Author Topic: Something in the planning menu that bugs me...  (Read 1357 times)

Offline FrostDragon

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 8
Something in the planning menu that bugs me...
« on: May 18, 2012, 04:54:38 pm »
I'm not one to usually pick out how something is worded in a game.  but I've came across something that just really bugs me for some unknown reason and I don't know why.   It might have to do with the fact that I do some programming on my own, and just seeing this in a game looks kind of weird to me.  Before I go on and on about this.  Let me mention what I'm talking about.

In the planning menu if you click on any of the sections and then want to go to go back a level in the menu system.  One has to click on "Parent Section".  Now I'm sure most people would figure it out what it means but it's not really a term that one sees in a game.  and if you look at other instances where the user is given a chance to go back to anything in a menu you use the term previous.  i.e.  previous menu etc. 

Now I understand that there is limited space on that button and it might be kind of difficult to squeeze in another 2 letters,  but why not make the buttons just a little bigger and use a little more consistency with your interface design.  Something as simple as one misused word can leave a player confused about the function of something.     
 

Offline x4000

  • Chris McElligott Park, Arcen Founder and Lead Dev
  • Arcen Staff
  • Zenith Council Member Mark III
  • *****
  • Posts: 31,651
Re: Something in the planning menu that bugs me...
« Reply #1 on: May 18, 2012, 04:56:37 pm »
The reason we did it this way was because we already have "Next Page" and "Previous Page" quite frequently.  I'm open to other terminology, but it seems to me that using the term "Previous Section" would be really confusing with "Previous Page."

Welcome to the forums, by the way!
Have ideas or bug reports for one of our games?  Mantis for Suggestions and Bug Reports. Thanks for helping to make our games better!

Offline MaTi

  • Newbie
  • *
  • Posts: 4
Re: Something in the planning menu that bugs me...
« Reply #2 on: May 18, 2012, 05:38:56 pm »
I've also found it kinda odd at first, but you get used to it pretty quickly.

Offline LayZboy

  • Full Member Mark II
  • ***
  • Posts: 162
Re: Something in the planning menu that bugs me...
« Reply #3 on: May 19, 2012, 04:17:04 pm »
The reason we did it this way was because we already have "Next Page" and "Previous Page" quite frequently.  I'm open to other terminology, but it seems to me that using the term "Previous Section" would be really confusing with "Previous Page."

Welcome to the forums, by the way!

I think placing it in the right place on the screen would eliminate the confusing part about "previous section". Normally on things that need more pages, I don't even read the buttons, just click on them based were they are. On pretty much every one of these ever the "next page" button on the right side at the bottom or top or whatever, and "previous page" being on the left. You could just put Previous section in between these two.