Zynga's Q&A: #9 Reduce Property Build Clicks

Zynga's Q&A #9 Reduce Clicks for Building in Properties

Next up from Zynga's big Q&A deals with the amount of clicks it takes to get to the item you want to build in your properties. You can visit this thread to tell them what you think.

9. It takes way too many clicks to navigate over to the Chop Shop & Weapons Depot items I want to build!

This is one of the many items already on our To Do list. It will take quite a bit of development time, though, so we plan to include changes like this in a bigger project in which we reexamine chop shops, weapons depots, and all other properties as a whole. Currently, we do not have this scheduled for the near future, but as one of a number of properties changes coming later.

I can't wait until they finally put this higher on their to-do list. The Chop Shop takes 19 clicks to get to the end, Weapons Depot takes = 16, Armory = 15 and the Private Zoo = 12. Every click scrolls the selection by one item.

By the time I get to the end of all four properties in New York my clicker finger is already needing a rest.

New York properties are not the only properties that could benefit from an update. The Port in Italy also scrolls by one item per click and takes 14 clicks to get to the end. I would hate to think how many clicks this would take if they ever felt like upgrading it like they do to NY properties.

It seems like in Brazil they actually got something right (just don't them that). Both the Black Market and the Workshop scroll by three items and only take 2 clicks to get to the end of the list.


All in all that is a lot of clicks just to build a couple of items. I was astounded when I counted for this article how many clicks it takes, 80 total, if you were to build the very last item in each property.

There are so many options that they could choose in order to improve this. I don't want to keep feeling like my finger is going to fall off or have to replace my mouse because I broke it by over clicking. For a brief period of time, the item view in properties defaulted to start with the last item, but was later changed back to start with the first item. Most of us build items toward the end of the list, and so it takes more clicks to get where we're going. 

That would be a simple enough solution, just reversing the first item shown. What are some other ways to improve property build navigation?