Ultrafunctionalists in this case are like the ultraformalists of video gaming in general who claim mechanics are the SOLE thing that matters. The logical conclusion of both arguments is that every game should be black text on white background. No, bloody Excel is not the pinnacle of inventory screens for fucks sake.
Any stance taken to the extreme ends up in retarded territory like this. I don't believe we could find anyone anywhere else who would argue that Windows Explorer is seriously a design paragon for video game inventories, fortunately...
You've misunderstood my arguments in this debate. The only instance I claimed lists are better than grids is for "heaps of items" replying to Sensuki right at the start of this debate. Since then I've talked about how lists can be pretty good and can be an alternative to grids even in party-based games. I did say I prefer lists in certain cases, but that's not an argument but a personal preference. Your claim that my arguments are like "mechanics are the SOLE thing that matters" is simply false since I haven't advocated for lists at the expense of grids, nor discard the value of aesthetics.
So it's better to have a shitty UI and implement a search system to make it functional than to have a good UI that may require simply opening each party inventory?
We see things differently here. A search function is to be designed as an integral part* of how you interact with the UI instead of, as you seem to view, a patchwork.
Not to mention that opening the search window, typing what you want, finding the item and who owns it and then opening his inventory is much more complex and time wasting than just opening all inventories....
I don't find anything complex in it; it's as simple and basic as pressing the window key and getting results as you type. As for knowing who owns it, it can be represented easily since you have columns.* You wouldn't need to open any inventories if you have drag and drop.*
And what if the shield doesn't have the word "shield" in its name? You could have an option to search by item type, but would that really be faster, on average, than just flipping through the grids? Looking through the grids would probably be faster, anyway; since shields tend to be heavy, it would probably be carried by one of the stronger characters; since stronger characters typically have the highest defense, you'd want them in the front of the party. So, the shield would be with the first or second character, in all likelihood.
Sure you can have an option to search by item type, but you shouldn't need it in this instance since searching by default for 'shield' should return any item matching 'shield' in any of the fields.
And even if list searching did save time, it wouldn't be enough to justify doing away with the more aesthetically pleasing grids.
But I'm not advocating doing away with grids. This exchange has been people saying "this is pretty nice in grids but a nuisance in lists" and me responding "that need not be so". And I don't have any problem saying that what I'm suggesting probably has flaws since I've had to speak hypothetically a lot as good list UIs are virtually non-existent.
*
And what if the shield doesn't have the word "shield" in its name?
I just wanted to go on a tangent to talk about the importance of holism here, taking SkyUI with Requiem as an example, since I feel like looking at a single function doesn't lead to good judgement.
Requiem changes potions names to 'Potion of [...]', 'Poison of [...]' etc. Considering SkyUI defaults sorting to by Name, the name changes result in all the items with a similar effect grouped together. Furthermore, many of these potions have various potency levels which are indicated as suffix in parentheses. These suffixes are such that their alphabetical order is in line with increasing order of potency, i.e., Deficient->Faint->Fair->Good->Remarkable->Surpassing. This is thoughtful design since it means similar items are grouped together and in increasing order of potency.
Essentially, it requires some thought and effort to make a list UI function like a well-oiled machine, and if mods made in free time and provided free of charge can showcase some of those qualities, then professionals should be capable of doing better. (Though that's probably too much to hope for in this game industry.)
