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Mad Poster
Original Poster
#1 Old 21st Oct 2017 at 11:38 PM
Default TS4 UI: Yay or Nay?
Probably there was a thread about it, but screw it: too lazy to dig through!

Thread's question, cuz I'm lazy to make a kickstart myself:
  1. Like it? Why?
  2. Dislike it? Why?
  3. TS1/TS2/TS3 vs TS4?
  4. k, lol, bye
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Field Researcher
#2 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 12:38 AM
The Sims 4 has many problems, but its UI is not one of them - in fact (my personal opinion) this is the best UI a Sims game has ever had. It's responsive, smooth, nice animations, modern and minimalistic, quite unlike TS3's cluttered and somewhat messy UI.
Theorist
#3 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 2:15 AM Last edited by ShigemiNotoge : 22nd Oct 2017 at 9:13 AM.
Quote: Originally posted by Teostar
The Sims 4 has many problems, but its UI is not one of them - in fact (my personal opinion) this is the best UI a Sims game has ever had. It's responsive, smooth, nice animations, modern and minimalistic, quite unlike TS3's cluttered and somewhat messy UI.

TBH I'm not usually a huge fan of the minimalistic look of UI these days, like the Windows 10 flat white *everything* garbage. Though while I think the TS4 UI needs a bit of *colour*, maybe some built-in re-skin options, it's honestly not *terribly* designed. TS3 did take up quite a bit of the screen at all times, so I like being able to *close* most of it to get a more unobstructed view.
Lab Assistant
#4 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 2:22 AM
I don't like it. I have issues with contrast, so it's really hard for me to see. I prefer Ts2s or Ts3s user interface.
Scholar
#5 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 3:01 AM
I'm ok with it, decent sized fonts, nothing too shiny, and easy to read from any angle.

But menu's are laggy with a low-end machines, (Annoying when they drop out of actions), but superquick with decent High-end machines.
Instructor
#6 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 4:19 AM
I'd say the only problem I am having with it is the social wheel. I think it just needs to prioritize certain things more then others and it could benefit from moving certain things to the back instead of the front. It can take too long to conduct a simple action when you have to click through multiple menus in the wheel to find what you are looking for.

I think everything else is pretty good.
Field Researcher
#7 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 9:08 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ShigemiNotoge
TBH I'm not usually a huge fan of the minimalistic look of UI these days, like the Windows 7 flat white *everything* garbage. Though while I think the TS4 UI needs a bit of *colour*, maybe some built-in re-skin options, it's honestly not *terribly* designed. TS3 did take up quite a bit of the screen at all times, so I like being able to *close* most of it to get a more unobstructed view.

Windows 7 does not have a minimalistic/modern look, it might have been considered somewhat modern back in 2009, but not anymore. The whole Aero glass look it has provides way too much cluttered detail for it to be considered anything close to modern and "flat". Windows 10 on the other hand has a modern UI, although poorly executed because Microsoft sucks at consistency and making nice fluid animations, although they are saying they'll improve it with the upcoming Fluent design language they are developing. At the moment I consider Google the masters of beautiful modernistic (G)UI and graphic design, their material design language is absolutely gorgeous.
Theorist
#8 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 9:12 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Teostar
Windows 7 does not have a minimalistic/modern look, it might have been considered somewhat modern back in 2009, but not anymore. The whole Aero glass look it has provides way too much cluttered detail for it to be considered anything close to modern and "flat". Windows 10 on the other hand has a modern UI, although poorly executed because Microsoft sucks at consistency and making nice fluid animations, although they are saying they'll improve it with the upcoming Fluent design language they are developing. At the moment I consider Google the masters of beautiful modernistic (G)UI and graphic design, their material design language is absolutely gorgeous.

Woops! I meant Windows 10 from the start! Brain typo :x
Test Subject
#9 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 9:21 AM
Unintuitive and buggy. Also blocks edge scrolling.

Amateur hour.
Scholar
#10 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 10:12 AM
I thought TS1 has the best UI of all, it was just simple, there was no such thing as aero or transparently effects.



Prototypes of very early TS2 screenshots looked they were going to use that style, but I guess instead they decide to be more modern.

TS3 is just too shiny for my eyes..
Lab Assistant
#11 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 10:20 AM
While I like the simplicity of TS4's UI. I dislike that everything is all over the place. I'd like them to be in one place. (It's easier to look at something without having to find it all over the screen.)
I think TS2 nail it. (But it definitely could improve the style a lot!)
Mad Poster
#12 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 10:23 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Teostar
Windows 10 on the other hand has a modern UI, although poorly executed because Microsoft sucks at consistency and making nice fluid animations, although they are saying they'll improve it with the upcoming Fluent design language they are developing. At the moment I consider Google the masters of beautiful modernistic (G)UI and graphic design, their material design language is absolutely gorgeous.

Material Design was cool in 2013 because it was new and shiny, but it's gotten boring by now. The more I used it myself, the more I didn't like it. What I like about FDL (or Project Neon, as they're calling it) is that it's somewhat skeuomorphic and very current while still being "boring old Windows". Fluent Design has everything we like anno 2017, like gradients and "ugly" colours, while still being fairly neutral. It's light and very open due to things like borders only being implied.

You can see here perfectly how a window isn't really a window anymore:


And how colour is used to add depth, particularly with these late 80s-early 90s revival colours (I may or may not be wearing a T-shirt with this exact colour scheme):


So the great thing about it is that it essentially combines the best things about 00s lifelike UI design with 10s minimalistic, ultra-simple styling.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Field Researcher
#13 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 10:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
Material Design was cool in 2013 because it was new and shiny, but it's gotten boring by now. The more I used it myself, the more I didn't like it. What I like about FDL (or Project Neon, as they're calling it) is that it's somewhat skeuomorphic and very current while still being "boring old Windows". Fluent Design has everything we like anno 2017, like gradients and "ugly" colours, while still being fairly neutral. It's light and very open due to things like borders only being implied.

You can see here perfectly how a window isn't really a window anymore:


And how colour is used to add depth, particularly with these late 80s-early 90s revival colours (I may or may not be wearing a T-shirt with this exact colour scheme):


So the great thing about it is that it essentially combines the best things about 00s lifelike UI design with 10s minimalistic, ultra-simple styling.

Hopefully Microsoft manages to produce results as good as their concept art. I do like that they're combining glass-like/transparent elements with a flat modernistic stylization and vibrant colors.
Theorist
#14 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 11:32 AM
Quote: Originally posted by Teostar
Hopefully Microsoft manages to produce results as good as their concept art. I do like that they're combining glass-like/transparent elements with a flat modernistic stylization and vibrant colors.

IDK, I personally miss obvious window borders. I liked that separate elements used to look separate. now I don't see where one component of the UI ends and the other begins and it gives me a headache. What I wouldn't give for the good ol' 98 theme back where you could infinitely change every single UI element individually to suit your preferences and create custom themes that would match your BG image!

Give me the infinite customizability of 98' with the rounded window borders of XP and the glass transparency of Vista/7. Then I've got my ideal UI
Mad Poster
#15 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 11:57 AM
Quote: Originally posted by ShigemiNotoge
IDK, I personally miss obvious window borders. I liked that separate elements used to look separate. now I don't see where one component of the UI ends and the other begins and it gives me a headache. What I wouldn't give for the good ol' 98 theme back where you could infinitely change every single UI element individually to suit your preferences and create custom themes that would match your BG image!

That's bound to be cool again, if it isn't already. I remember the WILD gradient taskbars and high-contrast colour schemes you could have with 98 and the XP classic theme.
And remember teal? The colour teal came and went like no colour ever before it. They put that shit on everything in the early 90s. Teal was the colour of sports cars, of shopping malls, of plastic cups, and of athletic gear. In the same way that we now have millennial pink but won't in 5 years' time, teal was born in the late 80s and dead by the late 90s. We need to bring teal back.

EDIT: MY ENTIRE DESKTOP IS NOW TEAL. fuck yeah
On a side note, maybe I'm overstating the importance of teal, considering I've never really seen it in the real world unlike all the other reincarnated 80s/90s trends.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
#16 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 12:14 PM
But anyway - I'd say TS4's UI design is good because it's contemporary while still being generic and relatively neutral. It's not out there enough to be annoying or obnoxious, and it's not specific enough to go out of fashion within no time at all.
See, you can date each Sims game's UI but none of them look annoyingly dated. TS1's UI says "late 90s" without screaming it. TS3 has that late 00s high end look that things like Windows 7 also had, with the gloss and shine effects, but it's still easy to look at it without cringing.
This is why you should NEVER use Memphis Design on a UI, which is more or less what Material Design does.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#17 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 4:09 PM
Quote: Originally posted by Citysim
I thought TS1 has the best UI of all, it was just simple, there was no such thing as aero or transparently effects.



Prototypes of very early TS2 screenshots looked they were going to use that style, but I guess instead they decide to be more modern.

TS3 is just too shiny for my eyes..

If I had to create an ultimate UI for a new sims game, I would just take some of the aspects from those combined games and implant into one game:
  • TS1's arranged into seperate buttons of Wall Modes.
  • The Three Modes (Live, Buy and Build or both into one, Story and Options) would be in TS2 arrangement.
  • LTW right in front face; in TS3,
  • Would include the camera till buttons from TS3.
  • Screenshoot and record buttons positioned in TS2 (in my opnion, TS3 looks clunky).
  • Portrayed of a sim in TS3/TS2/TS4 style I guess, with the age below it or below the displayed LTW.
  • The Time Clock, it wouldn't matter much.
  • The Sim selector, either in TS1 or TS4.
  • As for the extra panel, I wouldn't mind how it turns on and how the bar is positioned (above or below the panel).
Mad Poster
#18 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 4:23 PM
Quote: Originally posted by SneakyWingPhoenix
[*]Would include the camera till buttons from TS3.

Those are the first thing I'd get rid of. They're a waste of space and they have no use.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Smeg Head
#19 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 4:56 PM
Never liked TS4 UI from the start. I suppose conditioning had it's part to play, being just used to everything being down at the bottom-left corner in one handy "console" affair. But it soon became an annoyance beyond the conditioning of the previous iterations, while having to mouse up to the top of screen for some functions, then back down to bottom for others, and to all corners intermittently. Wow, if any folks are still using the old ball type mouse, they would suffer wear and tear so much faster due to the extra mileage. It would be a quaint and quirky detail to know how much more accumulative miles the mouse has to travel up and down the screen over time, when comparing the iterations. But the biggest gripe for me was, and still is, the very bad design of the UI box at top centre of screen when sims are talking to each other. That UI implementation is just thoughtless, being overly big and cuts off the sweet spot view in the distance, which is always best as top-centre. No game should ever use that part of the screen for UI interface parts, especially if the game is about creating and seeing beautiful backdrops. Why block out the golden sweet spot with overly big UI clutter? Bad game design, from devs that obviously never went to art college. (Or if they did they were not paying attention in landscape class.) Don't ever ruin the pretty views, devs!!!

I say put it all back into one convenient bottom-left console that can be easily hidden. And save my mouse a lot of mileage, if not to save the lovely backdrop views we may have spent a very long time creating.

"Become a government informer. Betray your family and friends. Fabulous prizes to be won!" Red Dwarf - Back to Reality.

Find all my TS4 mods and lots here: Main Website - simsasylum.com My Section - coolspear's Mods & Lots
Top Secret Researcher
#20 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 4:58 PM
To me the layout of the UI is the most important thing when it comes to it... and TS4 fails miserably in that regard.

It is true that it's simple and keeps the screen clean (although the sim emotion/image take more space than needed), it is scattered all around so it's really hard to navigate it and switch modes or find whatever you need at the time. Oh, and the build/buy UI. It's so fractured and the mere fact that searching for room sections in the filters is way easier than finding it via UI shows how badly the elements of the UI are combined. What this UI does is an illusion of simplicity, where it hides it's elements under various subtabs, which are scattered across the whole screen in all the angles possible. Your task is to dig deep for what you need once you managed to find the appropriate tab in some of the corners of your screen.
At least the other sims games had it all in one place.

The only thing I have to say for the look however is that it could have at least a bit more prominent letters, because sometimes it's hard to read white on white, ya know...
Theorist
#21 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 5:35 PM
Quote: Originally posted by GrijzePilion
And remember teal? The colour teal came and went like no colour ever before it. They put that shit on everything in the early 90s. Teal was the colour of sports cars, of shopping malls, of plastic cups, and of athletic gear. In the same way that we now have millennial pink but won't in 5 years' time, teal was born in the late 80s and dead by the late 90s. We need to bring teal back.

You're about 10 years late. Weebs already brought teal back, you just missed it. And trust me, it needs to die again, along with everything associated with it!

ᴋɪʟʟ ɪᴛ ᴡɪᴛʜ ғɪʀᴇ
Mad Poster
Original Poster
#22 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 8:12 PM
Quote: Originally posted by coolspear1
Never liked TS4 UI from the start. I suppose conditioning had it's part to play, being just used to everything being down at the bottom-left corner in one handy "console" affair. But it soon became an annoyance beyond the conditioning of the previous iterations, while having to mouse up to the top of screen for some functions, then back down to bottom for others, and to all corners intermittently. Wow, if any folks are still using the old ball type mouse, they would suffer wear and tear so much faster due to the extra mileage. It would be a quaint and quirky detail to know how much more accumulative miles the mouse has to travel up and down the screen over time, when comparing the iterations. But the biggest gripe for me was, and still is, the very bad design of the UI box at top centre of screen when sims are talking to each other. That UI implementation is just thoughtless, being overly big and cuts off the sweet spot view in the distance, which is always best as top-centre. No game should ever use that part of the screen for UI interface parts, especially if the game is about creating and seeing beautiful backdrops. Why block out the golden sweet spot with overly big UI clutter? Bad game design, from devs that obviously never went to art college. (Or if they did they were not paying attention in landscape class.) Don't ever ruin the pretty views, devs!!!

I say put it all back into one convenient bottom-left console that can be easily hidden. And save my mouse a lot of mileage, if not to save the lovely backdrop views we may have spent a very long time creating.

Quote: Originally posted by mixa97sr
To me the layout of the UI is the most important thing when it comes to it... and TS4 fails miserably in that regard.

It is true that it's simple and keeps the screen clean (although the sim emotion/image take more space than needed), it is scattered all around so it's really hard to navigate it and switch modes or find whatever you need at the time. Oh, and the build/buy UI. It's so fractured and the mere fact that searching for room sections in the filters is way easier than finding it via UI shows how badly the elements of the UI are combined. What this UI does is an illusion of simplicity, where it hides it's elements under various subtabs, which are scattered across the whole screen in all the angles possible. Your task is to dig deep for what you need once you managed to find the appropriate tab in some of the corners of your screen.
At least the other sims games had it all in one place.

The only thing I have to say for the look however is that it could have at least a bit more prominent letters, because sometimes it's hard to read white on white, ya know...

Hmh, especally when your screen as width as this one:

I do feel pitty for these people :D

Honestly, If developers were reasonable, they would at least provide flexible controls to play the game entirely by keyboard (with the exception using mouse when interacting with sims, manipulating objects in build mode, molding sims in cas) or mouse. Some other good points about UI is made here.
Mad Poster
#23 Old 22nd Oct 2017 at 9:10 PM
That's what UI scaling is for. At least it's an option in TS4. I can't play TS3 in 4K because of it.

insert signature here
( Join my dumb Discord server if you're into the whole procrastination thing. But like, maybe tomorrow. )
Theorist
#24 Old 23rd Oct 2017 at 1:10 AM
Like it? Why?
Because I don't hate it.
Dislike it? Why?
I don't.
TS1/TS2/TS3 vs TS4?
TS4
k, lol, bye
No one has ever actually lol'd or roflmao'd. They just type and be like
Field Researcher
#25 Old 23rd Oct 2017 at 4:39 AM
I don’t think the UI is bad as a whole. Some panels could use a rework, and the color scheme should be modified from the dated white to a more ‘Sims’ shade of blue. At this point I’m surprised they haven’t added a UI color swatch button, they made one for the stupid cell phone panel.
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