Speedometerhud Improvements

Discussion in 'Creators Club' started by Rudolf, Oct 8, 2020.

  1. Rudolf

    Rudolf Well-Known Member

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    I am not a UI designer, but occasionally I have worked in close co-operation with UI designers. Though, from a functional perspective the new Speedometer HUD is a big improvement (if all bugs in coupling it with the engines are fixed), but as a user interface element I think it suffers from intentions to make it beautiful, instead of making sure it does not distract from the driving task and is well readable. Here are my suggestions for a better HUD. We have seen yesterday an improved accelerometer from the community, which is not perfect but a from a functional point of view we now have something that actually works.



    SpeedometerHUD improvements.png


    Let me talk you through the various suggestions.

    The font used to indicate the settings is a so called seven-segment LED font. It was developed in a time that LEDs were very expensive, so it is a technically minimal design. It gives a technical look, but it is far outdated and readability is poor. This should be replaced all over the HUD by a better readable font.

    For the brake settings, the outer circles do not add anything to readability of the HUD. Therefore they are distracting and should be removed. You may argue this also holds for the full circles, but this is a less clear need.
    The -100% brake value setting is not correct if you want to say the train brake is running/released. This should be corrected.
    The allowed track speed is indicated with a circle. A rectangle over the big speedometer circle is a more clear solution. This also is a beautifier that is distracting and makes it more difficult to see the actual speed limit.
    At the speedometer the numbers are chosen in accordance to the scale, which is loco dependent. Sometimes this leads to weird scales. In most countries speed limits are multiples of 10 and sometimes 20. It would be helpful to make the numbers at the scale match at least some speed limits.
    The throttle position is now placed a bit higher than the digital speed limit and reverser setting. I would suggest to place them at the same line. You may notice the arrows at the throttle, indicating if you can still increase/decrease the value. I thought this might be a nice addition. In practice, I never use it. This is a candidate for a poll to see if it can be removed without upsetting community members. If some people really like it, it should remain.

    My last comment, the brake output settings have a little arrow indicating the value. This is rather useless, so I think they can be removed. It may be useful to have an indication instead showing if the brakes are fully released. The green circles can be removed as well (while writing it, they may show the brake state, I never realised that and will see if this has any function).
     
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  2. FD1003

    FD1003 Well-Known Member

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    I don't use that part of the HUD very much, once I familiarise with route and rolling stock I usually end up only using the Ctrl+4 part of the HUD (so only distance to next stop and next speed limit) but I'll try to contribute to the discussion anyway.

    In my humble opinion, the TSW2020 hud was much better, a lot more subtle and elegant.

    First, the icons seems out of toy with all those little trains, particularly the slope indicator seems extremely childish, the arrow with the value in TSW2020 was more than enough.

    The 3 brake values could just be indicated by a letter "T, E, I" and the brake percentage beneath or alongside the letters in this fashion

    T - 45%
    E - 45%
    I - //

    Or use icons (for example for Train Brakes a wheel with two pads each side, a lighting for e. brakes and a wheel with one sets of brake pads for the indipendent brake)

    Indipendent brake could be // - 0 - 100%

    The whole circle things are (in my opinion) ugly and take too much space to display an information you don't usually need.

    Then I want to know WHO came up using the multiples of 25 in the speedometer it's the most useless and confusing system ever, with the "notches" alternating between ending in 5 and 0. Just do multiples of 10 or 20 even 30, just don't use multiples of 5, 15, 25, etc... Most of the time I don't know the speed limit until I get close to it, if you put the red needle in a random spot chances are I couldn't tell what that speed is, which is a design fault in a speedometer if you ask me.

    So does the first notch between 0 and 25 read 12.5?

    The red needle itself is not ideal but it's not terrible either.

    The improvement to the accelerometer as you have it in your picture is fine, and the whole left column is fine, I have no problems with the 7 segments
     
    Last edited: Oct 9, 2020
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  3. heyitspopcorn

    heyitspopcorn Well-Known Member

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    I would say get rid of the beachball/forward-backward movement thing entirely, I don't think I've ever once found it useful. It's just pointless clutter. Get rid of the three circles under the speedo, because you can just look at the brake cylinder indicators to the left + the brake setting indicator and kind of figure out what your train is doing: move the brake cylinder/reserve indicators down below the speedo, where the other circles are now.

    Move the door open/close indicator to the middle, where the beachball line is now. And move the traction/brake controller indicator down to the same line as the reverser direction and digital speed indicator--I very much agree with OP on that one.

    Why is the curve of the arc of the translucent background different from the curve of the speedometer? It looks amateurish.
     

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