For a while people have complained about the state of the current GUI. Many have said they could design a better one, but no one has ever done so and shared it.

I've often said that I will code up a draft if there is a sufficiently decent design. So lets see those designs.

An alternate GUI concept that I've been considering is replacing the top-level row of tabs with image tabs along the side. These "image tabs" have the advantage that they could double as buttons that are visible on the HUD on mobile devices, which when clicked would offer a convenient means to access the PDA menu. It would also make sense to retain the text names of the tabs through the use of tool tips.

The tabs which this would apply to are the "Commerce", "Ship", "Your PDA" & "Tactical" tabs. I would rearrange things slightly, however, to make the groupings a bit more logical. The "Commerce" & "Ship" tabs both involve menus for tasks that are performed at a station (and thus you must be docked at one for them to be visible). I would combine these into a single "Station" tab, making "Ships" a sub tab. The image for the "Station" tab could therefore depict a station.

Similarly, the "Tactical" tab is only visible while you are flying a ship in space and even then only if that ship has at least one turret. An image of a ship would do nicely here, and I would make the tool tip read "Ship" instead of "Tactical". I would further add that it could be useful to also make this "Ship" tab available while docked at a station, mostly for potential menus that could be added here in the future. The menus on this tab would be related to ship functions, but only ones that don't require being docked at a station to perform.

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I would also move the "2nd tier" tabs from the right-hand side of the screen to the left, but to the right of the top-level "image tabs". This would make a sort of double-layered tab menu from the left. The "Set Home", "LAUNCH", "Options" & "Close" (if not in a station) buttons would also be moved over to the left along with the 2nd tier tabs.

See the images below for some mock-ups of what it might look like. The images I used for the tabs didn't turn out as well as I'd hoped, but since these are only mock-ups, I'm not going to worry about it too much.




EDIT:
I hadn't intended to include a "Manufacturing" sub-tab on the "Station" tab in the uploaded image (I was just spit-balling some ideas). Just ignore it; it's more trouble than it's worth to remove it and regenerate the image.

EDIT 2:
Conceptually, it would probably make the most sense to put the PDA tab at the top since it is always visible. Then follow it by the "Ship" tab since it would nearly always be visible too (though I suppose if the player doesn't have an active ship then it could just be greyed out instead of hidden). That makes the "Station" tab last.

My own personal idea was quite similar, but I haven't really attempted to flesh it out much. It was to utilize the images for the primary selectors like you've got, though probably bigger, and then the sub-menu items would have expanded out below it upon selection. Selecting another icon would collapse the current sub-menu before expanding the new one. Then, rather than make it a full-screen dialog similar to what we have now, i was thinking of making the content section look more like a windowed dialog overlaid ontop of the HUD/Station. I'll see about trying to sketch something up later.

I kind of think that all mercantile pursuits should be consolidated under the banner of Commerce (purchasing commodities/ships/addons). Then ship management would take place in a Hanger section instead. This could also dovetail a little more logically with the possibility of refitting Class-C ships inside Class-B or larger.

Well, I've finally started work on a Custom UI. I'm trying to incorporate an MDI approach (as demonstrated by my MDI HUD prototype plugin) to information display/management on the screen. I'm not yet certain how this will translate to the mobile environment, or what design changes may come up as the project progresses.

Screenshot
Addon Buy

This screenshot shows everything that I currently have. Part of my current design idea to have a toolbar or "Start Menu" that provides access to all of the various windows (in addition to hotkeys/keybinds). The displayed toolbar in the screenshot is removed from view when you are in flight mode and only displays in interactive mode.

The chat window is freely moveable around the screen and can be resized as desired.

I like how you have the window float. I'd like to suggest small tabs on this window to allow players to view one channel at a time, or all at once like we do now. I'd also like to see a tab just show PMs and guild or group too.