MA Study into Customisable Game UI

Research At the beginning of the year, I knew nothing about UI design, even less about how to create interfaces myself. I started off by researching the theory behind UI creation in games. I learnt about art style, colour theory, shapes and sizes and semiotics. I learnt that consistency is key and that aesthetics really can make or break a design. I also learnt about Diegetic, Non Diegetic, Meta and Spatial categories. I learnt that these categories depend on whether the player and the character are aware of the interface elements and how this affects their design. With this theory fresh in my mind, I went on to explore my own experiences with bad UI and broke down which features worked or didn't work for me personally and why. This really helped me to understand what to do or not to do when creating my own designs in the future.  I chose an interface which I didn't like and went on to improve it. While this was purely subjective, it helped me to utilise my research on colour t

As my MA comes to a close, I would like to reflect on my project. To fully understand the progress I have made, I would like to look back at my research, ideas and development. I began my research by looking into how a good interface is created. I found a  number of great sources online which taught me about how aesthetics and function  are utilised during the design process and how the four main categories for UI  function are key to creating a successful design. I then looked into bad interfaces and what makes a design fail. I started to look at  examples from my own experience and looked at whether these were subjectively  good or bad to other players. I found that a lot of complaints were made by colour  blind players who struggle to differentiate between various hues. I found that many  games’ colour blindness presets are still not enough for most players as colour  blindness is a huge spectrum that varies from person to person. This kickstarted my  ideas on player based colour cu

As my MA comes to a close, I would like to reflect on my project. To determine the project's success, we must first look at my intended outcome in order to make comparisons. The main outcome I am aiming to achieve for this project is to create a prototype or  concept which demonstrates the ability to customise colour, size and layout of an  interface. The idea would be based in a customisation menu within the game’s  options. For colour, there would be a set of pre-designed ‘themes’, including a set for each  variation of colour blindness. There would also be a colour wheel available to allow  players to finetune the colours of individual interface panels. For size, there would be preset small, medium and large options for quick adjustment  for visually impaired players. This would apply to the entire HUD and would scale  everything. There would also be an option to select individual elements, such as text,  buttons, panels, etc. This would allow players to scale certain aspects an

As my MA comes to a close, I would like to reflect on my project. To understand the scope of my research, we must look at the aims and objectives I originally laid out. My original idea was to explore the concept of a system in which players have the ability to  fully customise their own interface. I wanted to include features such as: - colour wheel selection for each section of UI - resizing whole panels or buttons - drag and drop panels to create new layouts The uses for these customisation options are limitless. It will be accessible to people  with disabilities, sensory issues or even colour blindness and will allow them to  create a gameplay experience that is both functional and enjoyable. Live streaming is a huge part of the gaming community and these options will be  very useful to streamers when arranging their overlays. This will mean that no  elements overlap the camera or subscription notifications. It will even be enjoyable to  regular players just for personalisation of

As my MA comes to a close, I would like to reflect on my project. To understand why I began this research, we must first understand the rationale behind it. This idea is one very close to my heart for personal reasons. Video games were a huge part of my childhood. My parents and I would spend  hours playing network games on our PCs but this became difficult when my mother  became ill. She always loved to play games such as Diablo, Unreal Tournament and  Warcraft, but this became limited by physical disabilities, especially due to hand  tremors. A game interface is the bridge between the player and the game so, if it does not fit  the needs of a player, it is useless. In my experience gaming does not cater to  disabilities and I would like to change this. The idea of removing limitations to allow  people with disabilities to play games is a ground breaking and necessary step that,  I believe, should already have been taken. In recent years, game studios have been trying to improve acces