Plan for Brett Fattori

dRacer will contain an editor that simplifies track creation, to the point where people will actually enjoy creating tracks. I know that's a bold statement, but that's what we're shooting for. From the shot above, you see many elements that seem standard for the Torque's built-in world editor, but we've taken it a step further.

Too many times people rely on the built-in toolset to provide the functionality that their end-user will demand. Or, they recognize early on that the world editor will be too difficult for someone to understand or use and simply disable it.


Simply providing a user with a menubar and a tree of objects isn't enough. You have to introduce concepts that are well known in the GUI world. Without these elements, you could hide all of your functionality deep within the menus and leave people scratching their heads. Providing something as simple as a toolbar, with meaningful icons and tooltips, can be challenging. However, it provides the user with immediate access to the functionality contained in a menu.


I spent many hours thinking about the icons that were going to go onto the buttons on the toolbar. After some investigation, I found a nice, simple way to convey the information I wanted the end-user to know. By spending some time with the code, I created a toolbar component that you can add any GUI control to. It enhanced the feel of the editor, and made it much easier to navigate.


Adding other common elements, such as a tabbed display of the available parts, made the editor even easier to use. You really have to think about accessibility when designing the user experience. Before they were tabs, I had buttons that selected the parts bins. They didn't make as much sense because they weren't intuitive. People would end up scratching their head over what those buttons were there for. But with tabs, they almost know intuitively what they do. Capturing this intuition is important in the overall design of an interface.


The next step is to put additional options into dialogs. Now, you could lump options upon options into your dialog much like the World Editor Settings dialog. However, your end-user will then be swamped with things to select, modify, and slide. You would have to spend a lot of time writing documentation to cover all of the options. By atomizing ideas into simpler dialogs (even if there will be many) you can simplify the experience. I used to think it looked cool to lump everything into a tabbed display with hundreds of tabs and thousands of options. The problem was that my end-users couldn't remember where anything was. For dRacer I've been trying to tie one dialog to each menu item or toolbar button.

You also have to provide feedback in your dialogs. Simply providing a slider with a minimum and maximum value isn't enough. By popping up a simple tooltip with the value, or by displaying the value under the thumb of the slider, you provide the necessary feedback. Change should also be as immediate as possible. In most cases, if a user must press Apply or Ok to see their changes, they might make mistakes that they otherwise wouldn't make.


When you collect common tools under one dialog, be sure to use tabs to separate the atomic parts. Don't put everything into one giant scrollbox that the user must go through to find what they want. Group the individual elements logically within a dialog or tab, and group those groups logically. I know that almost sounds like black magic or artistry... And it is a little of both. You have to create a flow that makes the user want to come back to your environment.

All in all, I've been learning a lot from designing the track editor. I've done and re-done many times, with each revision becoming that much clearer. Also be sure to ask for feedback from those around you. If it's too hard for someone else who works with you to understand, imagine what the end-user will go through.

Finally, this doesn't just apply to editors -- This applies to any interface you're designing. When you look at the play interface, you might think that having health, position, top-down map, weapons display, radar, on-board computer, chat dialog, crosshair, compass, oil levels, hydraulics status, etc. look cool. But do they just end up stealing from your experience and confusing your end-user?

I hope this has helped at least someone.. I know it's helped me.

- Brett