Is anyone else repeatedly confused by the root menu name “Resources”?
I can never seem to nav instantly to puzzles or labs with the current menu names.
If it is the case that Resources is the primary portal for player puzzle and lab access, it should have a more descriptive name, so users can find these core features / gameplay.
Also, since the “Home” menu name links to the roadmap, possible titles for renaming Home / Resources could be as follows:
My Roadmap / Puzzles & Labs
Play! / My RNA Lab
… or other suggested combos?
Please feel free to suggest other names, vote for a name you like, or defend why Resources is a good title!
For my own part, I feel lost anew every time I try to nav this menu, and I realized that for me, it is the choice of words in the menu.
I agree.
The resource menu is Profile, Challenges, Player Puzzles, Eterna Scripts, Lab Archive and Data Browser.
Profile seems out of place. I’m not sure where it should be.
Challenges should read “Challenge Puzzles”.
There is a wiki page for puzzles, but it has not been updated since 2013 so, Challenge Puzzles and Player Puzzles should have an intro page to explain what the new player will see when entering that page.
Etarna Scripts needs more than just an intro page. There should be a progression process for scripts just like the progression process for puzzles.
Lab Archive brings you to pages of past (closed) labs. The first page is a project page and may be a puzzle page also if there are no sub labs. As we have learned here, the Review Results button may not be a good choice for new players because of the slowness of the software. Selecting a sub lab from it’s page will bring the player to the new data browser if it has been entered to the data base.
Data Browser is the best choice to see completed Lab Rounds. You can see much more columns of data there than in the archive area.
When a lab becomes active, it will appear in the top middle of my home page, not in a menu.
The Home button may bring up a different looking page for each player if they are at a different stage of progression in the “achievements” made in perhaps the Progression List.
If I were new to the game, I would like to have Puzzle Progression, Challenge Puzzles and Player Puzzles as high level choices to select and learn from.
So, yes, I do find it confusing but, I still can’t come up with a name to replace Resources without splitting some of the categories up.
Thank you very much for your thoughtful reply. You clarify something I felt but did not take the time to sort out myself, which is the complexity of the menu organization, and finding header titles that correctly represent the child content.
It may be the case that a reorg is necessary to get better header titles. This will require some time to consider, but I believe that if we come up with a better organization and title suggestion, this is not too hard of a change to implement, and could result in much better nav and participation by new users especially.
With dev time being limited, I am in no rush to push this through, but I will keep it in my mind, and time permitting will analyze whether any other configuration and naming of menu options would be better. And anyone who has input is welcome to post it here, for such time as we get consensus on any possible improvement.