Central Supply Catalog opinion poll

[cmcknight]

Hi All,

As I’m working through the current Central Supply Catalog iteration, I wanted to poll the prospective end-user audience for opinions.

Currently the dropdown Departments button displays the various departments/subdepartments in the following format:

Department Department Subdepartment Subdepartment Department …

I’ve been chatting with my acquaintances at Amazon and they asked why I didn’t just list all of the cateogories (their term) in alphabetical order and be done with it instead of the subdepartment groupings. So my question to the esteemed audience here is whether you prefer the dropdown items grouped the way they currently sit or just a single list in alphabetical order?

[ ] Keep it the same as it is
[ ] Just use a single list in alphabetical order

Thanks for your time in responding.

Chuck

 

[Condottiere]

Isn't that what the index is for?

 

[cmcknight]

Isn't that what the index is for?

I'm not following you. Which index are you referring to?

Below is a prototype of the first option:




Some of the 'categories' have further subdivisions and are grey to indicate that they are not links. The blue color text are links, and if a category is not further subdivided then it will just be a link as well.

The second option would simply be an alphabetical list that would not have any of the grey text entries.

 

[Condottiere]

As far as I can tell, Central Supply is organized by categories and subcategories, so that players can easily go to the page where similar equipment is described.

The author can organize them alphabetically, or by technological level.

If you know what you're looking for, you can jump to the index to find the page it's on.

Or, you use the search function for the PDF application.

And going by the current Mongoose publication, general categories are listed in Contents, the subcategories are listed alphabetically; the Index at the end of the publication lists everything alphabetically.

In theory, you could ask Mongoose to list subcategory items completely in the drop down Contents menu, but I suspect they won't thank you for it.

 

[cmcknight]

Ah, I think we may be talking past each other. I'm writing an online application for the Central Supply Catalog, not working from the PDF, etc. The online version will eventually house products from all versions of Traveller, the Cepheus Engine, and any other homebrewed items submitted. It's intended to be an online game aid.

 

[Starglim]

Some of the 'categories' have further subdivisions and are grey to indicate that they are not links. The blue color text are links, and if a category is not further subdivided then it will just be a link as well.

The second option would simply be an alphabetical list that would not have any of the grey text entries.

Thanks for the example. I think the list is short enough just to look at practical benefit. One grey category with two blue subcategories is not adding enough meaning (or shortening the list enough, if they were collapsible) to be worth the extra line and more complex information model, especially if the subcategories include the name of the category.

 

[cmcknight]

The 'big' categories are:

Protections - 5 subcategories
Robotics - 4 subcategories
Transportation - 2 subcategories
Weapons - 12 subcategories.

For the most part, the other ones that have subcategories have 2 entries each. That's why the conversation with the Amazon guys was sort of pushing to get other opinions. It's definitely easier to just build a sorted list, but I wanted to consult with folks who might be actually using the site (besides me).

 

[Condottiere]

Okay, I thought it was for an improved organized version of the published supplement.

 

[Magnus von Thornwood]

I like sub sections.

 

[whulorigan]

I like sub sections.

I do as well.

 

[cmcknight]

Sorry to just now get back to this (life sort of got in the way). The final result based on all of the input was to retain the 'overarching' category, e.g., 'Weapons', but to also provide the sub-categories as well, so the Departments button triggers a dropdown that looks like:



Currently I'm slogging through just under 900 image files Marc graciously provided for the catalog. As soon as I've finished the 'cataloging' effort to identify what's in them and agree on which images to use for what items, I'll be adding those to the catalog. Other than some work I'm doing on the search engine and creating a way to print the contents of the shopping cart (invoice anyone?), I will be looking to start on Mongoose Traveller next (unless I get an overwhelming response to do the Cepheus Engine before Mongoose).