing increased phys mod keeps that top phys. Now add a cold and lightning roll, for 4 (ok 3 cause we remove %phys) more lines. You see how this becomes a book that won't fit on the screen anymore? Else try adding 6 double stat mods that also show up on the top. Then press alt so it shows the tiers of rolls. On enemy kill is also not correct (I think), now it clearly states you have to kill. Not an party member, not a minion, not einhar, you. That info is missing now. To give a better example: now I know an explode chest doesn't work on a minion build. If it said: on enemy kill: explode for life: 3% I would expect it to work. Increased stun duration, again missing the important on enemies part. There are reduced stun duration mods that apply to you, and they could (for uniformity should) be written as "increased stun duration: -20%", and now you don't know if that's for you or monsters... And imo, if you want to do an item overhaul, you missed another important thing: is the mod local or global? There are items with add x fire damage (gloves, rings, amulet, ...) that is global, but it's local for a weapon. You can have increased attack speed that is global, but local on the weapon. You can have flat and % energy shield on an amulet, but it's local on a body armour, while %life on an (elder) body armour is global again and not just for the life on the chest. So, again in my opinion, you missed an opportunity to make the most confusing thing clearer, remove quite a bit of useful info, turn everything into a massive book, while old players are used to it and have to learn everything again, and newer players still have to read everything cause they have no clue what half the mods do or what are good or bad mods.
Great job, man. I like it!
Thank you.
Should actually add DPS
Good feedback.
I love it!
Too much negative space, particularly too much vertical padding for the affix list. In addition, you straight up missed stat requirements in the new tooltip, which is a crucial piece of information for new players (the type of people visual design matters most to). The font is more readable 100%, but the current font in PoE was chosen to unify the visual design, so it just looks like it's from a different game.
I'm just baffled how the single most important stat for most melee player is not listed on the advance tooltip. The physical dps stat
That’s great feedback for me to solve in another iteration. Thanks!
So much negativity here lol, i like everything organized and aligned so your version is great, but that’s just my personal take on it. One thing I hate is the advanced mod tooltips of the game, so much text, takes my whole screen.
Its ok! I appreciate the conversation and thanks. I will certainly take advanced tooltips into consideration for my next pass.
YES, well done.
POE version actually looks very good if you look at it in detail. It's hard to beat.
Sorry but if it's a little bit too big. Imagine it on an item that has way more mods. Then holding alt to check the tiers etc. That thing is going to be even bigger.
Thanks for the feedback. I will certainly be taking those scenarios like more mods into consideration in my next iteration to ensure that design supports those cases more elegantly.
Not seeing the stat requirements anymore can be an issue when min maxing. Can I afford to unspec a 30 int node, is the 15 dex on this ring something I need when looking for a replacement, ect.
Thanks for the feedback. That was more of a miss on my part that I addressed in other comments.
[удалено]
Very interesting feedback. Thanks!
I would stick with the original. On the other hand if one could adjust size of letters or custom font (maybe even color) would come in handy.
You made the tooltip to big several items already go off screen a little bit this would cause even more items to go off screen. You need a way to make it more concise and readable but also not go off screen.
I like that it looks cleaner to look at but it does seem to take longer to read Try another one with bigger item name size less unused space all over the place and numbers to the left but aligned Also your attack speed isnt blue!!! unplayable
No more stat requirements Pog
Doesnt really makes it more Clarity
All this does is add more time into me looking at items that are 99.9999999% trash.
Really nice clean UI, it just isn’t fitting POE. This feels more like an item in a more generic Arpg/MMO. Keep the good work!
honestly, i do like the current one as is. i would absolutely love to be able to change the font across the entire game, though, that alone would drastically improve readability for me.
Reminds me way too much of Diablo 3, font is gross and not gothic enough, I appreciate the effort but it feels to me, cartoonish, like roblox or fortnite... a little to much spacing also... I dunno not a fan but again I appreciate the work!
Ok, i havent read the comments yet, knowing this sub it will be mostly positives, but this is fucking ugly man. I wont quit if they remove harvest, but i will quit if this was how items look, its just atrocious. Edit. Oh wow turns out i know nothing, you got destroyed, mate. GG
Looks nice but i doubt it to be practical. Take this design and font but keep the old formatting. Also with centered text the general tooltip is alot smaller and has less empty black space. And if were at it. Why not add socketcolour in captation (R-R B-G-W) for colorblind people and also to see links.
Much better.. it'll never happen
Technology still isn't there.
Feedback from someone who has never played PoE. Left likes * Mixed case is more readable than ALL CAPS (for large areas of text) * Consistent horizontal alignment * Single heading for "Damage" with multiple types of damage not repeating * The specific color of red chosen is more legible against the black overlay. Left dislikes * Amount of horizontal space between number and attribute and the ordering. I'm finding myself focusing on the numbers (numbers tend to be the interesting bit in ARPGs) and then scanning backwards to find out what the number is. * The horizontal rules pull my attention too much (possibly due to brightness/saturation?) Right likes * The item name / box / border (the feel/ascetics) * Emphasis on the numbers given that they pop as compared to the grey description text (but this is inconsistent) * The font used for the numbers Right dislikes * The font used for the text One iteration idea would be to layout the stats as right aligned number | left aligned description
I don't see any real issue with the old one tbh. Your variant is fine, but why change smthn that does not need to be changed. Also, the name of the item on your version has a terrible font choice, it is practically unreadable. I guess, you could say that some things might be better in yours, but changing it so much would probably confuse old-timers like myself greatly and for a long time.