The 13 Basic Principles of Gameplay Design - Applied to UI Design

In this Gamasutra article Matt Aller has taken the "12 principles of animation" (developed by Disney) and applied them to games. Since both animated films and games share a strong engrossment factor as well as an iconic/symbolic language this seems like a clever thing to do. For some of these principles the author has exemplified how it affects UI design, but I feel that this can be further expanded. Here Goes:

1. Focal point - Never allow the player to guess what they should focus on.
- My example: The Menu system of the Wii has very prominent buttons hinting at the "right choice".

2. Anticipation - Time is needed to inform the player that something is about to happen.
- My example: Use of audio or visual queues to prepare the player for certain actions/events.

3. Announce Change - Communicate all changes to the player. This short step occurs between Anticipation and the event itself.
- My example: Image filter to communicate change in internal status.

4. Believable Events and Behavior - Every event or behavior must occur according to the logic and expectations of the player.
- My example: The now ever prevalent "fade-to-death" effect, it represents our notion that our vision, as well as the rest of our physical and cognitive abilities, would be impaired when we are close to dying (although most of us have never experienced this in reality.).

6. Physics - The player's primary logic operates within the known possibilities of physics.
- Authors example: The GUI's theme references scrapbook elements. In which case, animated transitions, highlights, etc. follow the physical characteristics of paper.

7. Sound
Authors example: Only visually prominent UI elements should have sound effects attached to them, so as not to muffle the auditory experience.

8. Pacing - Keep in mind the desired sense of urgency, the rate in which events occur, the level of concentration required and how often events are being repeated.
- My example: Status updates in a Death match (like; "so-and-so kill so-and-so with a shot gun") updates frequently but is of minor importance to player performance - should therefor demand very little visual attention.

(9. Spacing - Understand how much space is available both on-screen and in-world, recognize the spatial relationship between elements and take into account the effects of modifying those spaces.)

(10. Linear Design versus Component Breakdown)

11. Player - How does the player factor into this? How does the player interact with everything that has been designed? More than just device input, address how the player contributes to the experience.
- My example: Test your solutions on actual players! Observe rather than ask.

(12. Communication - Is the appropriate team member correctly aware of the objective?)

13. Appeal - When addressing anyone, ask yourself, "Does this draw the audience in?" This applies to (but is not limited to) the player, the spectator, your fellow developers, the publisher, and their marketing team. If it's not a good idea, there's no need to continue until it becomes a good idea or is replaced by something better.
- My example: Strive for appealing, intriguing and eye-catching solutions that provide players with a novel experience (Runner's Vision is an excellent example)

This is very interesting and I think that it could be worth while looking over the results from our objective game study (the Hud element list) with these principles in mind. The Author again and aging refers to the Primary logic of the player, or what we call "the primary frame".

My opinion is that the more realistic (mimetic) a game experience is the more sensitive players are to the game breaking primary frame logic. The setting however, have a huge effect on this - a well implemented setting will instead make player sensitive to brakes in, what we call, the character frame.