Experience & interface design
Designing for real players and the screen between them and the game: player-centric design, representative players and personas, customisation, difficulty and accessibility options; diegetic, non-diegetic, spatial and meta UI; information hierarchy, HUD design, states and onboarding; and visual design with Gestalt grouping, colour, contrast and typography. In the practical your group designs a HUD for one player type.
Slides: use the arrow keys or swipe; press F for full screen and Esc for an overview.
- Design for a representative player using personas and their motivations.
- Give players customisation, difficulty and accessibility options that widen who can play.
- Choose between diegetic, non-diegetic, spatial and meta UI, and decide what shows when.
- Make a HUD readable with hierarchy, grouping, colour, contrast and type.
Finish your group's HUD and note the one change you made after the swap. Then look at the HUD in your own project: sort every element into always, contextual or on demand, and check text contrast with a contrast checker.
Activity files
Key reading
Adams, E. (2014) Fundamentals of Game Design. 3rd edn. Berkeley, CA: New Riders. Chapter 2, player-centric design.
Fagerholt, E. and Lorentzon, M. (2009) Beyond the HUD: User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games. MSc thesis, Chalmers University of Technology.
Game Accessibility Guidelines. Link
Microsoft, Xbox Accessibility Guidelines. Link