don't get me wrong, i don't think there has to be any change – it's really good enough for me.
but i have to disagree when Chaga says that it's "functional" when understoot that functional is "in a way that all functions were planned before, then implemented in a design, then implemented in code".
the order and hierarchy of information (grouping of corellating elements), arrangement of buttons, the icons, the separation lines, etc. look like they evolved from earlier versions, with added new functions now and then, here and there.
there is nothing wrong about that, and i definitely don't want to make it look "flashy and gaudy" (please never make it that way!).
as an example what i want to say, let's just have a look at small section of the information about a opened game (in board.php, the part above the chat window) ... there is
– the games name
– below the current pot (a game setting mostly, but dynamic) and in same line there is the the current turn/phase (this is information about the current state of the game)
– then there's a new line with the map variant, winning mode and the info about anonymity (those are game settings)
– in the right part of the block is the time to the next phase (info about current state of the game), and then the phase length (a general game setting again)
So we have
– The games name
– general preset game settings like Variant, Anonymity and Point distribution, maybe the pot information too
– timing information like current phase, current time left, information about pauses and extends, and general phase length (this is a game setting, but time relevant (to be thought about where it really belongs).
so in conclusion this could be re-ordered to be more logical, clear on one sight and more compact. and we did not talk at all about making things "flashy", it's just structural order.
second example (i won't execute this in detail):
the chat window with it's tabs for each potential contact is not visually grouped as it could be, it's not immedately visible which contact i have opened, the send button is placed *before* the message field, not after (that's reverse oder in western reading direction), mark as unread-button is below, and the information about the player i am talking with is a repetition to the information that is given all below the map and orders section (could that be integrated completely somehow?).
now of course this "works", but it is not "functional".
so once again, i fully understand why it is the way it is now, and i know (it's my job) that redesign the interface is a huge load of work that might be beyond the capacity of the maintainers ... that's why i was asking what's the status of this topic in general ... there is constant developement feature and content wise, but not interface wise. that might be as the developers are more interested in this, or don't have the capacity for the reorder, or something is in work anyway but it's not ready yet, or ...
i will copy this to the developer forum for discussion too, just wanted to not "end" this before it even started here.