Your Thoughts on Next Live Chess Redesign...

1. a

2. b

3. a

4. a

5. b

That's a great suggestion!

Answers below with explanations from a usability perspective, but first here's two additional considerations that relate to the size of the board in an inversely proportional way. 

1. The bigger the size of the board, the larger the distance that a piece needs to be dragged. Hence, the bigger the board size, the more time the actual execution of moves would take.  For very quick (bullet, etc.) games, this matters a lot.  On the other hand, the bigger the size, the more likely one is to drop a piece in the actually intended square (when moving really fast) rather than next door.  But then, one could question why someone would play chess at a pace that they are unable to point to the correct square, and whether this is fun at all.

2. The bigger the size of the board, the closer its edges are likely to be to the edges on the computer's screen.  Hence, it gets increasingly likely that during very quick play the player accidentally goes to the system tray (on Windows) and activates that, which takes time to defocus from, and distracts from the game.  There needs to be some breathing room, not totally full-screen board size.

1. names/clocks --  

B -- Don't care about names, they're not something one needs to quickly consult during the game itself.

Clocks are best as close as possible to one another, so that my eyes don't have to go down (for one player's clock) and up (for the other player) constantly.  So, B seems better for clocks, and for consistency names might reside there too. 

2. game chat

• a. below board (most people won't change the default, but IS collapsable)
• b. on sidebar

B -- this way it doesn't eat from the size of the board, plus chat is conceptually separate from play.

3. notation/captured pieces/resign&draw buttons

• a. right next to board
• b. on sidebar

A.  Definitely need them closer than chat -- because these are actually related to the play.

4. game tabs

• a. above the actual boards
• b. in the sidebar

Either one works from a usability perspective.  Whatever the preference of the crowd that plays multiple live games at once (I am not one of them).

5. console, main chat, private chat, and misc chat rooms

• a. want a whole separate section just for these 3 windows (you chat a TON)
• b. don't mind putting all of those in their own "chat" tab with the other tabs (players, games, etc) [NOTE: they would each still have their own sub-tabs - see http://grab.by/8Toj )

B. Cleaner and conceptually clearer.

@Valentin

+1 for the distance for the piece movement. I thought of it myself, but you beat me to it.

Go Jacob29!

But seriously though, I prefer the smaller screen because it takes less effort and mouse movement to move the pieces. The screen looks too messy when it is completely full.

I would like a feature whereby you click a button and a pgn file of the game is sent to your e-mail immediately.

 +1 Or at least downloadable as soon as the game has finished.

To solve that problem, just press F11 to full-screen your browser. :)

But I take full account of the whole issue that a bigger board lowers the chance of a mouse slip, although increases the time needed to physically make a move. (Although I suppose you could always adjust your mouse sensitivity settings for that...)

http://grab.by/8Tt1

This one is realy good.

My preferences would be for the 40% board without the section frames,  as you detailed here: http://grab.by/8Tt1

There are only two small changes I would recommend. Why not switch the position of the captures pieces and resign buttons with the notation? Have the captured pieces and buttons on the left closer to the board, and the notation box and move order buttons on the right. I would much prefer it if my eye could drift less from the board in order to assess the material differences and to locate the draw and resign buttons.

Also, my second idea, I don't know if this idea might be considered too... childish?... (or if it would be too difficult to program...) but I'll suggest it anyway. Having different coloured buttons to distingush between drawing and resigning. For example, a red resign button, and a green coloured draw button to prevent accidental clicking of one or the other.

To further expand upon that idea, what about a yellow / orange coloured "offer draw" button, that changes to a green coloured "draw offered" and "accept draw" button in the opponent's window. I never really have much cause to actually click decline, I just play a move if I want to decline it; just have the button switch back to offer draw and yellow if it's declined. I know during a heated bullet game, I would have more chance of noticing a button colour change to alert me to the fact that my opponent has indeed offered me a draw, rather than a message appearing in the game window in the side bar. Equally, I don't know how distracting that would make repeated draw offers... but it's just an idea.

Incidentally, I also wouldn't be adverse to the buttons being below the board in the space as names, clocks, and lag. But, I would be much happier with a screen layout such as the one you offered here http://grab.by/8TnI, just without the chat box in the bottom, and have the notation, material and buttons down the side of the board before the sidebar kicks in. Just my 2 pennies. :)

I tend to use that one myself for the centralised board, but a bigger board is what I'm after. :)

Plus, there a fewer bugs in Live Simple. ;P

I would rather have all of these settings customizable. I'm personally neutral on everything here.

No no no, there's nothing worse than "tools -> options" and you get a huge screen of settings, advanced settings, board settings, autoqueen settings, chat settings, etc.

Just do what Steve Jobs does and figure out what we want for us.

Concept 1 is better than 2.  2 is way to big.  In fact it will hinder bullet games as the idea is to move the mouse fast without having to stretch across the mouse pad.  Also visually, it is better to have some "white" space between the chess board and the browser border.

Right now, if I wanted a larger board, I can just stretch the board window.  Why don't you just add a feature where the user can set the size of the board exactly as they like and save the parameters?  Then you don't have to lock in a particular board size for all.

Prof Knox

My Internet Browser has a cool feature. It's called Zoom. I always use it when I play Live or Online Chess :) I make sure the board is as big as it can fit in the browser window :) Maybe most people would like to keep the letters small but I'm OK with big letters. To conclude Microsoft, Mozilla Foundation, Opera, Apple, etc have solved this problem for us long ago. Maybe you should give this as a Help & Support Hint: "If you have a big screen, you can use your browser's zoom feature to make the chessboard bigger."

Any news about this, or is it put on ice.

it's in the works! things just take a long time...

I would like to have the ability to create my own chat room, preferably so that only people in my group can enter. I am attempting to use my group as a small social chess club and this would make it very nice when trying to set up games and for socializing.

I like concept 1