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UI design: regarding Rounded/Straight line icons....

#1
In the latest devpost, Josh posted a question as to whether its best to use round or square icons.
This is basically a question of aesthetics and personal preference, but a few guidelines that cover some basics:
First of all, the portal into the universe called limit theory is basically a square screen (for most of us, anyway!). This means, we have limited space which precludes a specific constrained view of the world. On top of this world is the functional UI (In my understanding, 'the world in 3D' is also a UI), which the user expects to deliver certain ways of interaction with said 3D world, or more precisely, the world as that world unfolds in our imagination (the 'meaningful' world)

Secondly, in terms of user interface design, the goal is to ultimately deliver a as transparent, efficient and meaningful as possible way to interact with the world. If you boil it down, there are different 'modes' of interacting in LT (as there are in most other software products). When Josh mentions shapes of basic Icons for navigating different 'modes of interaction) - in itself a mode of navigation - my first thought was: Well, do you need icons for that? And if so, how to do this as transparent, efficient and meaningful as possible? Considering the screen is inherently square, why use circular icons? Well. it makes sense from an aesthetically meaningful perspective (humans 'like'/'prefer' organic/rounded shapes), but from an transparent and efficient perspective? Not so much... the circular icons are wasting precious screen real estate (not efficient), and presents a contradictory aesthetic (circular/organic vs. square/artificial) when placing them close to the edge of a square window or even close to the edge of the screen.

Also, when discussing design of transparent and efficient UI, Basic knowledge of the typical users knowledge of - or experience with - different user interfaces comes in very handy, as the use of symbols and icons can be done so as not to confuse the typical user, by presenting a user interface with elements, the user is already familiar with. This ensures the user doesn't spend too much cognitive energy and time in decoding and constructing meaning out of the perceived interface. In short, my second thought was: Why not just use a basic Tabbed interface for navigating between 'modes of operation', or as someone before my asked for, for navigating between 'workspaces'. Then just use text to signify what each tab brings of functionality, instead of constructing new icons, which the user has to decode and re-construct cognitively to give the correct meaning.

Well, this is where 'aesthetics' comes in: By using a specific theme, or style, the game conveys to the user a certain 'feel', which IMHO is very very important to the overall quality of the game. This feel is an amalgamation of all the little subtle differences to other experiences, the user has already had with similar games, good and/or bad! And the aesthetics, visual style, choice of icons/text, flow of interactions, is very important in this regard. So, sometimes its better to give up on efficiency and/or transparency, to gain MUCH more on the meaningfulness - or 'feel' - side of things. It's a bit like listening to music - spending time on listening to music is not a very efficient activity in terms of being productive in society (in terms of getting work done!), nor is it very transparent (listening to music actually pulls your focus away from things-at-hand, that needs attention!), but listening to music conveys emotion or produces a certain feeling inside people, an effect which is very important to making people happy. And, we all know, happy people are much more productive members of society then unhappy people. OK, so that might have been a slightly corny analogy, but hopefully you get the picture :)

To sum it up:
Consider your user interface: Are you using an element to make it transparent, efficient and/or meaningful? How does it work in conjunction with all the other elements?

So, Josh, you HAVE to be VERY sure that people LOVE hitting that round icon with that particular sound, producing that 'feel', over and over again to let it stay in the UI! Or it will end up as a nuisance, as a constant 'chipping away at my happiness'-feel whenever the user needs to activate that icon!

DISCLAIMER! My native language is not English, so please bear with me! Also, the above is probably very incoherent and incomprehensible, for that am very sorry! Please, don't be shy and let me know if I should clarify or extend any of the points made!
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Re: UI design: regarding Rounded/Straight line icons....

#3
I think Mass Effect had a good harmony between it's interface and it's soundscape,
it felt very alien bit also futuristic and intuitive.

I rather like Joshed rounded boxes and procedural icons, it think they definitely feel like part of the limit theory universe.
I can't recall if he has sound effects hooked up to button clicks yet though. :think: :thumbup:
"A sufficiently advanced technology is indistinguishable from magic."
- Arthur C. Clarke
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Re: UI design: regarding Rounded/Straight line icons....

#4
Ooooh... DWMagus IS You, Josh? :wtf: I'm late to the table here, and did a little people search on the forum, no 'parnell' or 'josh' coming up, so excuse me if I'm wrong!
Anyway, Josh, if you're reading this, Thanks for the warm welcome!
I tried to convey a - even if impossible - distilled view of what I've learned over some 20 years, since uni-days! Yes, I'm an ole geezer, back in the day i was only the 2nd in my country to become a PhD-student in Computer Gaming, which we ofc weren't allowed to call it it then. Also, I'm from the humanities, from media/communications, but specialized in e-learning and 'humanistic computer science', sooo ancient now!

I think You're doing an amazing job, what You've accomplished the last 2 years on your own is nothing short of amazing!!! :mrgreen: :thumbup: Also, I like how you play around with things that old bastards like me take as already established good practices. Just make sure you're not falling through the same holes as a lot of us has in the past! :twisted:

I'll be happy to elaborate on any UI subject, or even system design subject, if you need/want a different, but still educated and hopefully relevant, view on a problem or whatnot! Don't be shy!
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Re: UI design: regarding Rounded/Straight line icons....

#5
Wow, first time I got mistaken for Josh. :oops:

No, I'm not Josh. He shows up in red as one name 'JoshParnell' - Profile here. (you can even find his posts by clicking on the link on that page that says "Search User's Posts" ;) )

But considering how much Josh likes these things, you can bet he'll respond to it eventually. :D
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