...
- Steps 1-3: Initialization
- Steps 4-6: Bidding
- Steps 7-11: Playing
Design Description
In this design, each individual card can be in one of several locations: it can be in a player's hand, or it can belong to the main table. If it is in someone's hand, only that person can see the value of the card, but the other players can tell that it is in the player's hand. If it is on the main table, then it has a (x,y) coordinate as well as an orientation and could be face up or face down. Each card also has a priority layer which determines which cards are on top of which other cards if multiple cards overlap. There are no stacks in this design, in the strict sense of the term. Users select cards by single clicking to select a single card, or dragging a selection box to select multiple cards. Double clicking selects all the cards touching the player's cursor. Right clicking flips the selected cards between face up and face down. To move the cards, the user simply drags a selection. If the cards are moved onto a position for potential stacking, the cards are slightly staggered so that one can tell how big the stack is.
Other features include:
- a list of sort comparators for the cards in a users hand
- expandable score display
- a shuffle button that appears in the bottom of the main table if multiple cards are selected
- simplistic chatbox used for communication and status messages(such as saying when a stack gets shuffled)
- a drag cursor that updates in realtime, showing when other players are dragging cards around
- if a user selects a card in his hand, they will poke up above the other cards, making it easier to select multiple cards before playing
- design should allow for arbitrarily many people to join table
Usability Analysis
Learnability
- pros: affordances for highlighting selection
- cons: user must discover actions by experimentation
...