What do you find annoying in a User Interface?
by Jean-Pierre Cuerrier · in General Discussion · 11/02/2007 (10:31 pm) · 9 replies
Hey everyone,
We are designing the user interface for our game. In our design process we are having difficulty with some of the less important options. So we want to put this out to all of you. What are some of the annoying things that you have come across when using a games GUI? Some dinosaur features that should not be present? Anything. Thanks for your help in advance
RT
We are designing the user interface for our game. In our design process we are having difficulty with some of the less important options. So we want to put this out to all of you. What are some of the annoying things that you have come across when using a games GUI? Some dinosaur features that should not be present? Anything. Thanks for your help in advance
RT
About the author
Software Engineer for the Department of National Defence (Canada) during the day, I work part time on game projects and attempt to do so as professionally as possible by leveraging my experience. Blog: http://instantcarnage.tumblr.com/
#2
11/04/2007 (4:54 pm)
Pages and pages of "layers" full of options and choices to make, that separate you from the "play the game" button at the end. 
#3
11/05/2007 (8:43 am)
Unless it's a heavily GUI dependent game, I dislike GUI altogether. In a game such as, say, Oblivion, I'd rather have things like my health/mana/whatever represented graphically than by an icon. I personally feel it breaks immersion to a high degree, which is fairly important for me, but may not be for others. *shrug*
#4
11/05/2007 (10:21 am)
No modal dialogs. As few popups as possible. 
#5
As far as game setup dialogues are concerned, I dislike the pages upon pages of setup options you must navigate in Battlefield and in Halo 1/2/3 (on the Xbox/Xbox 360). I much prefer the menu setup in Quake 4 and the Half-Life series, where you can choose to immerse yourself in the "pages upon pages of setup options" if you wish, or you can choose to skip all that baloney and get into the game quickly. An "Instant Play" or "Play NOW" button on the very first user menu is a Good Thing.
(DVD movies annoy me for the same reason. Sometimes I just want an "instant-play" button or feature that skips all the preliminaries, including the Main Menu, and goes directly to the movie. That way, I could load an entire trilogy or series into my machine, and have the disks run one after the other without stopping.)
2. HEADS-UP DISPLAYS:
As far as HUDs are concerned, I've gotten used to them over the years. As long as a HUD covers less than half of the display, I can live with it. However, I've known some people who get violently upset at the overly intrusive HUDs in a game. To them, a HUD should be a silent helper, not a kibitzer -- you know, it's the difference between a speedometer and your mother-in-law sitting in the back seat nagging you endlessly about how fast you're driving. It's the "immersion" aspect of the game, as @Ross pointed out. I do appreciate the games that allow you to use a hotkey or controller button to toggle between full HUD, minimal HUD and no HUD.
3. IN-GAME POPUPS:
Don't. Just don't. They're annoying, they're terminally distracting (the bad guy is just waiting for you to click the "OK" button so he can blow you away before your brain gets back into the zone), they steal the mouse focus and position when they're poorly programmed, and they don't always work the way the programmer expected them to work. I'm serious about this. Popup windows in a RTS or FPS game are very poor programming practice. They should be taken out and shot by a firing squad, and their creators or programmers should be forced to watch them die. If you think you need to use a popup window, then figure out why you think you need it, and find another way to do the task without using a popup.
Benign word balloons attached to characters, like in the Zelda series, are okay, so long as the player can ignore them or make them disappear instantly by pressing the "any" key.
4. CUT SCENES:
I enjoy cut scenes. Cut scenes are great. Cut scenes are the sour cream and chives on the monster baked potato of a really good game. (Or the onion rings and barbecue sauce on the monster hamburger, or the Swiss cheese and mushrooms on the sirloin steak, or the lemon and capers on the broiled trout, or ... never mind.) But there are three things that can make a cut scene really annoying:
- Cut scenes that serve no useful purpose.
- Cut scenes that are poorly done, or are poorly integrated into the action just before or just after they are shown.
- Cut scenes that take too long to load.
Remember [b]Command and Conquer: renegade[/i]? It had examples of good cut scenes, and examples of all three kinds of bad cut scenes.
11/06/2007 (7:58 am)
1. SETUP DIALOGUES:As far as game setup dialogues are concerned, I dislike the pages upon pages of setup options you must navigate in Battlefield and in Halo 1/2/3 (on the Xbox/Xbox 360). I much prefer the menu setup in Quake 4 and the Half-Life series, where you can choose to immerse yourself in the "pages upon pages of setup options" if you wish, or you can choose to skip all that baloney and get into the game quickly. An "Instant Play" or "Play NOW" button on the very first user menu is a Good Thing.
(DVD movies annoy me for the same reason. Sometimes I just want an "instant-play" button or feature that skips all the preliminaries, including the Main Menu, and goes directly to the movie. That way, I could load an entire trilogy or series into my machine, and have the disks run one after the other without stopping.)
2. HEADS-UP DISPLAYS:
As far as HUDs are concerned, I've gotten used to them over the years. As long as a HUD covers less than half of the display, I can live with it. However, I've known some people who get violently upset at the overly intrusive HUDs in a game. To them, a HUD should be a silent helper, not a kibitzer -- you know, it's the difference between a speedometer and your mother-in-law sitting in the back seat nagging you endlessly about how fast you're driving. It's the "immersion" aspect of the game, as @Ross pointed out. I do appreciate the games that allow you to use a hotkey or controller button to toggle between full HUD, minimal HUD and no HUD.
3. IN-GAME POPUPS:
Don't. Just don't. They're annoying, they're terminally distracting (the bad guy is just waiting for you to click the "OK" button so he can blow you away before your brain gets back into the zone), they steal the mouse focus and position when they're poorly programmed, and they don't always work the way the programmer expected them to work. I'm serious about this. Popup windows in a RTS or FPS game are very poor programming practice. They should be taken out and shot by a firing squad, and their creators or programmers should be forced to watch them die. If you think you need to use a popup window, then figure out why you think you need it, and find another way to do the task without using a popup.
Benign word balloons attached to characters, like in the Zelda series, are okay, so long as the player can ignore them or make them disappear instantly by pressing the "any" key.
4. CUT SCENES:
I enjoy cut scenes. Cut scenes are great. Cut scenes are the sour cream and chives on the monster baked potato of a really good game. (Or the onion rings and barbecue sauce on the monster hamburger, or the Swiss cheese and mushrooms on the sirloin steak, or the lemon and capers on the broiled trout, or ... never mind.) But there are three things that can make a cut scene really annoying:
- Cut scenes that serve no useful purpose.
- Cut scenes that are poorly done, or are poorly integrated into the action just before or just after they are shown.
- Cut scenes that take too long to load.
Remember [b]Command and Conquer: renegade[/i]? It had examples of good cut scenes, and examples of all three kinds of bad cut scenes.
#6
11/06/2007 (8:01 am)
By the way, maybe you will post some screenshots of your GUI? I think, you'll be able to get many useful advices this way and choose which suits you best.
#7
11/07/2007 (7:17 am)
The art school that thinks coolness is camoflaging the information the GUI is trying to impart.
#8
Thanks again!
RT
11/07/2007 (10:10 pm)
Thank you for all of your input. I will post some of our GUI's once they are complete :o) Hopefully we'll have some positive feedback then.Thanks again!
RT
#9
Also, I prefer a minimalistic and fast gui, but balanced with very readable components. Keep the health bar visible, but out of the way of experiencing the world.
Half-Life 2, along with all of valve's source implementations hits my GUI g-spot every time ;p
11/08/2007 (2:45 am)
Not directly a GUI complaint, but not being able to advance through any form of cutscene or dialog. If you want to have scrolling text or video of any kind, 1 click should advance to the end immediately, and a 2nd should advance to the next component.Also, I prefer a minimalistic and fast gui, but balanced with very readable components. Keep the health bar visible, but out of the way of experiencing the world.
Half-Life 2, along with all of valve's source implementations hits my GUI g-spot every time ;p
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