CS 352, W12

Eric Happe, Daniel Sills, Daniel Thornton, Marcos Zavala, Ben Zoon

ANDROID/IOS RPG GAME UI

PROJECT OVERVIEWThe purpose of this project is to design a user interface (UI) for a mobile game application that runs on various touch screen Android/iOS devices. The application in question is a Roleplaying-genre game (RPG) where the player moves a character in the world and performing turn-based events.

• There are thousands of games in the market that use Android/iOS touch screen capabilities for users to control the game.

• Most have poorly developed UIs• Created with an attempt to create a control structure similar to

gamepads used for console gaming. • There has been a lack of consideration of how to effectively

design a touch control system that is engaging and satisfying for the players of these games

What's the problem?

Image Source: http://www.androidpit.com/en/android/blog?tag=Malware

• By creating a usable UI, android and iOS market shoppers would have a larger variety of options as to which games to download.

• The user would also have a more pleasing experience playing the game instead of experiencing frustration and anger due to the poor usability of the interface.

How would this help Users?

Image Source: http://www.mrthaibox123.com/?p=1060

The target users for this project are people (gamers, students bored in class, etc.) who find it interesting to play fantasy RPG/action games that use Android/iOS touch screen capabilities for users to control the game and meet the following criteria.

Know how to use a general Android/iOS application.

Own and android phone or some way to run Android/iOS applications.

Have access to the network to download the game.

Do not have a disability that prevents them from performing common Android/iOS tasks (reading text and graphics, performing multi-touch gestures, etc.)

Can read English

Target Users

JUSTIFICATIONS OF DESIGN CHOICES

• Source: http://campuslife.asus.com

Arranged Buttons in a way that would allow for better playability of the user.

• Bad designs that helped determine what would be the best way to arrange buttons.

• Source: http://www.techwench.com/

Button Arrangement

Arranged Buttons on the top and mainly to the left side of the screen.

Changed the way in which the user was given feedback from the buttons (menus)

Originally when a user would enter a menu there would be buttons that were auto highlighted.

confusion for user Made user believe his options were restricted to highlighted

buttons. Found user was not being given the appropriate feedback trough user

interview and evaluating the interface using Nielson's heuristics. Violating the principle of feedback

Justify the new design of our menus with the principle of feedback

Button Highlights only after User clicks on it

Menus within the game are consistent trough out each sub menu. Main buttons are all round When button clicked the button highlights to same color All buttons have clickable appearance

Justify this design choice using the principle of Internal Consistency. Note: at a point we experienced to much consistency to the point where

the user could not differentiate between two different menu buttons.

Menu consistency

JUSTIFICATIONS OF DESIGN CHOICES (CONTINUED)

JUSTIFICATIONS OF DESIGN CHOICES (CONTINUED)

JUSTIFICATIONS OF DESIGN CHOICES (CONTINUED)