![]() ![]() ![]() The design I do want to get into concerns itself more with the layout and interaction considerations that come up. This is much more economical as I can reuse a lot of their hard work, and it also just makes sense to make it feel similar to the base game so it fits in properly. In this piece, I do not want to go over the design in terms of how it looks visually I pretty much ape what Wube uses for its own interfaces, only deviating in some minor ways. The word design has several different meanings depending on context. Not something you’d bang out on a Sunday afternoon, that’s for sure.īefore we get into the nitty-gritty, I want to discuss some terminology. A complicating factor is that the task was a lot of work, needing a complete rethinking of the interface and a rewrite of thousands of lines of complicated code. ![]() Everything is a trade-off (especially in design, as we’ll see very soon!), and only a few months ago did this redesign become worth it to me. This basic logic remained true for a long time there was always something else that needed improving first. What’s my excuse then for not just updating to the new visual standard before release? Well, I needed to prioritise what I wanted to spend my time on and adding support for missing must-have features (such as modules and beacons) was more important than updating the interface. The eagle-eyed among you might have noticed that the first released version of the mod was for Factorio 0.17, not 0.16. Nevertheless, I made do with what I had, and in my opinion the interface came out pretty well from a useability perspective, even if it wasn’t much of a treat visually. This means it was designed at a time when Factorio UIs looked quite different, and the toolbox offered to modders was far more limited than it is today. Now why does the old version look so bland? The main reason is that its design dates from the time of Factorio 0.16, which is notably from before the interface design revolution of 0.17. First, I’ll give you a bit of an overview so you can get a feel for the mod. So, let’s have a look at it then, shall we? The left-hand side of these comparisons shows the current version, while the right-hand side is the new and fancy version. You also don’t need to be a designer to follow this (I’m not) good design should be obvious to anyone when they see it. I’ll talk about my approach to design in general, which should apply to other situations the mod will just be the lens through which I focus these thoughts. If you’re not familiar with the mod, that’s no problem. I’ll focus on the most interesting parts of the main interface as that’s the most complex part of the redesign and needed the most thought and planning put into it. I’ve been working on a big redesign of the Factory Planner mod over the past few months and I thought it would be interesting to share some of the design considerations that went into it. Dr_Doof also shares a cosy little Christmas event with us, organised by the Red Circuit crew. ![]()
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