Understanding the importance of UI In Video games.

“With video games, there is no external motivation for the task — if the game’s interface is not compelling and entertaining, the product fails in the marketplace.”Pausch, R., Gold, R., Skelly, T., Thiel, D., 1994. What HCI designers can learn from video game designers. Conference companion on Human factors in computing systems - CHI 94. This summaries the market as a whole. Gamers as consumers are a difficult group to appeal to everything relies on how the individual interacts with the Video game if they do not know what they are doing or loose interest the piece of software will fail. How each users experience is different in both game immersion and the games overall playability and this is true across multiple genre of game. No game is the same there may be similarities when it comes to the particular genre, certainly everything has its own tropes that it falls back to time and time again.

“Games require players to develop a flexible mindset to rapidly react to fast moving visual and auditory stimuli, and to switch back and forth between different subtasks”. (Colzato, 2010) “Gamers” As they like to be called are an incredibly diverse consumer in the way that they can perform multiple tasks at the same time. But in contrast they do not want to be over loaded with information, layouts should be clear to understand allowing the user to be able to get from one piece of information to the next.

The player becomes an invisible, but key element to the story, much like a narrator in a novel or film. This fiction can be directly linked to the UI, partly linked, or not at all. Historically games didn't have any real link to the game's narrative, early games rarely had strong story elements. But in in recent times they have almost become a necessity. In an article by the Guardian “Are video games now more sophisticated than cinema”(https://www.theguardian.com/film/2011/jun/02/la-noire-video-games-films-sophistication 2011)

I quote “The need for games to possess a universal language which must be understood by millions of users worldwide necessitates a reliance on traditional conventions and a rejection of ambiguity. Characters and plot must conform to "game sense"; if they confuse or challenge too much, they simply won't be readable enough to fulfil their role.”  This is an example of META U.I where the player is completely immersed in that world and is a part of that world. There are many forms of U.I many suiting different forms of game play. The most immersive for of UI in my opinion is in the form of diegetic UI. An example of this is in the form of Dead Space’s Health bar integrated into the space suit of the character. This is useful because it means that are eye is not drawn somewhere else. Also unlike with a traditional HUD, the information is contextualised within the game world and made visible to characters themselves. another example would be the fallout series Pip-boy where the information is brought up on the characters wrist.

To my readers I want to briefly go over the different forms of UI in Videogaming. The “Heads Up Display”, or HUD, first appeared in the late 1950’s as an information display used mainly by pilots of both fighter planes as well as commercial airlines. The advantages of this concept became obvious beyond the narrow military application, and the principles involved have since been applied in a range of areas. Videogames quickly embraced the HUD. Presenting system information on a separate layer allow designers to give players an insight into the intricate inner machinations of more complex systems and virtual worlds As games moved beyond representations that could be contained on a single-screen the HUD played an essential role in helping players orient themselves as the screen became a window into increasingly complex environments.

As previously mentioned there are four forms of HUD U.I these being Non-Diegetic, Spatial, Meta and Diegetic. Diegetic user interface elements exist within the game world (fiction and geometry) so the player and avatar can interact with them through visual, audible or haptic means. Well executed diegetic UI elements enhance the narrative experience for the player, providing a more immersive and integrated experience. An example of this interface is Metro 2033 uses a complete Diegetic UI with no HUD elements to help to support the game's narrative. It runs the risk of frustrating the player though slow response times but this forms part of the game mechanic. The character's watch is used to measure how long the filter in the gas mask will last and how visible the player is when encountering enemies.