The CG mobile experience

Platform Evolution
#1

I know that mobile isn’t a priority for CG right now. I understand, and (for the most part) agree with this philosophy. I have to chuckle whenever I see a message from someone asking to be able to write code on their phone. Huh?!?

OTOH, I think that there is a compelling use case for some parts of CG on a mobile platform: namely the social interaction elements of the site. The cell phone has pretty much solidified its position in modern culture as the preferred means of (at least online) social interaction. Here is a social-interaction report card for current CG:

  • Chat: B - Can chat through an XMPP client, so as long as people know how to do this, all is good. Implementing web-based chat in mobile probably doesn’t make sense, IMOHO. As a side note, I haven’t tested this since I use google+ to login, so I don’t have a CG password. Is it possible for g+ (or other) login users to connect with CG chat over XMPP?

  • Forum: B+ - Fully functional, but not a wonderful interface. This is a Discourse feature request, though, and not a CG request, so not necessarily relevant.

  • Solutions: F - It’s pretty much impossible to either see or comment on other people’s solutions to puzzles on a cell phone. (At least on Chrome on my phone it is)

  • Community puzzles: F - It’s pretty much impossible to see or comment on community puzzle submissions on a cell phone.

  • Status updates: B I can see my home page which shows me my level and ranking. Leaderboards are very squashed, but usable. I need to turn my phone into landscape orientation to see my XP history, and even then the right-side of the list is chopped off. I can get into Last Battles TV, and it is 100% viewable in landscape orientation, though not in portrait.

  • Notifications: A- The bell turns red. No number of new notifications is indicated. I can view notifications and can close them. Most of them are not actionable, though, because of problems mentioned above, or because they don’t make sense on a mobile platform (i.e. invited to join a clash).

Anyone agree or disagree with this assessment? Any other mobile-worthy features that I failed to cover?

  • danBhentschel
6 Likes
#2

You can generate a password for CG using the “Forgot my Password” on the Login page. Then, you will be able to login with the Google plugin AND/OR your gmail @ and the CG password. :slight_smile:

1 Like
#3

Multiplayer/contests - I would say D. It is pretty much impossible to see my current score from my mobile and switching to last battles is a pain because a floating button covers the last battles button. It would also be great to see the nickname of the opponents in last battles and to have some kind of markup for draws (right now draws are shown as if one of players actually won, and you can only see it is a draw when you click on that battle).

Please make mobile view of multiplayer leaderboards / last battles more accessible.