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How I think our Sims' smartphones should look (hint: they should look like smartphones!)
kwanzaabot
Posts: 2,440 Member
(Posted this on Reddit, but I thought it could do with some attention here, too.)
Why don't our Sims' phones look like phones? Instead, we've got this weird, cluttered mess of text lists. It's not intuitive, and frankly is kind of ugly.
Which is why I propose that our Sims' smartphones should... (drumroll please) look like smartphones!
The mockup I posted above might need a little explanation, but I hope it's more or less self-explanatory.
Down the bottom, we have 4 icons. Text messages (with a red notification for unread texts), the "travel" option, the "call Sim" option, and the "camera" option. For texts, this would pop up an interaction menu with "text Sim", "send flirty text" and "read texts". "Read texts" would be things like invitations, so that our Sims don't have to drop everything they're doing to go to Bear Night at the Bar!
Likewise, "camera" would have "take photo", "take photo with..." and "take selfie". "Call Sim" is self explanatory.
Now, on to the icons!
- The Easter eggs are Jasmin Holiday's challenges. Depending on the challenge, the icon changes. If there's no challenge, it disappears.
- The party icon is of course, "Plan Social Event".
- The Sims hanging out at a house is "Hang Out on Current Lot".
- The rose is "Ask on Date".
- The bills are "Pay Bills". If you have no bills to pay, it's not there.
- The house is "Move Household".
- The island is "Take Vacation".
- "Play Game"
- "Hire Service," which brings up the usual services menu.
- The oven and simoleon is "Buy a Restaurant".
- "Buy a Retail Business".
- "Find a job".
- "Browse Web".
The remaining icons are theoretical phone interactions I'd like to see one day. "Read Online Newspaper," "Read Today's Horoscope" and "Enrol in College". The "read" options are just fun little text popups with amusing headlines, celebrity repuatation-based notifications, or in the case of horoscopes, vague hints ("Maybe you should order takeout" could hint at the possibility of a fire, for example)
The green arrow on the side represents the option to swipe to the next page, where you'd find more icons, as needed. The whole idea is that the menu is dynamic and adjusts depending on how many icons are available at any given time.
Just like a real phone!
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Comments
I think it would be fun and looks less like a menu.
Yes! Looking less like a menu is exactly what I was going for. I mean, real phones don't look like text lists, why should a fake phone?
I get that it's not realistic, but i'm curious as to why you say they're "not intuitive?" doesn't get much more intuitive than reading your options directly imo
(◡‿◡✿)
Because it's not. you have to click on all the different categories to find the option you want. Why is "Hire a Service," "Buy a Restaurant," or any of the "house" options under the "house" menu? Why is "Play a Game" under the stereo? It doesn't take long, but you still have to go digging.
If it was laid out like a real smartphone, then everything would be available all at once. You wouldn't have to go hunting for the "Find a Job" option, because it's right there the second you open the menu.
It's 2017, I think "some people don't use this ubiquitous technology that makes everybody's lives 1000x easier" isn't really a valid excuse any more.
If anything, this would make the menu more usable, since, everything is on the one page, and the icons would be identifiable enough that they would communicate effectively what it is they do.
The idea of the icons isn't to use those exact icons, but for Maxis to create icons (or repurpose existing ones - if they fit) that actually communicate what it is that the Sim will be doing if they select that option.
A list to me is easy to see what options there are without having to do any kind of memorization or hover to figure out what icon does what. And I don't find the categories counter intuitive whatsoever. It's not realistic, sure.. but no one ever said everything in the game needed to be realistic. Especially not at the cost of ease.
How is a visual representation of our options, all on the one screen, instead of text spread out over multiple screens in obtuse categories that have little if anything to do with the option in question (and in some cases options within options within options), "at the cost of ease"?
Am I in Purgatory? Is that what's happened? Eternal tech support for 10-year old technology, specifically designed to be easy to use, for people who use it daily.
I'm dead, and Purgatory is a tech support call center where every caller is my mother.
it's just an opinion, i'm sure you have good reason to feel the text lists are difficult to use.
I just don't have the same experience. from the looks at the replies several others don't either.
maybe they could implement this idea as an option, so players can choose between having the text and having icons
and I never said smartphones were hard to use.. All I was really saying is that I know for sure there have been times where I open up my apps list and stare blanky at the exact app I wanted to open without realizing it till I spend 10 seconds after searching for it mindlessly xD
I don't even own a cellphone, Ipod, etc much less a smart phone-it would be too compliated for me to have it the way the OP wants it.
I like this idea
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