How to make a game interface?

Game interface design and operation design label: game design

User Psychology —— Application of Cognitive Principles

Cognitive psychology, broadly speaking, is about cognitive psychology. Human beings know objective things mainly through feeling, perception, attention, memory and thinking imagination. Therefore, anyone who studies people's cognitive psychological process belongs to cognitive psychology. In fact, the cognitive psychology we are talking about here refers to the psychology that studies the cognitive psychological process from the perspective of information processing, that is, using information theory and computer analogy, simulation and verification to study how knowledge is obtained, stored, exchanged and used. So the essence of modern cognitive psychology we refer to here is information processing psychology. Generally speaking, information processing psychology is also called cognitive psychology in a narrow sense.

1. Cognition process

The process of seeing and listening constitutes perception. Images and sounds are received as features of stimuli and encoded in an abstract way. By comparing the information in input and memory, the explanation of stimulus is obtained. This process is cognition. Human information processors include sensory, short-term memory, long-term memory, action processors and related cognitive processors. Each perception has a corresponding short-term memory and processor, and the overall block diagram of the human information model is shown in Figure 4.3. 1. Among them, the work performed by cognitive processor is what we usually call thinking. The result of thinking is either stored or sent to the action processor to control the action.

2. Cognitive psychology

(1) The core of modern cognitive psychology: The theoretical essence of modern cognitive psychology is to study people's psychological activities from the perspective of computer information processing, and regard the human brain as an information processing system like a computer.

(2) Two key concepts of modern cognitive psychology: the theoretical content of modern cognitive psychology is embodied in two key concepts. An important central concept of modern cognitive psychology is "information". To some extent, if the concept of "information" is removed, the theory of cognitive psychology will fall apart and it will be difficult to exist. Another important central concept of modern cognitive psychology is "information processing system". Information processing system theory is the main body of modern cognitive psychology theory.

(3) Research methods of modern cognitive psychology: The research methods of modern cognitive psychology include experiment, observation (including self-observation) and computer simulation.

3. Cognitive principles followed in human-computer interaction design.

According to user psychology and cognitive science, the following basic principles are put forward to guide the interactive design of man-machine interface.

(1) consistency principle. That is, from tasks, information expression, interface control operation and so on. As far as possible, it is consistent with the familiar patterns that users understand.

(2) compatibility. The compatibility between user expectations and the reality of interface design should be based on the user's previous experience.

(3) adaptability. Users should be in control, so the interface should adapt to users in many ways.

(4) guidance. Interface design should guide users through task prompts and feedback information, so as to be "user-centered".

(5) structural. To reduce complexity.

(6) economy. Interface design should use the least necessary steps to support users to realize an operation.

Under the guidance of the above basic principles, the following points are put forward for reference in interface design and screen design:

(1) From concrete to abstract. That is to say, firstly, provide users with objects whose specific interface design should be structured through multimedia interfaces. Then let learners summarize abstract concepts or principles from concrete objects and contents, or use simulation systems to guide abstract principles.

(2) Displaying invisible content through visual content. Try to show principles, formulas or abstract concepts with clear objects such as graphics, charts, animations and colors.

(3) Innovation is simulation-oriented. Highlight human-computer interaction, try to stimulate users' active thinking and participation, and stimulate users' desire to learn and create.

(4) Rational use of recognition and recall can reduce the burden of users' short-term memory. The so-called recognition is to ask users to choose the correct or best answer from several possible answers given by the system. Recall requires users to enter correct answers or keywords.

(5) Considering individual differences of users, use user language.

The above five points specifically reflect "from easy to difficult, and gradually strengthen." This principle comes from cognitive psychology.

Interface design principles:

(1) user principle. The design of man-machine interface should first establish the user type. Classification types can be from different angles, depending on the actual situation. After determining the types, we should predict their reactions to different interfaces according to their characteristics. This should be designed and analyzed from many aspects.

(2) The principle of minimum information. Man-machine interface design should try to reduce the user's memory burden and adopt a design scheme that is helpful to memory.

(3) Help and prompt principle. Respond to the user's operation command and help the user to deal with the problem. The system design should have the ability to recover the error scene, and there should be tips for handling the work inside the system, so as to give the initiative to the users as much as possible.

There are no fixed rules for interface design. However, in the long-term research of interface design and the survey of users, designers have explored a set of principles of interface design. Designers should follow the following principles:

First, the design of man-machine interface should be simple and easy to understand: the man-machine interface should not be a distraction. Game software is different from other kinds of application software. Everything in the visual elements of game software should serve the gameplay and night game experience. If it is too embellished or cumbersome, the man-machine interface will interfere with the player's attention and make him unable to concentrate on experiencing the game world. The man-machine interface should be concise and occupy as little screen space as possible. Contradictions have arisen. With the complexity of the game and the increase of data, players need to know more and more data and information. On the other hand, the demand for man-machine interface is sometimes extremely simple, and the less screen it takes up, the better. At the same time, the design of man-machine interface should be very easy to understand. The designer of Age of Empires once put forward the "first fifteen minutes rule". "The first fifteen minutes" means that for a game, if the novice can't understand the basic operation and strategy smoothly and start the game within the first fifteen minutes, or the hardcore player can't find the game interesting and challenging within the first fifteen minutes, he will give up the game. Therefore, the game interface should be easy to use, but also bring challenges to advanced players.

Second, the man-machine interface and the game world should be unified in style: from color to texture, they should be consistent and coordinated with the game world. Moreover, the interface should be unified, and there should be no excessive contrast or even irrelevant.

Third, the human-computer interface should have certain self-explanatory and learnable habits: the so-called self-explanatory means that a design can imply its own function through its own appearance. The simplest example, such as the door handle, its shape itself implies that the hand should hold it and press it down. The most typical example of man-machine interface design is windows window. The triangle in the lower right corner of the window is uneven, which comes from the design of the volume adjuster (the unevenness on the volume adjustment button implies its rotatability), suggesting that the mouse can pull it to change the window size.

Fourth, the man-machine interface should be balanced: all words and charts should be placed properly to form a sense of balance. Previous game designers had no basic training in graphic design, and when placing charts and words, they were random and disorganized, resulting in obviously unbalanced layout and inconspicuous important information.

5. Man-machine interface should be designed from a dynamic perspective: this may not be easy to understand. The most important difference between man-machine interface design and graphic design is that the former is dynamic and the latter is static. The final products of graphic design include advertising posters, book covers, brochures, etc., which are static pages that people read (in terms of emerging web design, it is closer to the latter). The final product of man-machine interface is software user interface, which is actually used by users through dynamic processes. The design of man-machine interface is not only to design a window menu and a control panel, but also to design a dynamic interaction. In the design, the cooperation between the user's various behavioral possibilities and dynamic visual effects must be considered.

6. When designing the user interface, efficiency should be taken into account: the interactive realization of the player when playing the game is realized through the following processes, 1 the player realizes the current demand-2 the player seeks the command-3 the player inputs the command (that is, the player clicks the corresponding button or presses the handle button)-4 the computer analyzes the command of the internal program-5 the computer gives feedback in a visual form (output, which needs to be realized at present). All the games, including all the software now, interact through the above-mentioned process countless times, and this interactive process mode will be the main or even the only interactive means for a long time. It is because of this process that we have to introduce the concept of efficiency. The task of user interface design, from the most fundamental aspect, is to reduce the work that users need to do from process 2 to process 3. The longer the player spends in this process, the longer the mouse passes, and the greater the workload consumed by the player. User interface design seeks to reduce or even eliminate this process, because the work consumed by this process is useless in its sense, and it has no meaning to the whole interaction. On the contrary, the existence of a large number of such processes will make users feel bored and rejected. As far as real-time strategy games are concerned, the user interface design of such games has been based on it since the early imperial era, that is, the game screen is separated from the user interface, the former occupies 70-80% of the screen, and the latter occupies a lower position. Until later, many popular real-time strategy games, such as red alert series (the user interface has been changed from the bottom to the right), StarCraft series and Warcraft series, not only show that this design has been supported by the majority of interface designers, but also show that this design has its mature side; At the same time, it also means that the user interface design is in a state of no innovation for a long time. Because as far as this design is concerned, there are still many defects, especially in efficiency. In order to complete the game, players need to constantly move the mouse between the game screen and the user interface to complete the instructions. The current design increases the distance the mouse moves and the time to give instructions. In this way, a lot of useless work in the game for a long time will make players feel tired. Although many methods have been tried to change this situation, such as introducing hot key design. However, this design for advanced players has not fundamentally changed the efficiency of game interface design. Many tools and software solve the problem of efficiency much better than games. The most obvious contribution is the right-click pop-up command box design, which effectively solves the problems of mouse movement distance and time consumption, thus objectively improving the efficiency of software operation. But if this design is applied to the game, it will inevitably increase the complexity of the interface, which is not as clear as the original split design. This contradicts the first principle of man-machine interface design, and at the same time has a joint impact on Article 234, which increases the difficulty and challenge of man-machine interface design. In fact, the sixth principle and the first principle of man-machine interface design are not contradictory in essence, which provides feasibility for the improvement and innovation of man-machine interface design.

7. The highest level of man-machine interface design is to be invisible: the so-called invisibility of man-machine interface means that the man-machine interface is very natural and easy to use, and the player is very comfortable to use, as if the man-machine interface is transparent and does not seem to feel its existence. This is the ultimate goal of all human-computer interface design, and it is also the direction of all game designers' efforts.

Interface design and evaluation

Evaluation is an important part of man-machine interface design, which should be carried out in the early stage or prototype stage of system design, so as to find design defects early and avoid waste of manpower and material resources.

The quality evaluation of interface design can usually be measured by four basic requirements:

(1) Whether the interface design is conducive to the completion of user goals;

(2) Whether the interface is easy to learn and use;

(3) How efficient the interface is;

(4) What are the potential problems in the design?

For the overall design and specific function block design of the interface, the application object can be comprehensively tested through the above-mentioned various interface design criteria. For the specific requirements of interface quality, only the following items are put forward for reference:

(1) practicality. Measuring the satisfaction of the interface in helping users complete tasks can only be obtained from the user questionnaire.

(2) effectiveness. Measurement indicators include error rate, task completion time, system equipment utilization rate, etc.

(3) Simple and easy-to-learn habits. It is measured by the reduction of error rate, the reduction of task completion time, the correct call of equipment and commands and the increase of user knowledge after the system is used for a period of time.

(4) Usage of system equipment and functions. If some devices or functions are not used by any users, they may be wrongly designed.

(5) User satisfaction. It is measured by user satisfaction, how many problems are found and interest in using them.

The method of interface evaluation has gradually changed from the traditional intuitive experience method to the scientific and systematic method. The traditional empirical methods are as follows:

(1) experimental method. After determining the overall goal of the experiment and the hypothetical conditions to be verified, the most reliable experimental methods are random and repeated tests. Finally, the experimental results are analyzed and summarized.

(2) Monitoring methods. That is, observing user behavior. There are many observation methods, such as direct monitoring, video monitoring and system monitoring. Generally, multiple methods are carried out at the same time.

(3) survey methods. This method can provide important data for evaluation and can be used at any stage of interface design. The survey method can be questionnaire (questionnaire) or interview. However, it should be pointed out that the reliability and effectiveness of the data obtained by this method are not as good as those obtained by experimental methods and monitoring methods.

Another formal method is different from empirical method. This method is based on the interaction model between users and interfaces. It is different from the empirical method in that it does not need to directly test or observe the actual operation of users, and its advantage is that it can be evaluated before the detailed design and implementation of the interface. However, it is impossible to fully predict the situation reflected by users, so simple and reliable empirical methods are often used at present.

(1) layout

The screen layout is focused on different functions. Each functional area should be focused and have obvious functions. No matter what kind of function design, its screen layout should follow the following five principles:

① the principle of balance. Pay attention to the balance of the screen. Do not pile up data. Overcrowded display can also produce visual fatigue and reception errors.

② Anticipation principle. All objects on the screen, such as windows, buttons, menus, etc. Should be handled in a unified way so that the actions of the object can be expected.

③ Economic principles. In other words, while providing enough information, we should pay attention to simplicity and clarity. In particular, the media should make good use of the principle of media selection.

④ The principle of sequence. The display order of objects should be arranged as required. Usually, dialogue should appear first, and then the system should be realized by dialogue segmentation.

⑤ Normalization. In the design of application system, screen symmetry, display command, dialogue and prompt lines should be unified and standardized.

In the screen layout, we should also pay attention to the setting of some basic data.

According to the above principles, the screen design should be:

(1) Divide the screen into several areas by function, usually: title area, work area, prompt and error handling area, and others. Example 1

(2) The user interface should contain all necessary information. Example 2

(3) The use density of the screen should be appropriate to prevent it from being too thin or too dense. Example 3

(2) Words and phrases

Words and expressions not only appear as text display media, but also appear when designing titles, titles, tips, control commands, dialogues and other functions. Attention should be paid to the design format and content of the following words:

Pay attention to the conciseness of language. Avoid using computer terminology; Try to use affirmative sentences instead of negative ones; Use the active voice instead of the passive voice; Have a polite but not overemphasized written dialogue; According to different users, apply psychological principles to use language; Try to avoid abbreviations in English words; Try to use verbs describing operations in the labels of buttons and function keys; Abbreviations are used as abbreviations in data input dialogues and command language dialogues with keywords; When the text is long, you can reduce the number of characters by compression or adopt some coding methods. Example 1 Example 2

2 format. In the design of screen display, a picture should not have too much text. If you must have more words, try to group and paginate, change the font with bold keywords, but try to unify the words in the same line. English words, except slogans, should be lowercase and legible.

③ Information content. Information content display should not only use concise and clear expressions, but also use simple sentences familiar to users, and try not to scroll left and right. When the content is more, it should be divided into blank plates or small windows for memory and understanding. Important fields can be bold and flashing to attract attention and enhance the effect, which is varied and can be selected according to the actual situation. Example 3 Example 4

(3) the use of color

Color mixing is also an important design of screen display. Color is not only an effective strengthening technology, but also has aesthetic value. When using colors, please pay attention to the following points:

① Limit the number of colors displayed at the same time. Generally, there should not be more than 4 or 5 kinds of the same picture. Different levels and shapes can be used to match colors and increase varieties. Example 1

② The colors of moving objects in the picture should be bright, and the colors of non-moving objects should be dim. The colors of objects should be as different as possible, the foreground color should be bright and the background color should be dim. Example 2

Try to avoid putting incompatible colors together, such as yellow and blue, red and green, unless it is for comparison. Example 3

(4) If colors are used to represent certain information or object attributes, users should understand this representation and try to express it with conventional criteria. Example 4

In a word, the screen display design should ultimately achieve a pleasant display effect and guide users to pay attention to the most important information, but it does not contain too many contradictory stimuli.

Design process:

1) investigation and study

2) Basic conceptual design

3) production interface prototype

4) Feasibility test

5) Repeated optimization

Operation design

1) Two-dimensional operation priority principle

2) the shortest mouse movement principle

3) Design principles of shallow menu

4) The principle that shortcut keys are placed on the left.

5) information maximization principle

6) Classification principle of role operation

7) Multiple channels

8) Settling property