Scaling Menus in Adobe

One of the features of my concept is the ability to rescale the in-game HUD. Although this ability has been showcased in a few games, it is not a mainstream feature that is implemented as industry standard. I believe that this needs to change.

The Adobe Suite allows users to set sizes for windows within their software. This is as simple as click and drag. For today we will be focussing on Adobe Photoshop to demonstrate, however all Adobe programmes operate using the same controls.

The Adobe help page states that 'to resize a panel, drag any side of the panel'. ⁽¹⁾ This allows users to quickly expand or shrink menus to their own personal preferences and maximises personalisation. However 'Some panels, such as the Colour Panel cannot be resized by dragging'. ⁽¹⁾ So users do not have this freedom with every single tool and menu in the programme.

Panels can also be expanded and collapsed to predetermined sizes. '[users] can collapse panels to icons to reduce clutter on the workspace'. ⁽¹⁾ It really is just as simple as a click. 'To collapse or expand all panel icons in a column, [users] click the double arrow at the top of the dock. To expand a single panel icon, click it'. ⁽¹⁾

Conclusion

The ability to rescale panels is already being used in so many creative industry softwares. The ability to collapse and expand menus is such a common feature across programmes. With the right funding, the ability to drag menus to custom scales should be an achievable step for UI in creative softwares and games alike. I believe that with enough time and resources, this ability could benefit games and their disabled playerbase indefinitely. 

References 

(1) Adobe. (2021). Adobe Photoshop Workspace Basics. 
Available: https://helpx.adobe.com/photoshop/using/workspace-basics.html
Last accessed 28th June 2021.