Interaction! I hate messy menus!

When gaming was around it was very much, does it work? Yes! Does it look OK? Yes! Does it do the job? Yes! Right that's it! Launch it!


But not anymore! User interface is something that is very looked at when it comes to gaming. So I'll start by talking about the consoles themselves. They were very much square. Box in shape, and that was it. Not much else to it. The materials they were made out of were simple grey plastic majority of the time, maybe slightly different shades of grey but were still grey. They may have red buttons or something along those lines, but yeah, grey. Back then it was great, it was modern to them. But now we see old consoles and we instinctively know that it's an old console. Along with the controllers too. A lot of the old controllers were grey, unless they were specially made ones. But now you look at consoles and they're sleek, the have curved edges and they are not so pointy and painful. It's the same with the controllers, the controllers are more user friendly, they have better looking ergonomics and just overall look nicer. Now the materials are black, it's more sleek, more modern. Some go for white but majority it's black. Over the years there have been fails in the way consoles and the controllers look, but they've come so far and done such an exceptional job! Just look at the comparison through the PlayStation years!

PS1

Comparison between the PS2 and PS2 Slim

From bottom to top, is the comparison between the original PS3, PS3 Slim, PS3 Extra Slim.

Interaction design can also be transcribed into user interface as well. This is also quite demanding in game. For a game to work, for a game to look and feel good to the player the user interface needs to be friendly. It's need to caress the user, make them love the interface. For me personally I really really really REALLY dislike “Dragon Age: Origins” user interface. The inventory is the the most confusing things of all time and this is one of the reasons why I just can not play the damn game. However when playing Skyrim (which is sort of based around the same idea, magic, adventurer etc.) Skyrim takes the bait. “Skyrims” interface is easy and friendly. I could make love to it, because it is just so nice. For me personally I find where everything is, spells, armour, weapons. Then the quick menu of select weapons and spells. It's just quick and efficient. I just find Dragon Age too much!

Skyrim Menus - good very good!

Dragon Age Menus - bad very bad!

But that leads me onto one of the best interfaces I have personally experienced. Once again that is from “The Last Of Us”. I'm not just using the game because I am just playing it now, but because I genuinely think that this interface is one of the best. When playing the game, you see none of the interface apart from the bottom right corner, where you see your health and the weapon currently equipped, but apart from that it's just you and your surroundings. This minimalistic interface puts you more into the game. Then there is the weapons in game menu. It's easy to use and simple. You have a limited number of holsters which only you can upgrade further into the game, but when you have too many guns they do go into your backpack, just like any normal item to carry, however to equip this you have to hold down a button and this will prompt Joel (the main protagonist), to get down, open his backpack and equip this item. I just like how he does that. Also throughout the game you'll get little collectables and the in-game menu for that is really simple. It also doesn't pause the game, the game carries on in the background, so you either wait till a safe place or you better be quick, in case infected come along! But everything about it is so simple, it tells you what it is, what it does, what it costs, how much the next upgrade will cost etc. I like the simplicity and this is what makes it effective. In a way “Skyrim” is the same, it isn't filled too much with crap (which is what I got from “Dragon Age”).

The minimalism, when in game.

In game weapon menu

Crafting Menu from backpack

Upgrade bench menu

Wii Remote and Nunchuck

But it's not just that, there is also the new revolutionary equipment now, such as the Xbox Kinect, the Wii, project Morpheus from PlayStation and the Oculus Rift. So it all started with the Wii, let's be honest. The Wii was a very much user based console, that the person had to physically get off their ass and move about to make it work. Obviously you could have used the D-Pad but why not wave your arms about. Yes you had to hold the remote, but it was a one handed remote that did, well everything. They also brought out the “Nunchuck”, which attached to the original remote, but that gave you more of an immersion with the game, like shaking a enemy off you, or shaking the remote to activate something. But then out popped Kinect. Now I do feel this came from the PlayStations EyeToy, which in fact I thoroughly enjoyed when I had it. It was a bit of a pain to use but the principles were there and with the generation of gaming at that time, it did what it was meant to do. But Kinect made it more involving. There were no remotes, just your body, and it also was able to register multiple people in the same scene. It was great and fun, bit dodgy sometimes, but what isn't. But now out comes the Oculus Rift. Jesus does that look fun! You look a bit stupid with a massive piece of machinery over your eyes, but it really brings you into the game. You use your head to look around the scene. That is new. I knew it was always something that was to be mentioned, but now its real. It is something you can use. I can't wait for games to actually be more linked with the Oculus. I feel it's truly the next step in gaming, that you will actually be there. I know you have to use a controller still to move etc. but looking around is just one step. But recently I have just found out about project Morpheus. I recently bought the PlayStation Official Magazine, mainly because I say “Borderlands: The Pre-Sequel” being advertised, but as I was reading through I did come across the article about project Morpheus. Here is a snippet from what I read.

“Sony's other piece of software, Castle, is a lot more hands-on. It drops us in the courtyard of a medieval-style stronghold. An armoured mannequin is standing directly in front of us. The game tracks our hands this time, too, courtesy of the two Move controllers. We grip by pulling L2 and R2 and start grabbing and ripping away at the poor blighter's robes and limbs. Picking up a nearby sword, we then start slashing away at our stationary target with bloodthirsty swipes. We then snatched a crossbow to shoot some more targets – only to have a giant stone dragon appear and eat us whole. But easily the most astonishing part of the demo comes when the Sony man tells us we can physically walk around the mannequin with our feet. And we do.”

PlayStations Project Morpheus

Wait? What?! We can actually walk around, with our own two feet. What the two feet we stand on. What? From reading that article that is what stood out the most for me. That was something I could not believe, until I read it for the 10^th time. This is where gaming is going. I really hope it keeps going that way!


References:

Playstation Offical Magazine – Issue 096 May 2014