A Study of Graphical User Interfaces in Video Games
THE GOOD, THE BAD AND THE UNPLEASANT – A STUDY OF GRAPHICAL USER INTERFACES IN VIDEO GAMES Master of Science Thesis Jyrki Turunen 1 ABSTRACT Tampere University of Technology Master's Degree Programme in Information Technology JYRKI TURUNEN: The Good, The Bad and the unpleasant – A study of graphical user interfaces in video games Master of Science Thesis, 94 pages, 1 appendix page January 2017 Major: User Experience Examiner: Thomas Olsson Keywords: video games, gameplay, user interface design, usability, game design, graphical user interfaces This thesis revolves around user interface design, more specifically graphical user interface design in a particular context, which in this case is video games. It describes what makes this design focus so unique and important, how it differs from “traditional” software interface design and how do you actually make a great user interface for a video game. The thesis aims to analyze existing solutions, examples and guidelines for GUI design and then provide a concrete set of instructions and tips on how any designer can improve, hopefully even drastically, their own game's user interface or at least ensure a basic, acceptable baseline for it. So far I have not come across any paper with a similar topic, so the novelty value here lies in the establishment of basic guidelines for video game UI designers regardless of their speciality. The structure of the thesis starts with a short introduction to the topic and a description of the methodology used in the thesis. It then proceeds to talk about user interface design in general, introducing also the terms of usability and user experience (UX), graphical user interface (GUI) and game design while also providing more than one angle into the design process.
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