animated "wipe" between UIs in games?

[pixelzoom]

In Equality Explorer (and every game I've done so far), there has been no request for animated "wipes" between the setting UI and challenges, or when changing challenges. But I see that Area Model game is doing wipes.

Why the difference? When do we do wipes? What UIs do we wipe between?

[pixelzoom]

This same issue is also discussed in https://github.com/phetsims/vegas/issues/18 from June 2014.

[amanda-phet]

I prefer to do the "wipe" from level selection screen to a level (and back) when your progress on that level is saved, so that would happen in games that use a back button as opposed to a start over button. In games I've worked on that would include Arithmetic, Expression Exchange, and Make a Ten, but not Area Builder (since that uses a start over button). I'm not sure when or why the practice was started, but in my head that's how I've classified the usage. I found a very lengthy (and helpful) discussion here: https://github.com/phetsims/graphing-lines/issues/29

I'm glad you brought this up because the new vegas component you are working on would likely be used in games that will save progress when returning to a level (such as Equality Explorer). I don't think there should be a wipe between challenges, only between level selection screen and level.

[pixelzoom]

@amanda-phet said:

I prefer to do the "wipe" from level selection screen to a level (and back) when your progress on that level is saved, so that would happen in games that use a back button as opposed to a start over button. ...

Now I'm really confused. The type of game you're describing is Equality Explorer, not Area Model. And what has been implemented for those sims is exactly the opposite of what you prefer.

... I found a very lengthy (and helpful) discussion here: phetsims/graphing-lines#29

I see lots of discussion about back vs "Start Over" buttons (which I'm not questioning). But I see no discussion about whether or why animation (wipe) should be applied in one case but not the other. Perhaps I missed it -- can you please point me to specific comments?

[pixelzoom]

https://github.com/phetsims/vegas/issues/18 is where the discussion about wipes/transitions started.

[pixelzoom]

In design meeting, the questions specific to Equality Explorer are:

Do you want an animated wipe for any of these UI transitions?

• [x] from level-selection to challenge YES

• [x] from challenge to level-selection (back button in status bar, and "New Level" button in reward dialog) YES

• [x] from current challenge to next challenge (Next button) NO

[pixelzoom]

4/12/18 design meeting with @amanda-phet, @arouinfar, @kathy-phet, @jonathanolson, @ariel-phet:

Answers to Equality Explorer questions added in above comment. I'll proceed with implementation.

In general:

• Always RTL wipe between level-selection and challenge • For back button, always LTR wipe from challenge to level-selection • For "Start Over" button, always dissolve between challenge and level-selection • No transition between challenges (we may revisit this, and there will be exceptions, eg Fractions)

[pixelzoom]

Tracking transitions for Equality Explorer in https://github.com/phetsims/equality-explorer/issues/66. Closing this issue.