KGS Wishlist / General UI

Sub-page of KGSWishlist

4. General UI and Design Issues

Preface

Here we collect ideas for improvements and feature requests concerning the user interface of CGoban and the KGS client.

Other pages concerning the user interface

If you are new to KGS:

If you just used KGS for the first time, these wishlist pages may be quite confusing to you. Your experience, however, is very valuable and you can help to improve KGS by adding it to KGS First Time User Experience.

Table of contents


Tooltips

Rooms window: Timer info in active games tooltips

  • Please consider the possibility to show some timer information in the tip which is displayed when you hover the mouse over active games. If you find too resource intensive to show precise timer information like in open games, at least you may show a Medium/Fast/Blitz information. This is important because it would allow people who want to watch active games to choose the speed they like to watch.

Menus

Rooms window: change menu name 'Play Go' to 'Automatch'

  • Anon: There could probably be a few tweaks of the main (english language, where language matters) UI to make things a bit more intuitive, especially for new users: The 'play go' menu should change to Automatch, which is what everyone calls the system, and which is more in line with other servers (it is, at least, with cyberoro).

Buttons

Game window: 'rules/game information' given its own button

  • starline: In the game window, can the 'rules/game information' be moved out of 'options' and given its own button (maybe beneath the 'options' button)? Also, give the button the label 'game info' (not 'rules') to make it easiest to understand.

Rooms window: change button name 'Custom Game' to 'New Game'

  • Similarly, 'Custom Game' should just be called 'New Game', which is precisely the button that someone unfamiliar with the system would be looking for. (3.4.14)

Rooms window: button for 'Automatch On/Off'

  • The means for firing up automatch using the mouse should probably not be hidden under the menu bar at the top. It seems most logical to make it an 'Automatch On/Off' button, on the same bar as the 'New Game' and 'Resume' buttons. This should be much more conducive to running automatch at the same time as one posts a custom game, especially for users who tend not to use shortcuts so readily (and who are generally in the majority).

Rooms window: button for 'Register'

  • Same goes for the option to register. Making a 'Register' button that only exists for guest accounts seems like a more transparent way of doing things, rather than placing it under the user menu. Consider making it red.

User info window: button to leave a person a message

  • Velobici: button to bring up a dialog box to leave a person a message from the "View User's Information" page.

Buttons should tell more then only "Yes" / "No"

  • Recently more and more applications have stopped displaying dialog boxes with "Yes" and "No" buttons on them. Instead the buttons say things like "Don't Save", "Save and Quit", etc. It would be good if the KGS client did more of this.

Infoboxes

Playing, observing: option to see game messages ("White resigns" etc.) within the chat area

  • Caspar?: As recommended by Doug, I post an idea here. I have been playing and watching quite a little on KGS and I have a suggestion: Can you make it an option to post game messages within the chat area (maybe highlighted with another color) instead of an alert-like popup? This is because when you play and observe you have to click them away before you can play, and sometimes they popup in really a bad moment. Also when you have several observes open, it's confusing to me. I would use that for sure, even if I am not playing, and only observing one game! :-)
  • Now Doug has kindly thought about it, and come up with the following: First, if you are observing several games, as you mention, how would you notice the game invitation in the chat? Would the observed games cover the chat area? Second, how would you stop the invitation from appearing to all the other people in the room? Have you considered the amount of game challenges and how to keep them from flooding the chat window?
    • RueLue: "game invitation" - does this belong to CGoban 2 or CGoban3?
  • What I think about this is as follows: Perhaps I used the wrong term with "chat" window. What I meant is the (perhaps called) kibitz box which belongs to the game window. So I would like messages that belong to a particular game (black left the game, the score is blabla, white resigns, black runs out of time etc) to appear in the according kibitz window. And only in the kibitz window of the game which the message belongs to. Of course this should be a preference, so that one can keep on having the popups, and those who prefer otherwise will get the messages in the kibitz window of the game the message refers to.

Here an example: I am watching a game, and all of a sudden I want to play too, and still want to follow the game I am watching in the same time. Now is it a blitz game and I have only 2 seconds left to play a move, and a popup says: black resigned! But it's the black player of the game I was observing. I get confused, I must click it away, and hurry to make my move. If this message appeared in the kibitz of the observed game, it wouldn't interfere with my game which I need to focus on.

I think there is no deal with flooding messages. Everyone who needs to get the message will get it. If they want, as a popup, and I will get it in the kibitz box of the game which the message belongs to.

Game window: opponent-left-game pop-up, direct pointer to the help page

  • Cheyenne: Suggestion to add some text to the pop-up when your opponent leaves a game. There should be a direct pointer to the help or web page that describes what and how a possibly escaped game will be handled (along with the suggestions to maybe wait for your opponent to come back). This suggestion is to address a common occurance. Someone leaves a game, their opponent (the person who still is in the game) then starts asking a bunch of questions about escapers and what they should do, etc. Having some information within pop-up might eliminate some of this.

Game window: results dialog box only in front of the associated game window

  • When the results dialog appears, make sure it is only in front of the associated game window (like gGo does), not front-and-centre of all windows.

Teaching game: reminder for observers, that comments can be seen by the players

  • Tom: A couple of times recently, I have observed people commenting inappropriately and unintentionally during teaching games. I think it would be good if there was some subtle reminder for non-players that their comments could be seen by the players. Maybe a red border round the text entry box, or text appearing red? I don't know what would be easier to implement. Thanks for reading :). + something, anyway.

Tabs

Tabbed game viewing

  • Tabbed game viewing, instead of pop-ups. +?+ +?+++
    • and switch between games with [Ctrl-Tab]

Graphics

. Unsorted

Cgoban3 icon needs some polishing

  • The Cgoban3 icon needs some polishing. It is really ugly compared to all the other icons on my desktop. -

Special icons for the different CGoban windows in the task bar

  • RueLue: Jago (as example) has special icons for the different windows in the task bar. Would be nice to have this also in CGoban. It is easier to chose the right window, when you have several CGoban windows open. (no need to have these icons with 1000 or more bytes)

Preferences: change the font

  • I might like to see a change of font, perhaps a serif font. The current font makes it hard to distinguish some letters from others. This makes it easier for trolls to spoof well known users. -- UnclMartin, 11 Feb. 2010.

Game window, preferences: option for "fuzzy" stone placement,

  • Anonymous: A graphical option for "fuzzy" stone placement, like that found in Kombilo and UliGo - i.e., stones do not appear perfectly on the intersections but slightly overlap, simulating the appearance of a "real" board. Just a bit of eye-candy, but worth considering. Go to NaturalStonePlacement for a ready-made algorithm to do this. +

3-D display

  • Tamsin: I hope I've found the right place for my suggestion! Have you seen the new IGS client glgo? It is superb. The feature I really like is its 3d display, which is absolutely breathtaking. Would it be possible to have such a display for KGS?
    • TestPlay09: I second the wishes of Tamsin. I too, would like to see a 3d client for KGS, or at least contact Pandanet and ask them to make it possible to play on KGS with their glgo. Please! >.<
      • rs220675? I agree, it's time for a 3D-board as well as more board graphics options.

. Skins

Preferences: multiple graphics options for board and stones

  • zinger: Not sure if anyone mentioned this before, but is it possible to have multiple graphics options for board and stones, and let the user choose? For all the great features of KGS and cgoban2, one thing I'm not especially fond of is the game display graphics, which is what I spend the most time looking at. This would be strictly client-side, of course, so it wouldn't burden the server code at all. Drawing new graphics shouldn't be needed - other existing sets could be imported. Perhaps ambitious users could even design their own.

Skins for the client, textures for board/stones

  • caraoke?: it would be nice if I can skin the kgs clients - ie. different textures for board/stones.

Bring back the classic style Gray board

  • Can we bring back the classic style Gray board. I miss it. --

Preferences: more graphic variations of boards and stones

  • rs220675?: How is it with more graphic variations of boards and stones. Just some type of boards and stones, e.g. old-looking, wood, modern, green, yellow etc. pp....I really like the board & stone graphics so far, but with the time it becomes boring. So my proposal is all about game fun. Would be good if one could choose between two or three graphical setups...or if one could even create owm graphic setups (one of the reasons I chose KGS was, that the graphics is far better in my opinion than e.g. at IGS (even with good clients like gGo)

. Textures

Preferences: several options for stone and board graphics; own custom (board/stone) graphics and sounds

  • Ectospheno: I'd like to see several options for stone and board graphics like SenteGoban. IMHO the graphics for that program are a tad better.

substitute our own custom (board/stone) graphics and sounds

  • Allow us to substitute our own custom (board/stone) graphics and sounds, people will then make 'sets' that anyone can download and drop in. Kill many birds with one stone.

Cosmetic request for the shell stones

  • holosys: a cosmetic request for the shell stones - would it be possible to have stones which display a plain surface now and again, instead of every single stone displaying a random grain pattern? I guess it would need to be a plain stone 50% of the time and a random grain pattern the other 50%. Just a nice to have, not a must have :-)

. Colors

Game window: clock colour

  • timer font: yellow on black; red is barely readable. +
    • This may seem a little thing, but it bothers me every game! Please change font color, or make it choseable. (Drunken)
    • + I would make the colour customizable though.

Clock and result written in red on black background - better: customizable

  • The clock and the result of a game written in red on black background is hard to see. The contrast is too low. Possible improvement = white on black. twintom?
    • I agree. This red on black is too hard to see, and should be changed. The older I get, the worse this problem seems to get. Low priority suggestion: Allow users to choose colors for foreground and background for different text containers. Marathon

Change color of time display (red/black hard to see with visual impairment)

  • kirkmc? I would like to see the time display a different color. I don't have very good eyesight, and red on black is about the hardest thing to see. I've made mistakes seeing, say, 3s as 8s when looking at the time. Can you change it to yellow or green, which are much easier to see, or change the background from black; or make the clock color a user preference? +

Ability to change all colours of the interface

  • bucko: Ability to change all colours of the interface. I use white on black for various reasons (it's easier to read, easier on the eyes, ...) and cgoban is the only application on my system which I am unable to configure to use this theme. Specifying -Dswing.defaultlaf=com.sun.java.swing.plaf.gtk.GTKLookAndFeel? as recommended at [ext] http://java.sun.com/docs/books/tutorial/uiswing/lookandfeel/plaf.html appeared to be completely ignored. I rather expect that with the range of colours used by cgoban, I'd end up with a lot of white-on-white even if I did.

. Sounds

Preferences: different sounds, more preferences

  • There has been some discussion concerning the sounds recently. Some people don't like the sounds, but don't want to mute them. They would prefer to have different sounds. In some discussions, there was some talk of hacking into the JAR file to find the offending sound resource, and replacing it with a more preferred one. I suggest that more preferences be made available in the client. The user would have options for each specific sound: disable, select from some "built in" sounds, or allow the user to specify another sound resource on his/her computer. (This last wouldn't work in the applet version.) -- Marathon, 7 Nov. 2009.

. Layout

Window resize events manage the window layout irritating

  • axd: The layout of the different CGoban windows is poor. I find the way window resize events manage the window layout irritating. Use a separate window for the goban, controls (keep on top) and chat/comment pane, generalize the use of docking, all to make more efficient use of the screen (an indication of inefficiency is the amount of visible green background!).
    • epilogue: if you don't want to introduce modularity, as suggested by axd, then please consider allowing user to resize the dimensions of both the chat space, game controls, and observers list.

Game window: ability to adjust the layout

  • Pugwash: Small point on layout of games window. It would be useful to be able to adjust the layout. The clock is on the wrong side for me (left-eyed!), and I lose track of the game time easily as a result.

Game: Possibility to hide the chat window

  • I want to be able to disappear the chat window. Sometimes opponents are chatty and I don't want to talk and their talk appearing, is distracting. Worse, I had 2 cases, where opponents were unhappy with me taking "too much" time (I had plenty of time on the clock), and they were just constantly sending voluminous garbage, to urge me to move already! -- Mark Galeck, April 23, 2010

Remove sidebar like in IGS client

  • xipe?: Remove sidebar like in IGS client. It takes way too much space

Rooms: ajustment for pane sizes

  • Grindel: An ajustment for pane sizes is needed. If you break a tab out to another pane, both panes take up half the window area. I would like a virticle size control to make the bottom pane smaller or larger, much like the control between the chat window and game list.

Preferences: save the sizes & positions of play windows and observation windows separately

  • davidg: CGoban 3 should save the sizes & positions of play windows and observation windows separately. Playing and observing have different requirements. I often observe several games simultaneously, so I reduce the windows to fit several on the screen. But I only play one game at a time, and I want a single large window. Maximizing the window isn't sufficient; I don't always want a fullscreen view.

Panels: flexible panels, collapsable kibitz window, move around panels

  • flexible panels would be such a big improvement, collapsable kibitz window and move around panels would really help a lot.

Not yet sorted

When disconnecting, CGoban inactivates scrollbars and buttons

  • When disconnecting from the Go server, CGoban inactivates all the scrollbars and buttons. It seems to be better if all these can still function. For example if someone has not yet saved his game and a lot more, those are need buttons to be still active.
    Thanks Reza Fathzadeh (goalive on KGS)

All games tab, game window: difficulty finding the room of a game

  • usagi: It came up in a lecture recently, and I had the idea: the window title should read "KGS: Ing's Goe Internet Class: jujo [9p]" not just "KGS: jujo [9p]". There was someone who had difficulty in locating the room from the active games tab.
    • RueLue: The "Ongoing Games" tab shows the room of the game (v.3.4.5), but you're right: the game window could show, in which room the game is played. Imagine, you have 5 games from different rooms open and want to tell your buddy, which game the famous tesuji has. Possibly typing something like "load game 283" on a somehow hidden command line...

Function to page an admin from within games

  • Have a function to page an Admin from within games, perhaps under Options? Provide a combo box with the reason for paging the admin, and perhaps give some general advice for some of the options (like when Escaper is selected). The page admin function should also be available from the main menu bar, perhaps under Help.

Indicate which of my "resume" games are waiting for me to move

  • Please underline or otherwise indicate which of my "resume" games are waiting for me to move. Right now I have to open each one to see whether it is my move. Thanks. +

"Bar" behind the clock which is showing the left time

  • I would like to have a "bar" behind the clock which is showing the left time graphically (Enable/Disable in options). Because it's hard for me to read the clock while playing. But it would be easy to fast glance on a bar which shrinks. DrZoom?
  • The bar should be in the background of the clock, and the clock should be displayed on the clock. DrZoom?

Fan tab: no display of private games.

  • isshoni: In the Fan tab: No display of Private games. +

Fan tab: isn't highlighted, when fan game happening and I log on

  • Jenny Radcliffe: In the Fan tab: (this might possibly only occur under Linux) The Fan tab is not highlighted if there is a Fan game happening when you log on.

Review mode: when control has changed hands, let "Control: username" flash

  • In review mode, when control has changed hands, the Control:username text is highlighted with flashing red. +

Playing mode: let the taskbar tab flash, if it's my turn

  • In game mode, when the game window is not active (i.e. when the player is surfing YouTube instead of watching the game) the taskbar tab flashes. Gaim, for example, does this for new messages IIRC. -

Applet: possibility to resize font

  • floss: it would be great if users of the *applet* (browser version of cgoban) could resize font. this is an accessibility thing. thanks.

Option to show or hide the kibitz window when observing or playing

  • chrpa: Include option to show or hide the kibitz window when observing or playing the game. In my opinion the kibitz window is too large and cannot be lessen now.

Cloned game: easy "resynching"

  • blubb: Provide a way to "resynch" a cloned game, allowing to jump to the position which is currently shown in the original game, without getting astray in the tree.

Add Time - One Period

  • Ability to add time equal to one overtime period to opponant's clock, instead of just 1 minute or 5 minutes. +

Colour, maybe orange to match the webpages

  • Colour, maybe orange to match the webpages. --
    • RueLue: have they ever been orange?

"You cannot open a new game because..." based upon the type of game that you are 'playing'

  • It would be nice if the you cannot open a new game because you are already playing in one error were changed based upon the type of game that you are 'playing'. I can understand wanting to make it inconvenient to access game archives while actively playing against someone, but unless there are memory issues, if I am in a lecture or a demonstration game, it would be nice to be able to bring up games really quickly just to get a feel for a player's or reviewer's general style of play, without having to leave the main thread for very long. Similarly, it would be nice to look at the games of a challenger really quickly to determine approximate playing level, if for instance the challenger has played only against unrated opponents, or is uncertainly rated because of an all-loss record against (potentially) underrated opponents, or any combination of the two.+++

Shortcuts, unwanted help windows (v.3.4.14: still valid)

  • When the cursor is not on the line where you try to type some text, it opens a KGS Help web page. Once like this I got 7 help windows which is quite annoying. I don't think someone who didn't pay attention the cursor was not on the line needs a KGS help. - Is it possible to remove this "feature" ?+++
  • Unwanted Help Windows Often when trying to type in a KGS window the focus will be elsewhere and you will find yourself loading up a lot of help windows - my record is 8. Is there a problem with focus transfering too easily to the help key here??++++
    • Karl Knechtel: Seems this comes up again and again (also on the page about hotkeys).
    • RueLue: The reason is possibly the behaviour of the program to set the focus in a newly opened window on the help button (if it exists). So, if you observe the game for a while and then type a comment, without putting the focus into the chat entry line, every pressing the [space] key activates the help function.

Full-screen mode for playing/observing

  • dnerra: This was once suggested in a RGG thread about go server clients, and I think it would be a great idea: A full-screen mode for playing/observing a game that would make one kind of forget that one is sitting in front of a computer. Imagine just seeing the go board in front of a dark background...yeah I know, there still have to a couple of buttons and the clock somewhere, but still. To many, part of the pleasure of go is the aesthetically pleasing game equipment after all. Is this possible at all in Java? +
    • This would be great, and could work like a live screensaver- i'd definitely use this!! Perhaps something to always select the strongest games one after the other as one game finishes along with this?
    • puripuri: I support this idea wholeheartedly.
    • A fullscreen mode (resulting in a bigger board) would also benefit users with weak eyes.
    • Tapir: I support this idea. On a more wide than high laptop screen the board is rather small in the end.

Small input box to type the coordinates and set the stone with confirmation button

  • puripuri: I'm playing in KGS completely without a mouse in any case, by using the Windows numeral pad mouse (from accessability or whatever options) to move the cursor around. I'd be happy forever and after if I could just type the coordinates into a small input box to set the stone icon at that position, and then press some extra confirmation button or key to actually place the move. Cursor keys would move the stone after that?

Shortcut / hotkeys for player's info, send message (partly DONE)

  • (... shortcuts for player's info, send message)
    • (may 2004): Shortcut and hotkeys would be awesome.+
      • Ctrl+I to find info about a player.+
        • So the shortcut would open the name input box? Good!
      • Ctrl+M to send a message.+
        • Please look also on the (somehow) new KGS help page [ext] Shortcuts-FAQ
          • In the rooms window you can call the name entry box for user infos with ctrl-f (new since v.3.4.14).

Always-on-top ability

  • Always-on-top ability. I'd really love to hang around in irc and play at the same time. -Mokki
    • Rakshasa: Isn't that a window-manager's task? (Though propably only available if you are using a real OS)

Remember different window sizes for different board sizes

  • Remember different window sizes for different board sizes as it's almost scary to play 19x19 and then open a 9x9 board with the same window size. Huge!
    • Rakshasa: This is especially annoying for people like me who often play 9x9's.

New game window: selectively "fix" game options; filter guests and ~-players (game options: DONE; filter guests etc.: REJECTED)

  • (nov.2003): Ability to selectively "fix" game options so they cannot be changed by a challenger. Ability to filter out requests from guests or ~ ranked players who are weaker than you (auto-decline).+
    • wms: Sorry, but the killer here is that the game setup dialog is too complicated already. Too many things to tweak, too easy to forget one. Since pressing "decline" is easy and straightforward, I'm really reluctant to add another button and make an already-too-complicated GUI even more complicated.
      • RueLue (oct.2010): game settings can (only) be changed by the advertiser.
    • Please consider it though. This one seems like a really nice idea

New game window: button for advanced options

  • Mramahi1: Can you not add a button somewhere that shows advanced options but hides it if you do not wish to use them? That way you can add as many complicated options as you want and not confuse the normal users but still make the features available. +
    • RueLue: and automatic switch back to simple settings

Game window: who plays black/white

  • A single black/white stone icon to the left of the name, not 3 behind the name.

Game window: prisoners counter

  • Prisoners should be shown by count only, as showing black stones under white player's name makes it confusing.

Game window: Show rules in the box over the board

  • Show game rules in the box over the game board (rule set, timing style). [Time style is obvious from the clocks.]

Guess the next move feature when observing games

  • Guess the next move feature when observing games. Server can keep track of correct/incorrect guesses. Perhaps ability to see how other observers are doing. Very fun for guess the next move demonstrations. ++++

Review game: a way to make prev/next move work faster?

  • (How old...): When looking over completed games, Editing Tool must open. This causes serious delays trying to click through moves. Is this delay caused by the tool window updating? Is there a way to make prev/next work faster?

Open games should be ALL games in ALL public rooms

  • Ekted: Allowing the open-ness of a game to be set by its creator is silly. If I want to see all games, I should be able to since I can find them all by subscribing to all rooms anyways. Open games should be ALL games in ALL public rooms. Additionally, if you enable open games, then the room they are in should show in the game list. ---
    • Neil: If I open up a game in a teaching room with the intent of teaching one person or one of a few people, or even just with the intent of playing one of a few friends, there's no sense putting it on the global list.
    • Ekted: If I have that teaching room open I can see your game, so I should be able to see that game in my "open games" window whether you want me to or not. Do not create situations where users are fighting over what one wants to show and what one wants to see when the information is public anyways.
    • Neil: If it's a private room the game offer won't be visible to you, and if it's a private game there's no point in you seeing the offer. How can two users fight over whether one user's game offer is visible in Open Games or not, by the way?
      • Ekted: My point is from the context of design. You can make a feature, then add an option for others to disable it, then add another option for others to override that, etc etc. Ultimately it's best if a user can see what he wants to see. If I can go to the French room and see all French games, then I should be able to see them in the open games list. Also, if I don't want to see the open games list at all, I should be able to turn it off.
      • Neil: What good is it to have the server show you games offered by people who don't want to play you? If you're not in the room the person is offering the game in, clearly the person does not want to play you, so there's no point in cluttering your list with the game or wasting the person's time by making him decline you. Information is not valuable in itself. The server should only tell you games that are relevant to you.
    • wms: The main reason that users can choose that their game not appear on the main list is because I have been told that some users only want to play with people they can talk to. If they make a game in the French room, it's pretty unlikely that a non-French speaker will see the game and start playing. It's not meant to hide information that somebody wants to see, it's just meant to make it more likely that a player gets the game that they want. As for private rooms & games, these never appear on the open game list, even if the user leaves the "open list" box checked.
      • Ekted: Allowing users to filter game challenges by rank/time is way more important than based on room.

Cloning a game is incredibly slow

  • Ekted: Cloning a game you are watching is incredibly slow. It appears that the tools window is force-updated as each single move is received. It sometimes takes 60 seconds to get the whole game. An entire game is only a few K. This should take much less than 1 second to transmit.

Interrupted games: make it easier to resume (DONE?)

  • blubb: Make it easier to resume games.
    1. Make an unfinished game appear in black font whenever both players are online, regardless if both players are in the associated room. If necessary, enter or even recreate the room on resume request.
    2. For easier detecting of opportunities, let the "resume" button font be black only if any of the unfinished games is black.
    • (Sebastian:) I'd like to go even further. Ideally, as soon as both players are logged in, they would get automatic messages or a challenge.
      Details: If none of the players are currently in a game, create the challenge. If A is already playing, delay the message for him till he is done (according to the wish "Improve Talk To - part 2") and give B a message like: "A is currently playing. Click here to observe the game while you're waiting". (related: [1301])
    • blubb: Actually, I wouldn't like players to be forced to continue the interrupted game. Maybe they could be forbidden to play new games for a while after rejecting a certain number of different game resume request, but they should still be able to chat. Anyway, my point is about the resume button design. I guess that's a rather minor change in terms of coding effort.

Displaying a saved game (.sgf): file name in the title bar (v.3.4.14: still valid)

  • When displaying a saved game (a .sgf file), I would like to see the file name displayed in the title bar. I have many saved games and, when I open a game for review, I don't always remember which file I opened. ++

User info, pictures: add some simple form of smoothing

  • Rakshasa: My picture is a png file with sharp edges, when it is resized in the game window it has some artifacts due to aliasing. Would it be too much work add some simple form of smoothing?+
    • Why not resize it yourself?

Game window: show webcam

  • Ability to show Webcam windows for users who have webcams so that we can see each other while they play +

Demo, lesson: have people see where the teacher's mouse is

  • wms: Got an email suggestion to be able to have people see where the teacher's mouse is during reviews/demonstrations, so the teacher can just say "over here..." and point, without having to put down marks.
    • RussellKhan: I don't think I like that idea, since the information would be lost in reviewing the SGF at later times.
      • axd: No need to record mouse positions; the proposed feature has a very good additional didactive value, especially now this voice capability has been introduced. And the teacher can always insert symbols if essential positions should be remembered in the SGF. (Actually the voice capability risks to dramatically reduce the amount of precious post-game analysis comments currently stored in an SGF!!)
    • tapir: I take group lessons from Guo Juan and the mouse icon hovering around is just a distraction imo.

Replay mode: time, spent for the move, could be displayed and control replay speed

  • axd: replay mode: because the move time info is available: not only the time, but also the time spent for the move could be displayed (between brackets?), as an indication how long the player thought about the move (forgetting about net lag etc); additionnally, [very insignificant feature, probably too much programming effort for what it's worth:] a switch allows the replay to take the real time spent instead of playing at a constant speed. (see also [ext] http://senseis.xmp.net/?diff=HowToRecordAGame&new=12)

Game: sound for captures

  • axd: Emit a very short click (far shorter than the stone played sound) for each prisoner taken. This may ... sound stupid, but if one is not fully watching the goban (as (s)he is supposed to be doing), it might sometimes be difficult to realise prisoners have been captured, and how much (no intention to know the exact number of prisoners, only an indication of magnitude). I would think of this typical ricketing sound made by beads on a string.+-

Editor: sound when navigating through the game tree

  • axd: also provide an option to have a discrete click sound when navigating through the game tree: sometimes it is difficult to follow when a teacher advances fast, the eye cannot follow the moves; sound also gives an indication of the speed at which the game tree is traversed.

GMT in the menubar (DONE?)

  • DnF: Show GMT time in the menubar (and maybe local time too). This would make it easier to communicate.+
    • Barthoze : I concur with this feature, it would be much easier to plan game and teaching, ideal when players aren't in the same timezone.
    • blubb: Seconded - having a utc clock built into CGoban is a rather frequently made suggestion in public discussions at kgs.
      • RueLue: Since some time, KGS allows to use a GMT-time tag in messages, infos and chat: <gmt>2008-01-23 08:00</gmt> displays in the readers local time. Is this enough?

Login screen: focus in the password field

  • Chris Hayashida: Can the focus on the login screen be set to the password field if the client remembers the login name? Similarly, it would be good if the keyboard focus changed to the chat line when you clicked on a room tab, so you could start typing immediately.

Game info: show/link players rating (and user info?)

  • starline: Include the players rating (+ hyperlink to rating graph?) in 'rules/game information box'. Also, hyperlink the players name in that box to the players user info.

Simul game, observe: tabbed window (for all observed games?)

  • Mef: I didn't see this anywhere else, so I apologize if it's a repeat - With Simul games there's a nice tabbed UI for the person playing them, but if you want to spectate them you have to open up quite a few separate windows, perhaps a similar window could be made for the spectators so they could view all of the games in a simul?
    • Hu: Excellent suggestion, Mef. How about having that as a general option so that several unrelated games can be followed in that way. Would be useful for watching several slow tournament games at the same time, for example.

Less pop up dialogs

  • Ansgar?: Get rid of most of the popup dialogs. When I am observing a game and browsing at the same time, the result dialog is really disturbing. Same goes for the dialog when the teacher leaves a game review. +?+?+
    • seiryu? most popups are useless so please remove these
    • Karl Knechtel: Especially remove the popup with timer and loud bell for automatch games. It is unbelievably annoying. The intent, presumably, is to ensure that both players are ready; it makes more sense to offer each player a modal dialog box with a simple chime (same as the default "game accepted"/"error"/"pass" noise) and start the game once both players have hit OK.

Games, observe: sound only in the window with focus

  • savra?: There should be a option to have sound in all games, but only in the window which has the focus.

Observe game: add variations (without cloning); kibitzed variation hyperlinked for showing up as variation

  • Stormer: Ok this is asking a lot but Id like two related things to happen.
    1. Part one would be the ability to add variations to a game that you are spectating (without cloning the game in another room)
    2. Then part 2 is the cool part. the ability to kibitz a variation and have it show up in the chat log as some sort of hyperlinked text. A person could click the variation and it could be "added" as a variation to their copy of the game. I know its always a pain to get dans to comment on a game, but I think this all stems from the difficulty in typing out some very long sequences. If its easier for them to comment they might do it more. ^^ Also this might have some benefit to teaching games, allowing the students to ask a question and communicate a variation without the teacher having to momentarily "give them control" +-+
    • Karl Knechtel: Cost/benefit ratio sounds insanely high to me.
    • RueLue: Ctrl-click already sends the coordinates to the chat line (10/2010), but the rest is a good idea.

Game window, editor: turn off the option to mark the last played move

  • playm8?: I have a small request that can probably also be solved by implementing zinger's request. When playing a game it might be nice if you can turn off the option to mark the last played move. This makes it easier to view the board as is and not give the last played move some special value/meaning.

Play on PDA(PocketPC, zaurus, palm..)

  • char: I hope play on PDA(PocketPC, zaurus, palm..). It's not use Java Swing class. Many PDA can not run Java1.3 (J2SDK) and display size is small (max VGA:640x480). So infomation area for PDA version is tabbed like opengame, activegame for size reduce and use J2ME or not use Java Swing.
    • RueLue, oct.2010: partly this seems to meet the actual development status of CGoban for Android, but the last notice from wms, concerning other mobiles, rejected versions for other devices.

Game window: cursor focus in the text input line as default

  • lighthand?: can the cursor always normal and come back to the typing bar? Be there already for chat. Come back if u hit undo also?

Game, observing: make the mouse wheel behave like prev/next move button

  • Ansgar?: When watching or editing a game, make the mouse wheel behave like prev/next move button if used over the board.

Toggle "show next move" like in IGS client.

  • xipe?: Allow to toggle "show next move" like in IGS client. This helps greatly when replaying games

Observing: history access through goban

  • There's a nice feature in UI another user taught me: when you shift click the left button on the goban, you navigate through history. This works either in past or future, and is really easier to use than the tree view. However, when you click in the future, you must do it blindly: for sure the stone is not here at the time. Besides, when you click in the past, you're also a little bit blind, as you're missing the sequence order information that you've got in the tree view. So what do you think of the following behavior?
    • When you press down the shift key, then the goban displays the future stones slightly transparent and superimposes the stones number on all stones.
    • If you release the shift key, everything goes back to normal.
    • If you left click a stone, then you go the history where the stone was or will be played, which is the current behavior.
  • It would also be interesting to see where variations are located, maybe by rounding the key stones with a round circle. When you're on a key stone, i.e. one for which a variation exists, the other variations are also displayed when shift key is down (green cross for example, I've seen this in jago), and you can click on them also to select the variation. -- Hulahup?, 10 nov. 2008.

Preferences: "no avatars" check box

  • One user seems to be a bit sensitive to certain avatars. I wonder if there might be others? I suggest adding a "no avatars" check box in preferences. When this is checked, either avatars would not be shown, or they would appear as a gray rectangle. -- UnclMartin, 19 Feb. 2010.

Accessibility

Mouse

Game: Mouse anti-slip system during time stress

  • Bass 2010-03-06: Mouse anti-slip system should not prevent a move in the final (two?) seconds of thinking time. During those seconds the choice is between a possible misclick and instant death.
  • Dogbert 2014-08-31: Mouse anti-slip system should not delay a move in the final 2 minutes of thinking time if Canadian Setting was used. During this time misclick would be preferred than losing on Time.

Game list: delayed update for semi-active item

  • When the mouse cursor is hovering over an item in the game list, reordering that specific item when the list is otherwise updated should be delayed until the user either:
    1. Clicks on the item (to observe a game or respond to a new game proposal)
    2. Moves the cursor over another item
    3. The item disappears (at which point the line should stay empty to make clear this happened)
  • At the moment the list is being updated and reordered as fast as possible, and in a big and active room this results in frequent misclicks on the wrong game or challenge when an item happens to move away or disappears from under the mouse cursor at the wrong moment.

KGS Wishlist / General UI last edited by 2.86.206.211 on June 14, 2023 - 21:55
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