UI/UX suggestion: Patched conics UI proposal

[Kavaeric]

I've noticed that a number of others in the KSP2 Discord have voiced concern over the confusing nature of the patched conics interface, notably Spicat's suggestion. Given some of my other UI suggestions they invited me to try my hand at improving the clarity of the interface.

To get a sense of the problem I decided to show the interface to two friends who have played KSP1 before and were of different skill levels, but otherwise had not seen the new interface. The notes are below, but in summary, it was difficult for them to make out what the various symbols mean, and it took them quite a while to cut through the visual noise and understand the symbols and indicators. The intercept icons and SOI change symbols were significant paint points to comprehension.

Below is a sketched concept of what the above looks like along with some simple callouts annotating my design decisions.

In short, I feel like the current design is overly focused on the meaning of each symbol in isolation, whereas my proposal attempts to systematise the visual language of patched conics more holistically by:

• Reducing visual complexity by eliminating the ship SOI change icons, which were visually verbose, and reducing visual noise in general by dimming the background.
• Colour-coding successive orbits to better distinguish between sequential paths, as well as better communicating their order.
• Unifying the appearance of the SOI change nodes (in the above, match orange to orange and red to red to understand the motion about the Mun).
• Using a colour- and shape-matching system for approach markers that intrinsically communicates they should ideally be on top of each other, rather than having the player guess at matching letters and orbits.

The proposed design should help improve understanding for new players still coming to terms with orbital motion, while ensuring that advanced players are still offered clarity when performing multi-step, complex manoeuvre plans.

clickbait title: real design student's reaction to patched conics UI gone wrong (live reaction)

Edited February 25 by Spicat
Restored broken images

[18Watt]

I consider myself a fairly experienced KSP1 player, and I had a great deal of confusion over the new orbital symbology in KSP2.

In particular, the blue radiating 'ripples' which indicate SOI entry and exit.  Having no information, I just guessed.  I guessed that the ripples moving inward indicated SOI entry (moving INto the SOI..), and the ripples radiating outward indicated SOI exit (going OUT of the SOI..). I guessed wrong, and after a fair amount of playing time those symbols still confuse me.

I agree there is a lot of room for improvement with the orbital symbols.

 

[Anth]

11 hours ago, 18Watt said:

In particular, the blue radiating 'ripples' which indicate SOI entry and exit.  Having no information, I just guessed.  I guessed that the ripples moving inward indicated SOI entry (moving INto the SOI..), and the ripples radiating outward indicated SOI exit (going OUT of the SOI..). I guessed wrong, and after a fair amount of playing time those symbols still confuse me.

My guess was the same. Why they are going in the opposite direction makes no sense to me.

[RedderThanMisty]

11 hours ago, 18Watt said:

I consider myself a fairly experienced KSP1 player, and I had a great deal of confusion over the new orbital symbology in KSP2.

In particular, the blue radiating 'ripples' which indicate SOI entry and exit.  Having no information, I just guessed.  I guessed that the ripples moving inward indicated SOI entry (moving INto the SOI..), and the ripples radiating outward indicated SOI exit (going OUT of the SOI..). I guessed wrong, and after a fair amount of playing time those symbols still confuse me.

I agree there is a lot of room for improvement with the orbital symbols.

 

Same here, often I'm left guessing whether I'm approaching a clockwise orbit or not, I didn't even notice that the ripples were in different directions too.

[darthgently]

2 hours ago, RedderThanMisty said:

Same here, often I'm left guessing whether I'm approaching a clockwise orbit or not, I didn't even notice that the ripples were in different directions too.

Is periapsis marked now in future patches?  That is the most important info to me.  The ripple SOI markers are a bit visually loud for their relative unimportance

Inclination in the future patch is good info also

Edited May 29, 2023 by darthgently

[Sea_Kerman]

I like it

[Lyneira]

This analysis is great! All of these suggestions would help make maneuver planning much smoother.

[EvelynThe Dragon]

The lack of color differentiation makes me crazy. Each conic segment should have a different color as in your example. I still can't figure out the intercept markers. 

[Kavaeric]

Thanks all. I neglected to post this, but better late than never: version of the above proposal on its own

[The Aziz]

There is a difference in color. It's orange and more orange. Good luck people with impaired vision!

...pink and purple are better but not enough. If it was orange *and* purple, that would be just great.

As for the trajectory lines... We have the entire spectrum of colors to use, so let's use it. It's not like anyone is plotting the flight so far in the future to need more than, say 4, so let's go. Blue is still the main orbit color  is it not? I forgot. So first planned path could be bright purple, next red, orange, yellow, green. Or something like that, KSP1 had it and it worked.

[Lyneira]

Blue is the current conics patch's orbit colour, the next one is an ochre yellow, in both KSP1 and 2. KSP1 goes on to have other colours like red, cyan, etc. I'd like something similar for future patches in KSP2, as well as a dot marker when you hover over a trajectory. The dot marker should match the colour and location of the trajectory that will be affected when you click. This is quite important when you're trying to add a maneuver when two or more conics patches are almost exactly on top of each other. I can't remember now if KSP2 has this or not but I do remember having trouble getting a maneuver node on the right conics patch when two of them overlapped, and being unsure which one I was actually clicking.

Edited June 8, 2023 by Lyneira

[The Aziz]

Ooh boy thanks to that I accidentally warped a full orbit around the sun because I didn't look at the time to node. I didn't even notice there was a second orbit line.

[The1Paxman]

I love the proposal.  That is visually much more intuitive.  The arrows are extremely helpful.  Good color selections will aid the user.  Perhaps in standard R->G->B type phasing?

[Nate Simpson]

This is beautiful work! I really love the clarity of the arrow-in and arrow-out SOI transits. This would be great material to keep in the backs of our minds the next time we're contemplating a UI update. Cheers!

[Clayel]

50 minutes ago, Nate Simpson said:

This is beautiful work! I really love the clarity of the arrow-in and arrow-out SOI transits. This would be great material to keep in the backs of our minds the next time we're contemplating a UI update. Cheers!

I agree, this update seems like it should definitely be implemented immediately!

[Kavaeric]

1 hour ago, Nate Simpson said:

This is beautiful work! I really love the clarity of the arrow-in and arrow-out SOI transits. This would be great material to keep in the backs of our minds the next time we're contemplating a UI update. Cheers!

The man himself. Thanks for the kind words. I imagine the team is more focused on other more pressing issues, yeah.

I'd be happy to actually workshop this (this is totally not a thing for my design portfolio I swear); are there any other resources/insights on some of the considerations the UX team have? I believe I've read the UX dev insight but it largely focused on the VAB I think

[Klapaucius]

This is amazing work.   Thank you for doing this and thanks @Nate Simpson for responding and taking that on board.

 

For me, I grapsed the SOI straightaway.  While I don't think it would be obvious to a new player, I think as long as that is clearly explained in a tutorial it would be okay. But I still do not understand what the 1A and 2A is telling me.  Again, maybe that is a tutorial thing, but even with the amount of time I have in KSP1, I was still at a loss.

 

From just a design perspective, I would prefer clearer and cleaner fonts. The font choices in the UI overall are not good and the text is too small. I'm 53 years old, and my eyes are not what they used to be.

[The Aziz]

3 hours ago, Klapaucius said:

From just a design perspective, I would prefer clearer and cleaner fonts. The font choices in the UI overall are not good and the text is too small. I'm 53 years old, and my eyes are not what they used to be.

 

[Socraticat]

On 6/2/2023 at 5:11 PM, Kavaeric said:

Thanks all. I neglected to post this, but better late than never: version of the above proposal on its own

I really like the SOI Arrows and distinguishing colors. It's just what's needed.

[DigitalEva]

On 6/11/2023 at 12:04 PM, Socraticat said:

I really like the SOI Arrows and distinguishing colors. It's just what's needed.

It's the same for me. They just make more sense in my brain than the blue rings. I love it when things are simple for procedures like that.

[wasml]

I really like this idea. I had not noticed the SOI ring motions indicated entry/exit and had figured the 1A/1B, 2A/2B were the position markers but was not sure if the 1's need to match up or the A's need to match up for intercept. As "The Aziz" suggested colors that are easier to distinguish would help (especially for the color blind) and different colors for later orbits would be a big help. The new AP/PE markers are a good idea but having played with them a bit I must say I prefer the KSP1 markers - they are more compact and lining up the points just seems more intuitive and a 1 for first intercept and 2 for second intercept makes sense to me.

PS: I like how the maneuver node now has a arrow in it when it can be clicked to drag.