The design space revisited, once again

Inspired partly by the work of Jesper Juul mentioned in the previous post, we have once again taken a look on how the design space can be modified even further. In the last proposal, we laid forth a UI design space with two dimensions; the spatiality in relation to the 3D game space, and the existential qualities within the fictional game world. Jesper Juul speaks of the game space as a meeting between fiction and rules. As mentioned before, there are cases (from an UI point of view) when fiction and rules do not overlap but are still in the game space, resulting in information outside the fiction part of the UI but within the rule space; for example runner vision in ME. In a similar way, there are cases when fictional and rule-based entities is presented outside the (3D) game space, such as overlay GPS systems or the GTA4 cell phone.

An alternative take on the UI design space would be to describe it as the collision of the 3D game space, the fictional space, and the rule space. The old design space expanded with a rule dimension, sort of.


What's good about this? Traditional HUD elements today resides only in the rule space, outside the 3D game space and the fiction space. To pursue an immersive/engrossing experience UI designers should focus on pushing the UI closer to the core of the design space.

Another advantage is that the model can be exploited from different directions depending on the nature of the game. A competition based experience is a lot about rules, a mimicry-heavy game experience is a lot about the fiction, and pursuing vertigo is a lot about feeling that you are one with the 3D game space, which means that depending on a games focus, the model can be exploited from different directions. For example, if a game is heavily competitive an overlay HUD might actually be preferable while signifiers might be regarded as vague information, while in a heavily mimicry based situation spatial and non-diegetic representations might break the immersive experience. Exploitation of the earlier design space differed a lot depending of the nature of the game.

This UI design space also illustrates the role of the game UI designer as we see it, being involved with both game designers (rule space), level designers (game space), and fiction/art director (fiction space).