Compendium Updated!

[Kzach]

Only WotC could introduce new features on a website that make it less useful.

 

[Mustrum_Ridcully]

Only WotC could introduce new features on a website that make it less useful.

I wish they were.

 

[Asmor]

I've gotta say... After careful consideration, I'm not impressed.

Another annoying thing: It's using AJAX or something for the searches, rather than HTTP get requests, meaning that it's not (obviously) possible to make your own searches on the compendium.

For those who DO want to make their own searches, here's a link I saved from before which still works:

D&DI Compendium : Insider : Dungeons & Dragons

where %s is your search term.

Pro tip: Make a bookmark of that in Firefox (including %s) and then view the properties of the bookmark. Make the keyword "ddi"

Then you can type in for example

ddi spiked chain

into your address bar and it will search for spiked chain.

I'm also rather annoyed that they're using that silly popup box.

 

[Mengu]

The header part that says D&D Compendium is a giant waste of space, it could be much skinnier and still iconic looking along the top.

Races/Classes, and Powers/Skills links could move up to be in line with the other links. Search button could move up next to the search text box, and the reset button to its right.

The filter group box needs to be visible only for the creatures, items, and powers tabs. It can be hidden the rest of the time.

White space in the result list could be reduced just a little.

Center the page if the browser form is wider.

This would be my immediate UI advice if this was presented to me as a proof of concept. The tightening up of the group boxes will result in less scrolling. Right now eventhough I work on a fairly high resolution screen I have to scroll every time I do a search. On a laptop, I'm sure the amount of scrolling one has to do would be quite annoying. As for functionality issues...

When a search is in progress or a filter is being applied, there needs to be some indication of a work in progress if it's going to take more than a split second. Currently, you're left wondering if you actually clicked anything.

Item filters still don't work.

While a better copy/paste feature would be nice, it's not really so much a bug, since it wasn't a feature to begin with. It's just the way "copy" picks up formatting from a browser. It was working better before than it is now, but that's not by design. A wysiwyg copy/paste into word or excel would be pretty sweet, but I doubt they will go that route.

 

[HRG]

They weren't kidding when they said it wouldn't work with Opera. It crashed instantly.

edit- I should clarify that it crashed immediately upon trying to run a search. Before that, it sat there and looked pretty.

 

[OchreJelly]

The header part that says D&D Compendium is a giant waste of space, it could be much skinnier and still iconic looking along the top.

Races/Classes, and Powers/Skills links could move up to be in line with the other links. Search button could move up next to the search text box, and the reset button to its right.

The filter group box needs to be visible only for the creatures, items, and powers tabs. It can be hidden the rest of the time.

White space in the result list could be reduced just a little.

Center the page if the browser form is wider.

This would be my immediate UI advice if this was presented to me as a proof of concept. The tightening up of the group boxes will result in less scrolling. Right now eventhough I work on a fairly high resolution screen I have to scroll every time I do a search. On a laptop, I'm sure the amount of scrolling one has to do would be quite annoying. As for functionality issues...

When a search is in progress or a filter is being applied, there needs to be some indication of a work in progress if it's going to take more than a split second. Currently, you're left wondering if you actually clicked anything.

Item filters still don't work.

While a better copy/paste feature would be nice, it's not really so much a bug, since it wasn't a feature to begin with. It's just the way "copy" picks up formatting from a browser. It was working better before than it is now, but that's not by design. A wysiwyg copy/paste into word or excel would be pretty sweet, but I doubt they will go that route.

This. If I were presented this for UI testing I would make similar comments. In fact, many of these UI concerns are ones I voiced about Gleemax (although that site was in much worse shape design-wise).

The thickbox-style overlay does need to inform the user that some action is taking place when they are applying new requests to the search filter, even if the search quick.

Also, I was really hoping to see "traps" as a searchable item. It really seems like traps deserve a compendium treatment.

There is something I'm happy about with this redesign is that it seems the session timeout has been extended. I always seemed to have to login after about 5 minutes in the past which was annoying.

 

[Mottokrosh]

Yeah, I must say that I'm not too impressed either. I use a netbook during gaming for notes and looking stuff up and my scroll count has just gone up quite a bit.

Asmor - great tip!

WOTC - how about providing us an API so we can build our own GUIs around the Compendium? And share them?

 

[OchreJelly]

WOTC - how about providing us an API so we can build our own GUIs around the Compendium? And share them?

I seriously doubt they would allow it, but that would be awesome.

 

[Verys Arkon]

I have to disagree with most of the posters here so far.

I love the changes to the Compendium. Aesthetically, much better. I have no problems with the UI at all - seems very intuitive and easy to navigate.

I can copy/paste from Chrome to Word2007 and choose to keep the background formating or just the next formating (by selecting Keep Source Formating when I paste).

I can filter by magic item type by entering 'neck' into the search box and filtering for items and magic items.

I never liked the pop-up window, and prefer it in a normal window. I can open duplicate tabs if I want tabbed browsing.

I like not having to go back to the search result page to browse a result forward or backward.

The login works from within the Compendium, and lasts much longer (2 hours?).

I like being able to list 100 results at a time, so there is less page loading. So what if I have to scroll? Thats what a scroll wheel is for. Or I can see all 100 search results with 4 taps of the 'page down' button.

I really don't understand all the complaints - it is much better than it was, and perfectly functional. Traps would be nice, as would conditions (or a glossary of terms and keywords), but give them time, it will come.

Sometimes I think ENworlders just complain about anything 4e.

 

[ki11erDM]

I have to disagree with most of the posters here so far.
...
Sometimes I think ENworlders just complain about anything 4e.

You. I agree with.