A game actually inspired me to work on design
Guest Contribution
Like me, some people don’t know what to do when they are “adults”. I chose a path I liked, but it was not exactly what I enjoyed doing. After two years studying mechanical engineering I quit. I could not do that anymore, it bored me, I needed something more entertaining. I’ve always liked games and I took the chance to study something related with games. I then started Audiovisual and Media Communication; that would open a path where I’d do games. Or so I thought… Spoiler alert: I don’t work on games (yet).
In my stupidity or due to ignorance I considered some lessons more important than others. I didn’t need psychology, sociology or design theory among other to do games, right? I focused in creative thinking and 3D modelling. The rest… well, I was there, my body at least. My head was someplace else. I spent the “non-essential” lessons playing World of Warcraft?—?I know, not cool ?. I now regret not have paid more attention to the “non-essential” as it turns out is quite essential. Because of that, my book library is getting big, need new bookshelves big.
I should’ve known though that I’d end here. I’ve dealt with UXI?—?User Experience and User Interface, btw?—?before I knew that existed as a profession. How? By playing World of Warcraft! Let me explain how I realised. When I played, I didn’t do it with the default settings for the game interface. I wanted it different, it was [for me] off, after I was already deep in the game, not right at the beginning. I spent considerable amount of time looking for the right add-on that would help me. That is changing the interface, of course. I wanted something to make the icons smaller. I wanted to remove the “decoration” of the panel where the icons were. I wanted to move them around, wherever they would be most useful for me. Not only the icons, I changed colours, feedback messages and status indicators. The information about my character, the name, life points and mana was also changed. The mini-map. Everything changed. Without actually designing any individual component I arranged a new interface. I enhanced my UX in the game by creating a UI with me and only me as a target user. That is something I came to realise now. And I haven’t played in years!
Below you can see two images, on the left the default UI configuration. On the right a custom UI configuration. Although the custom UI may seem more chaotic and all-over-the-place, I can assure you it works. The player has all they need there to play better.
I finished my degree still clueless that I liked UXI design. Even after my bachelor final project. For it I made a concept for an MMORPG?—?Massively Multiplayer Online Role-playing Game?—?like WoW. Us expected, not back then though, I spent most of the time working on the UI. I thought, drew and crafted menus, bars and icons. I wanted all the details, the feel of the world I created speak through the visuals and sounds. Animations, transitions, imagery. I see the project now and I see too many things to change, but when I did it I was quite proud of it.
Fun fact: I was abroad when I was working on my project, without my laptop; so I worked on a notebook. Sketches, graphs, game analyses, all there done by hand. My uni wanted me to leave that notebook behind!
The project was well received, and I had my degree, now to find a job. I discarded working on 3D modelling as I wasn’t so good and the gear required every years is crazy. I applied as a concept artist. I tired to improve my concepts and my style, but it was quite hard to find anything in that field with no experience. I needed a job though, so I applied for a graphic design job. It might be that the company was not there yet, butI did few graphic design and more UXI design. No complaints, I loved it. I realised I enjoyed doing that and that I was not so bad at it.
I have now worked as UXI for some years and in different fields. I guess my colleagues like my constant spam in Slack with new tools and design resources. Or my almost-addictive way to optimise how we work. Sketch’s symbol override and constrain was a big thing for me. And now we have libraries! What a time to be a designer. I will most likely stay here, profession-wise. Although I hope working on the game industry or make a game on my own someday.
For those who skimmed through here’s a TL;DR.
Before I knew I wanted to work as a UXI Designer, there were signs pointing that way. Those signs, spending too much time on a game’s UI configuration.
To anyone reading who is yet to define their career, listen to the signs!?—?Oh yeah, like you did??—?I know it’s not easy, but try. I will end this post with a personal take on some examples of UXI for [mobile] games. Note that I play on an iPhone SE, so it is challenging for designers to fit all the controls in that size.
The first game is one I had high hopes for. I wanted something like Diablo or Torchlight but offline for my phone. Playing in the U-bahn commuting to work tends to have unstable connection. The game is Titan Quest! It sadly does a poor job on a 4-inch device. The controls scale down and some are too small to tap. I have real problems using some attacks.
But, Oceanhorn deals with a small screen quite well. The Controls and information are in small doses. Enough to make the interface useful for the player. If you want more details go into the menu. This game I recommend, can’t wait to play Oceanhorn 2!
I leave it here, if you liked it, feel free to talk to me or follow me?—?twitter— and stuff. I’ll try to publish weekly or so my take on some iOS games’ UI for teeny tiny screen. Tschüss!
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