drneau.com

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Some may or may not know that I used v2 extensively, especially the console designer and league aspects. Loved loved loved it, looking forward to learning v3. I'm starting next year's WSOP league this week, and I figured I'd go from scratch, perfect excuse to delve in.

First of all, almost everything is improved. By and large I love it, it's very clean, and a lot of stuff is easier... but I do have some initial thoughts and nit-picks, some of which is probably me trying to get used to a different method, some of which may be valid, some of which may be unavoidable.

- Overall, I find there are too many steps for some things. Mostly I've gone through the Component Library. For example in the Payout setup, getting between the setup and the preview (nice feature, btw!) seemed to be a chore, as I went back and forth fine-tuning. I understand in this specific case the overall design approach and I'm not sure there's a way around this one, but maybe overall everything could be looked at again and fine-tuned, pared down.

- The side-bar thing is cute and all, but it's not at all practical. It's distracting and difficult to navigate, especially since I can't seem to turn off options like in v2 (I don't use the seating chart, for example, and would prefer it not show up at all). If at all possible, I think it'd be a lot easier on the eye and neck to put the static items on the side (component library, active tourney, etc), and the larger variable menu items on the top. We most of us use monitors that are wider than they are tall, this is inefficient use of space. I'm also finding it more difficult to center my mouse over these vertical items that are so close to where my dock will pop out when the mouse is near, whereas I can naturally center on a horizontal bar and not think about it. I think it's a UI standard with which we've all become intimately familiar, and this deviation from it is jarring.

- Is there any way to enter player names the old way, where I just type a name and hit enter and type another name, etc? I do plan to use a database, but I also want a quick-n-easy on the spot way to enter players in a tournament! I tend to do the db fine-tuning afterwards.

- Is there any easy way to make our own league ranking methods? I don't understand the editor at all. I was able to cobble together something with textedit and will do the same again, but it makes it seems like you can edit it when I can't figure out the first thing about doing it through TM

- I sure would like to be able to double-click things to get to the menu beneath them. Such as editing a component, I should be able to just double-click the item rather than highlight it and click "edit".

I do dig the overall consistency in design and depth of customization. I'm someone who likes to design on a grand scale and create customization from it, and this is of course perfect for that. Haven't tried the console designer yet, going there next!

I don't know how much is able to be changed at this point, or how much feedback you want. I have a background in design and editing and user interface, so I'm going to be focusing a lot on wanting this to be as usable and sleek and deep and streamlined as possible.
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[pfapfap]

Oh, another quibble...

It seems a lot of stuff doesn't register unless I tab out of the field. For example, editing the player database, if I don't tab out of a field before clicking enter, it doesn't keep.
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[pfapfap]

Hmm, can't seem to figure out how to create a console! I must be missing something obvious. I can't even get the default to show up. All I get is a photo of a rock, no info about the tourney.

I was going through doing a test run, and I couldn't figure out how to get a player back to "listed" after I bought them in.

I am liking it more than it would seem in these posts... I just don't have problems with the stuff I like. I dig the more detailed financial info, and the whole buyin setup seems to be much slicker. Also really really love the customizable screens for things like the player roster.
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[drneau]

Don't worry about hurting my feelings. That's what betas are all about.

Point by point...

Too many steps
Part of the problem is also trying to fit a lot of information on one screen. I've confined my target to 800x600 (the app in production will default to full screen, but for beta I'm trying to make it all work in 800x600. But please list areas where you see room for improvement. I do think the payout schedule has room for improvement, but since it works for now it's on the backburner.

Side bar thing
What I really wanted to avoid was having a top-tabbed pane within another top tabbed pane...cuz I think that'd be even MORE confusing.
I can definitely look at options for this. Although, if I simply switch as you suggest it isn't going to save any space. Actually, it's the vertical space that's at a premium in most panels, so I though having the tabs on the side made more sense.

Entering player names
I agree there needs to be a "quick add" function.

League ranking
This is somewhat different than in v2. In v2, methods were associated with the league. In v3, each tournament can have its own method if you want. The league is concerned with how to aggregate those scores up.
There's a video on that in the appropriate v3 forum.
For now, the actual creation of the methods is similar to as it was in v2.

Double click to edit
Easy enough to do.

Registering unless you tab out
I'll take a look at that.

How to create a console
This is a new concept in v3. Console dashboards are the layout of the screen. You need to make them part of a console theme and then activate that theme. There's a video on it and better help is forthcoming.
But trust me...it's better than in v2! Maybe just not as intuitive yet.

Player back to listed
In the current beta, you need to bring up the player properties. For the next beta, I've made that a button on the roster.
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Dr. Neau (not a real doctor)
http://drneau.com
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[drneau]

"Quick Add" for player database is complete.
_________________
--
Dr. Neau (not a real doctor)
http://drneau.com
http://home.comcast.net/~jneau

[silentjoker]

just a question im wondering how people are still using v3 beta as i cannot use it since sept. i was only able to dabble sofar into it. am i doing something wrong?

[drneau]

[silentjoker]

oh sorry i see the post is from aug 26th it just popped up new so i didnt even see it.