OK, I’m going to do something I ought to have done in the very first post on this topic: requirements.  Since some of us seem to be talking at cross-purposes, we should at least have a discussion about what we want out of this kind of display in the first place.

IMO, the requirements for redesigning the registration numbers display on the schedule page of ProCon are:

• Compactness: the display needs to be readable on the existing schedule items, which are typically at least 120 pixels wide and 100 pixels tall.  Other information on the schedule item leaves about 50 pixels of vertical space for this display to use.
• Information at a glance: People need to be able to use these displays to make quick decisions during the registration rush.  Can users glance quickly at this display and see:
  • Which games still have room to register, and
  • Of those, which games are running out of room quickly, and
  • Of the full games, which ones have short waiting lists?
• Learnability: Oftentimes, people don’t have a lot of time to learn how to use these things.  It should be intuitively obvious, or as close to it as possible, what the display means.

But, of course, there’s plenty of room to debate these requirements.  So, people who have commented on the last few posts (and anyone else, of course): do these seem like reasonable requirements?  Is there anything you’d add?  Is there anything here you don’t think is necessary?

Thanks to everyone for the continued feedback, it’s been very helpful.

Thanks for the feedback, everyone!  Please keep it coming.

Changes this time around:

• Because Laurion couldn’t tell what the velvet rope was, I’ve altered its appearance – hopefully it’s a bit more realistic now, and there’s a hint of forced perspective in it so that you can tell that the people are waiting behind it.  It could probably still use some improvement, though, and I’m more than happy to hear suggestions on it.
• Because Matthew and Josh both commented that they like the numbers better, I’ve added the maximums back.  I’m hoping the combination of this info and the progress bars will give the whole picture.  Hopefully the new wording is clear enough, but if people have better ideas for how to phrase it, please let me know.
• I added little “sparks” to the progress bars to indicate where the game’s stated preferred numbers are, but I’m not real thrilled about how they made it look, and I’m thinking of removing those.  What do you guys think?

Based on Laurion’s suggestions in the last post, here’s another mockup:

(Plaese pardon my poor cut-and-paste job on the room numbers…)

UPDATE: And, based on my coworker Keith’s suggestions, another one:

I’ve started work on the next iteration of ProCon, the online event registration system used by Festival of the LARPs.  One of the areas we improved dramatically for last year was the schedules page.  It’s not too shabby looking right now:

However, it’s hard to tell at a glance which games have openings, and how many.  I’d like to make this easier to use, as well as easier on the eyes.  I’ve come up with a mockup:

(Note: the numbers in the mockup are basically the same as the numbers in the above image.  Just to show how neutral slots would look, I added 9 neutral slots to “Only Mighty Guests” for the mockup, 2 of which are taken.)

I can’t help but feel like this is still lacking something visually, but I’m not sure how to improve it.  If anyone has a suggestion, I’d love to hear it.