But, a couple of UX suggestions:
a) It shouldn't be possible to drop tiles on the grid outside of the word boundaries
b) Dropping one tile on another should swap their positions.
With both of these implemented, it'd make it easier to move all of the letters onto the grid and then try different options, without too much fiddling.
My UX feedback: it isn't clear that the icon on the top-right opens up some instructions. Perhaps replace with the more standard question-mark in a circle?
1. Place an outline around the tile when it's on a word square.
2. Make the quadrant backgrounds a different color, shade, or texture. That will make it easier to see which tiles belong to which quadrant.
Agree on B.
The rest of the upper left only makes sense as SHIN, which gives SHINGLED going down on the left side.
From there, I got ELIXIR on the bottom cross-piece. ELECTION fit going down on the right.
Dragging the letters to the word spots was the first thing I did to start visualizing, which was busy work I found no value in doing.
Otherwise, interesting and challenging!
This seems to be a common sentiment, so I plan to implement it. Thanks!
> It shouldn't be possible to drop tiles on the grid outside of the word boundaries
I've heard mixed opinions on this one. About 2/3 of people who have commented on it say that they like that the tiles can be dropped in the outside space, so they can rearrange and sort. About 1/3 dislike it (among those who say anything about it). But it's not a very large sample size, so I'll need to seek further feedback.