# Discussion: Streamlining the new food interface
**URL:** https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900
**Category:** The Garage
**Created:** [February 22, 2019, 7:58am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900 "2019-02-22T07:58:09Z")
**Posts on this page:** 7
**Page:** 1
### Author:  [@kuros](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kuros)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 7:58am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/1 "2019-02-22T07:58:09Z")
I just figured out that the (E)at interface adds more information about food freshness once you have Cooking 3. The menu gets a little overwhelming, and I’m wondering if it would make sense to come up with some kind of graphic shorthand, perhaps something akin to the item damage codes, for freshness?
The problem with that is that food has a wide range of freshness. So maybe a combo of color coding and health bars? Perhaps we get more detail at higher levels of Cooking?
So, if it has only a few days before it goes bad it could look like this:
chunk of meat [green]|[/green] [red] \ [/red]
(or however you post color text in this forum)
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### Author:  [@Axema](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Axema)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 8:31am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/2 "2019-02-22T08:31:53Z")
If the color coding is the same with item’s damage, it would be nicer to look at the interface.
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### Author:  [@kuros](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kuros)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 8:33am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/3 "2019-02-22T08:33:28Z")
The goal of this thread is talk about how to make the interface nicer to look at.
Color coded health bars seem like an pretty good direction to go in, but I’m still not sure how we could convey “this one will last a while before going bad,” versus “this one will go bad in a few days.”
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### Author:  [@Axema](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Axema)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 8:45am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/4 "2019-02-22T08:45:41Z")
What if the food freshness level is revealed by numbers, instead of “near-or-far” system, like “less than 3 days” and “more than 1 hour”, we see the exact time when food will spoil 😕
Ofcourse, we see color codes based on how long the food aged and very high cooking level.
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### Author:  [@kuros](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kuros)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 8:48am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/5 "2019-02-22T08:48:16Z")
How would that be different than the system we have now? I’m having a hard time visualizing your suggestion.
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### Author:  [@Axema](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/Axema)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 9:16am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/6 "2019-02-22T09:16:28Z")
Well, I tried to visualize my idea 😛
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### Author:  [@kuros](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/u/kuros)
#### Post date: [February 22, 2019, 9:20am UTC](https://discourse.cataclysmdda.org/t/discussion-streamlining-the-new-food-interface/18900/7 "2019-02-22T09:20:42Z")
I was thinking that the three columns could somehow be condensed into one entry. Total number of bars indicate total possible lifetime. Green bars would be how long it has left, yellow bars show how much time has passed. You wouldn’t get more specific numbers in the last column until your Cooking was super high.