Author Topic: Previews: New UI and layout (Read 11991 times)

Sami · « **on:** January 09, 2013, 11:05:26 AM »

AirwaySim's site layout and user interface have been under updgrade for a longer period of time now. The project is now on the "final approach" stages and we're happy to post some previews of the work in progress. There is no ETA for the updates and changes yet.

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Sami · « **Reply #1 on:** January 22, 2013, 09:01:39 PM »

Oh, I think this is time for a tiny preview again

(no ETA, a lot of work to be done still)

Sami · « **Reply #2 on:** February 19, 2013, 10:04:18 PM »

A bit more previews of work in progress.

Sami · « **Reply #3 on:** February 20, 2013, 04:49:03 PM »

The upgraded layout will be also "mobile smart". This is a rather large fundamental change on the site and UI design.

In other words there will no longer be a separate mobile theme but instead the whole layout automatically scales according to the device in use (html5/css3).

Work is also in progress to find mobile compatible solutions to the various pop-up windows that are currently in use (which have usability issues with mobile browsers).

Sami · « **Reply #4 on:** February 21, 2013, 08:57:58 PM »

Today's agenda has been rework of the stats page etc...

(Technically and featurewise the same as the current one)

Sami · « **Reply #5 on:** March 06, 2013, 10:46:19 AM »

The new and updated UI will also include some new features, some of them listed here:

* Dashboard / Airline Industry News section will be removed. All news will be browsable from the Dashboard.

* Rebrand/Rebase functionality will be removed. Airline renaming will be possible via Settings page in the future, rebasing feature will be removed as it's rather useless.

* Aircraft / Global Statistics and Aircraft / Production Lists pages will have search and filtering possibilities (ie. narrow down to certain fleet etc).

* As posted before, the whole mobile theme will be discarded. The new layout will automatically scale according to the device in use making the usability better for mobile users too. In initial stages the aim is to make the site fully usable with tablet devices (eg. iPad) as well as desktop devices.

* Mobile users will also see the 'mouseover tooltips', and will also see the navigation dropdown menus in the same style as desktop users.

* Routes / Route Image page has now the data split into pages (50 items per page) and the data is also searchable (filters).

(this list will be updated as work progresses; the UI/layout update is a tad slow process as each sub page and action page has to be edited separately)

Sami · « **Reply #6 on:** March 28, 2013, 02:18:18 PM »

As mentioned, the relocation/rebranding page will be removed.

You will still have the option to rebrand your airline though, but it will a) be available at any time, b) not cost any virtual airline money or cause image loss. But the rebranding now costs 1 Credit each time you do it (free rebranding if your name has been flagged inappropriate by admin, as it is currently too).

(Relocation will be only possible through bankruptcy)

Sami · « **Reply #7 on:** March 29, 2013, 11:59:09 AM »

New layout will also include some more staff adjustment tools.

Sami · « **Reply #8 on:** March 29, 2013, 05:22:05 PM »

Income statement page will look like this ... (chart expanded here)

No new features but technically updated, as well as visually.

ETA for the new UI and layout is hopefully in April. There is a lot to do, as each page and sub-page has to be checked and edited manually. The general sections of the site have been finished for a while now and I am working now on the game area sub-pages one by one.

Sami · « **Reply #9 on:** March 29, 2013, 11:14:26 PM »

And a bit of work on Aircraft and Office area front pages too for tonight...

As mentioned before, the new layout will be "mobile smart", and here you can see screen captures (part of the screen only) of the Aircraft area front page. Pic #1 shows the desktop layout and pic #2 mobile layout. The layout scales automatically according to screen size.

For the first version of the new layout the main functions and pages will be tested and will work on small (mobile) screens, but it will not be fully complete and when it's eventually released your feedback is appreciated on the troublespots.

Sami · « **Reply #10 on:** March 30, 2013, 12:56:44 PM »

Aircraft production lists and global statistics pages displayed here ...

As you can see these pages have now search and filtering options too.

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Sami · « **Reply #11 on:** March 30, 2013, 08:33:27 PM »

Routes area main page preview.

New feature included; sales and expenses graph now shows also the numerical values for previous week's and one week's before data (ticket income, fuel costs and all expenses combined). This allows you to spot trends more easily than just looking at the chart. (and before you ask, this revenue/expenses data is not available for each travel class only combined data for each route)

(and just noticed that the trend arrows in the pic are showing the wrong way for expenses, it's fixed, no need to notify me .. :P )

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Sami · « **Reply #12 on:** March 30, 2013, 08:53:32 PM »

And messages page has, by the way, some minor new features too with the new UI.

Reading a message is faster as it opens now directly to the same window (no full page loading needed), as shown in the picture. The main toolbar's unread message count also updates automatically without a page reload when ever you click open a message here.

There's also the possibility to check multiple messages at once and either delete them, mark as read or mark as unread (two latter are new features for the multi-use).

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Sami · « **Reply #13 on:** March 31, 2013, 04:31:57 PM »

Routes section is under work today ...

Mainly still the same as before, the airport selection screen has one new feature with better page navigation of the results (pic #2). The "passenger amount" metric is also removed from the search results, but the default sort order of the results is still based on the airport pax count (users can sort the results still like currently).

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Sami · « **Reply #14 on:** March 31, 2013, 10:59:08 PM »

One new feature worth previewing also (user request). Route opening screen (airport listing) shows now an icon of destinations you operate into.

As seen in next screenshot, there's the small airplane icon next to CDG and LGW airports - it means that your airline has routes from the selected base to these airports (the yellow background on CDG means that it's your other base).

Do note that the icon only indicates if you have some or none routes (= 1 route or more - icon is shown). It does not take ANY position on seat demand and supply, and it does not check any market share or demand figures (and while these could be technically added, they won't be added as the route research is one key playing element). So in other words the icon is just a small helper...

Mouseover hover brings up the explanation balloon.. (the tooltip balloons are also all-new and html5/css3 powered by the way)

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Sami · « **Reply #15 on:** April 19, 2013, 11:23:18 AM »

Route editor page is under works at the moment, one new feature has been added - this is the possibility to open route without buying the slots.

This feature may become handy if you wish to pre-plan your routes, and you cannot spend money on the slots, or there are no slots yet, or the aircraft will arrive so late to you that you would otherwise loose the slots if you opened the route already. In other words, use the checkbox to create the route without any slots and then use the route edit function later to buy the slots for this route.

Naturally route is not flown at all before all sectors have slots.

Sami · « **Reply #16 on:** April 20, 2013, 10:44:19 AM »

Route editor updates are finished.

- Visual update with some items reorganized (only minor).

- New feature of slot purchase (see previous post).

- New quick price adjustment features (see screencap).

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Sami · « **Reply #17 on:** April 21, 2013, 07:33:35 PM »

Just a small note on the tooltip popups, they are enabled and working on mobile browsers too on the new layout.

With desktop users you can get the tooltip by hovering mouse over the field (icon/link/etc) but in mobile browsers you can get the same by clicking the link. Clicking it again will remove the tooltip.

Similar click function is added to the main menu's dropdown submenus for mobile browsers. So these additional functions are now pretty same as for desktop users.

Sami · « **Reply #18 on:** April 22, 2013, 11:36:45 AM »

Route planning page's airport search/selection interface will be the same as route open page's.

Both pages will now also filter the search results so that any unflyable routes (for airport being too close) are automatically filtered out from the list. So all results you see should be flyable.

Sami · « **Reply #19 on:** April 23, 2013, 06:46:58 PM »

Route planning data page is finished too.

- The page is recoded from the top since the current page was a bit messy due to conversion of the demand systems in v.1.3.

- Items reorganized partly and graphs made bigger etc.

- A new minor feature, graph of passenger types, is added (this is to be used better with future demand models where we may have different passenger types, ie. leisure and business pax etc).

- Popup page of this route planning data page does not include route map or market share items for faster page loading.

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