The available open challenges are currently being displayed at the top of the games page. This combines two separate features, viewing the active games list and viewing the available open challenges, to the detriment of both. The available open challenges are only relevant when I wish to start a new game. The active games list is relevant only when I don’t want to start a new game. This means they should be on separate pages.
Two possible solutions:
- The new game link should take you to the available open challenges along with a form to start a new challenge if you wish to do so.
- The available open challenges are kept in a drop-down tab in the same way that notifications are currently handled.
- Move the challenges beneath the active games.
Solution 1 is clearly more elegant and best for people who mostly play correspondence games. This allows me to review my active games, something I do every 10 minutes when I’m online, without having to be distracted by the challenges, which is something I need at most twice a month.
Solution 3 is (perhaps) better for people who play a lot of live games. They won’t have so many active games so the relevant information, the open challenges, will appear near the top.
As you can see below, the challenges take up a lot of space, and appear to be blurted out at the top of the page rather than integrated into a neat separation of sections:
My challenge against kabocha has been in place for over two months, maybe longer I’m not sure. I intend to leave it there incase he returns to the site. There’s no need for a third of my screen to be take up by the same thing over and over again. If the challenges were moved below the games list, or elsewhere, the page immediately becomes more useful:
I hope the developers agree that this is a detail where the interface could be improved. What does everyone else think?