UI Bug Report: Use of Stars for NPC ratings - Improvement coming.

[Tennyson]

The way the UI uses partially filled stars creates an accessibility problem for low-vision users like myself. For example, is it hard to tell whether a pilot has reached 3 stars, or they are just close to being 3-stars.

I believe the easiest solution is to put a parenthetical numeric value after the star, for example: (2.9). This will satisfy the accessibility best practice for backing up purely symbolic information with text.

Failing that, I would suggest that partially filled stars be a different size or shape from filled stars.

[CBJ]

I've moved this out of Tech Support, as it's more of a feature request rather than a bug report as such, but I've also made a note of it for our accessibility group.

A question for you: given that space limitations may make it tricky to add a number in parentheses, would a tooltip for the star also work for you?

[A5PECT]

Would the tooltips work in every instance of rank display, though? e.g. missions breifings that have rank requirements, the HUD window that appears when targeting an npc in platform mode, etc.

Personally, I'd prefer if all instances of personnel rank being displayed were converted to simple text.

[Katorone]

In practice, I don't really care how much a star has filled. I really only need to know how many filled stars someone has when looking for suitable personnel for specific functions/jobs. This is where I'm running into the visibility aspect, I can't distinguish if someone has 1.9 or 2 stars, due to the few black pixels between the yellow star border and the yellow fill. Any solution that would make it easier to distinguish filled stars from partial ones would work for me. For instance, filling a partial star with a different color, or changing the color of the border depending on fill level.

A question for you: given that space limitations may make it tricky to add a number in parentheses, would a tooltip for the star also work for you?

A tooltip would be a good solution, specially in the Personnel Management screen. I'd also like to add that with UI scale 1.5 the stars are fine for me (personally), so when I'm doing a lot of people managing, I just change it temporarily from 1.0.

[user1679]

For instance, filling a partial star with a different color, or changing the color of the border depending on fill level.

What about not having any border except for the filled portion?



(artist rendition )

[Katorone]

What about not having any border except for the filled portion?

This looks great, thank you for taking the time! I'm only a bit worried about the visibility of the 3rd star. The background in-game is dark, and yellow is a bright color as is. So the border would need to contrast enough with both colors to make its absence stand out.

[user1679]

What about not having any border except for the filled portion?

This looks great, thank you for taking the time! I'm only a bit worried about the visibility of the 3rd star. The background in-game is dark, and yellow is a bright color as is. So the border would need to contrast enough with both colors to make its absence stand out.

Something like this but I think it needs even more contrast

[Katorone]

Something like this but I think it needs even more contrast

Fully zoomed out, this is still very visible/recognizable to me. Great job! I think the border is less important than I assumed, when it's not shown.

By not showing empty stars, it's immediately clear how many full stars a pilot has as well.

[linolafett]

We have changed the stars texture now.
They still have the outline. Otherwise it will look weird, if you have no indication, that there are stars at all, but this outline is now much darker, increasing the readability a lot.
Please have a look in the next beta.

[flywlyx]

We have changed the stars texture now.
They still have the outline. Otherwise it will look weird, if you have no indication, that there are stars at all, but this outline is now much darker, increasing the readability a lot.
Please have a look in the next beta.

Is it possible changing to this shape? It is still a five-point star and provides decent readability.

[CBJ]

No, because that wouldn't actually give the necessary information. Each star has 3 states, not 5, for a total of 16 states (yes, I know that doesn't sound like it adds up, but it actually does - count 'em!).

[flywlyx]

No, because that wouldn't actually give the necessary information. Each star has 3 states, not 5, for a total of 16 states (yes, I know that doesn't sound like it adds up, but it actually does - count 'em!).

Ah right, I totally forget it.
Then jump the 2,4 it becomes:

or

or

And since it only has 3 states, why not have 3 point star? The lesser the details, the better the recognizability.

[Raptor34]

Does knowing how much of a star is filled matters? Reading the OP and going by what's demanded in game, it seems that what actually matters is whether it reaches the next integer or not.
Like I don't care if it's 2.3, 2.6 or 2.9, what I care is that it hasn't reached 3.0.
Though now that I think of it, wouldn't an easy way be to make filled stars have a different color? Then it's obvious whether I've reached the next breakpoint or not.

[SirConnery]

And since it only has 3 states, why not have 3 point star? The lesser the details, the better the recognizability.

Man that actually looks better than the current stars. Somehow more unique and military like.

[linolafett]

Star shape was not changed.
It looks like this:

[jlehtone]

Do I see correctly?
Hurilis Wegoras Tertasobas X has 1.7 in Piloting and 0.3 in Management and Morale?
Zuzuamis has 3.3 in Piloting?
All others skills are "full stars".

[flywlyx]

Do I see correctly?
Hurilis Wegoras Tertasobas X has 1.7 in Piloting and 0.3 in Management and Morale?
Zuzuamis has 3.3 in Piloting?
All others skills are "full stars".

Each full star represents 3 skill points, so 5 star= 15 points
So 0.3 is 1, 1.7 is 5, 3.3 is 10

[Katorone]

Star shape was not changed.
It looks like this:

01.jpg
02.jpg

This looks great. Will check and provide feedback with the next beta. Thank you for your effort!

[linolafett]

And improved the readability a bit more.

[Raptor34]

And improved the readability a bit more.
01.JPG
02.JPG

Have you considered just changing the color of filled stars? I don't think knowing what percentage of a star is filled is helpful, but knowing how many full stars you have is.