[Suggestion] Possible improvement for story maps

[BYK125]

The new story maps on chyoa are much better, but I've noticed they can still suffer from a lot of horizontal scrolling in heavily populated stories. I was thinking about how you could minimized that, and one thing stuck out: In many cases most of the horizontal indentations aren't caused by 'real' branches, by rather by decision points that only have one option. A potential improvement is to change the printing when there is only one branch out of a node, and indicate the continuity with something other than an indent. (Of course, if a second branch is ever added to the node, then if would be indented and displayed normally)

I've made a screenshot of what a story map looks like using this method (see attached file) It's a version of the 'dark angel' story, which seems a pretty typical example of a densely populated story. [also one of my favs, natch]

The example is pretty sparse, and leaves out a lot of info the real story map has, but it shows the layout... You can see areas of the map that would normally be heavily indented are instead presented as vertical blocks and bounded together, which saves a lot of horizontal space. [The occasional ^^^ links indicated a node that hooks back up to a previously displayed part of the story tree]

I'm not sure how the story map generator is coded, but the only modification I made to the typical tree parsing algorithm is a special case to check for nodes with only one exit: In that case, the code enters an iterative loop that prints successive nodes until it hits a node with >1 branch, whereupon the look breaks and normal recursive handling resumes.

If there's any interest in implementing this idea I can assist whoever has that job, if needed.

 

[Friedman]

I think this is a great idea with which we should experiment. We can certainly open a Chyoa Labs area where such features (or alternatives) can be activated and deactivated on a per user basis before we generally accept it.

What do other users think of BYK125's idea?

@BYK125: Do you need the code of the current story map for this? Technically, the data is stored in a MySQL database, the threads table has three columns which can be used for hierarchical output ("parent id", and "left" and "right" values). The "left" and "right" values refer to the so-called Tree Traversal Algorithm (http://www.sitepoint.com/hierarchical-data-database-2/).

 

[Trugbild]

I could also imagine downsizing in vertical direction.

e.g.

Max continues with Simmons plan.
__Max puts on her best performance
___+ and another 2 "posts in a row"
___The meet
_____Two days later with Gibbons
______A flashback later...
______Max tries to meet up with Walter.
________Max chances it with Walter.
_________+ and another 4 "posts in a row"
_________Ted isn't but Max needs some stress relief
________Max goes and sees Simmons
...

When opening the storymap only the first and the last post of a row of posts could be shown. After clicking on the "+" it could show that part as shown on BYK125's image. Especially long rows (that storymap shows a row with around 25 posts in a row) could get much smaller.

To show new or updated threads, the whole line with "+ and another ... posts in a row" could be shown with the needed color.

 

[BYK125]

If I can see the code the prints the tree, I can give implementation a shot. (he says without even knowing what language this is)

vertical downsizing would be straightforward as well, once you have css to mark the contiguous threads.

 

[Friedman]

I'll send you a PM. And the code is in PHP.

 

[dirtytyke]

This would be a great idea.
I also like the idea of Chyoa Labs so we can experiment with some new features to see if they work in practice before (if ever) implementing them by default.

 

[lazyhorny]

the old story map three was much more managable and readable and helpful and easier to navigate. which is why i wonder why it was changed to the current one which is a nightmare to navigate.