It could be better.
Problem 1: The structure thumbnail takes up 50% of the space
Problem 2: The description takes up 50% of the space
Problem 3: I have this at 75% zoom. The page should resize so that this is a single page. At regular zoom levels for my laptop this requires scrolling around.
Problem 4: Puzzle info is displayed in a very sterile way, and honestly should be a bit larger
To use Mario Maker 2 as an example of how this can be enhanced.
All of the information from the initial card is seen here, with some new additions.
- The player can now see a short author description of the course. Eterna could probably benefit by placing a much smaller character limit on the puzzle descriptions we have.
- The player can now see the world record and the clear rate of the puzzle. These are both very important pieces of information. Why? First, the world record provides information on the fastest clear time. If it takes the fastest clear only 12 seconds to finish, then that tells the player that it is a short course. If the clear rate is 0.01% though, that means that it may take the player between 12 seconds and an infinite amount of grinding time to finish the course. Eterna has no way for players to gauge time commitment for puzzles, and I consider this to be an important detail that should be worked on.
- If players want to see more details or comments, those are readily accessible as new menu items.
While I am sure most would disagree because puzzles have become a method for the writing and inclusion of novel, having a character limited description would probably not be a bad idea. Same thing with puzzle titles.
Ideas for ways to improve the puzzle description include:
- Everything should be a part of the same color defined space. Right now both the title and puzzle info are on parts of the screen that are not the same color as the description and thumbnail. It kind of looks off because of the way everything is colored.
- There should be buttons for âBeam to Puzzlemakerâ and âPlayâ, that way the player doesnât have to necessarily go into the puzzle, and then beam to puzzlemaker (given that is a method a lot of players use)
- The ability to go navigate back to the search results you were previously on. Right now, without using the built in âbackâ button of the browser, there is no way to navigate to where you were previously in the puzzle list.
- Make the description and comments an expanding field. Ideally impose a character limit for future puzzlemaker made puzzles.
- Include information about the Puzzle Creator , including username, profile, and some kind of rank information. Maybe even add options for nationality in the future?
- Begin posting the time to clear and the clear rate for puzzles. Better organize and consolidate this information somewhere that it can be accessed (total time a player is in puzzlemaker and the puzzle from these options? Maybe even start having this be cached locally for the player so that it doesnât necessarily have to be server side information)
- Make buttons and other elements of interaction much larger and easier to read/understand what they are.
- Make these pages load in such a way that they donât require scrolling or manipulation of the page. Difficult to achieve, of course, but this is how it will work on mobile presumably.
- Have a more info tab (like the Mario Maker example). This should have things like the number of players/names of players who have cleared the puzzle. This should include the clear time for the creator. This should include the number/names of players who have opened the puzzle. We should also include the name of the player who first cleared the puzzle as well, as well as the names of players if there was ever a way to incorporate some kind of records system.
Ultimately this page has a lot of room for improvement.
