FIFA 16 training selection

21 Jan 2016
FIFA 16 has training drills that can improve the ratings of players. The drill-selection menu indicates whether a drill is available and whether more drills are hidden. These indicators aren't obvious.

Context

The career modes in FIFA 16 have optional training sessions that become available every seven days on the in-game calendar. Training sessions can have up to five drills that the user chooses. Every drill targets between two and four attributes that affect a certain skill; every drill targets some, if not all, of the same attributes that at another drill targets. Training sessions must consist of drills that are unique and don’t target all of the same attributes.

Simply put, selecting any given drill will prevent its re-selection and prevent the selection of at least one other drill.

Flaws

I played FIFA 16 for several hours before I realized why I couldn’t select certain drills, seemingly at random times, and why the selection of drills were limited. I was unfamiliar with this menu.

Available vs Unavailable

Available drills are labelled as “Available” and unavailable drills are labelled as “Attributes Trained.” Different labels are the only thing that distinguish available drills from unavailable ones. These labels are written in uppercase text, but their placement and size makes them less prominent than the preview images, drill names, and difficulty ratings. The distinction doesn’t pass The Squint Test.

FIFA 16 Select Drill, Shooting available — All of the training drills in the Shooting category are available.

FIFA 16 Select Drill, Shooting partially available — The Available drill isn’t visually distinct compared to the three Attributes Trained drills and vice versa.

Scrollbar

The drills are grouped by category like Passing and Shooting. Most, if not all, categories have more than four drills; in any case, a max of four are shown at a time. A scrollbar indicates that one or more drills are located below the current ones, but the scrollbar’s narrow width and non-contrasting color make it easy to overlook.

FIFA 16 Select Drill, more Dribbling — The scrollbar isn’t prominent because of its size and color.

Fixes

I would re-design the drills section to show all drills at once. The preview images would be discarded to make all of the drills fit. Information about the potential attribute-increases for any given drill would still be shown.