Expanding upon the
"Determining the UI strategy" post of last week, we would like to rethink the Spatial Interaction category and add a Navigation Significance category.
As graphical hardware constraints gradually disappear, 3D game spaces grow more detailed. As 3D game spaces grow more detailed, the amount of affordances that can be deduced from them grow larger. However, the amount of deduced affordances is always larger than the amount of affordances actually available to the player (in Mirror's Edge, only some doors can be opened; in Bad Company, only some parts of the environments can actually be destroyed). In these cases (level 2), the UI designers should aim to amplify the affordances actually available to the player, and suppress the affordances not available yet deducable from the environment. If full diegesis is not a design goal, UI designers can work with spatial information such as the runner vision in Mirror's Edge or shiny shaders on pickupable objects - if diegesis is important, signifiers might be a better tool such as smoke coming from barrels that will explode if the player shoots at them.
The significance of navigation within the geometry affects the importance of spatial UI elements. In games in which navigation is of importance (level 2 and 3), it is also important to maintain the player's sense of direction within the game environments. The importance of diegesis affects the design approach to this; if diegesis is important, the use of signifiers is appropriate (example: red smoke in Bad Company to indicate rally points), if diegesis is of less importance UI designers could also experiment with spatial information (example: the red beacons in Mirror's Edge time trial mode to indicate checkpoints).
As graphical hardware constraints gradually disappear, 3D game spaces grow more detailed. As 3D game spaces grow more detailed, the amount of affordances that can be deduced from them grow larger. However, the amount of deduced affordances is always larger than the amount of affordances actually available to the player (in Mirror's Edge, only some doors can be opened; in Bad Company, only some parts of the environments can actually be destroyed). In these cases (level 2), the UI designers should aim to amplify the affordances actually available to the player, and suppress the affordances not available yet deducable from the environment. If full diegesis is not a design goal, UI designers can work with spatial information such as the runner vision in Mirror's Edge or shiny shaders on pickupable objects - if diegesis is important, signifiers might be a better tool such as smoke coming from barrels that will explode if the player shoots at them.
The significance of navigation within the geometry affects the importance of spatial UI elements. In games in which navigation is of importance (level 2 and 3), it is also important to maintain the player's sense of direction within the game environments. The importance of diegesis affects the design approach to this; if diegesis is important, the use of signifiers is appropriate (example: red smoke in Bad Company to indicate rally points), if diegesis is of less importance UI designers could also experiment with spatial information (example: the red beacons in Mirror's Edge time trial mode to indicate checkpoints).
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