10 User Interface Design Fundamentals

 10 User Interface Design Fundamentals

 By Kyle Sollenberger

It's no great mystery that truly great user interfaces are the ones that are engineered to stay out of the way.
'Staying out of the way' means not distracting your users. Rather, good UIs let your users complete goals. The result? A reduction in training and support costs, and happier, satisfied and highly engaged users.
When getting started on a new interface, make sure to remember these fundamentals ...
Editor's Note: Kyle will be talking about User Interface Design at The Future of Web Design NYC.

1. Know your user

“Obsess over customers: when given the choice between obsessing over competitors or customers, always obsess over customers. Start with customers and work backward.” – Jeff Bezos

Your user’s goals are your goals, so learn them. Restate them, repeat them. Then, learn about your user’s skills and experience, and what they need. Find out what interfaces they like and sit down and watch how they use them. Do not get carried away trying to keep up with the competition by mimicking trendy design styles or adding new features. By focusing on your user first, you will be able to create an interface that lets them achieve their goals.

2. Pay attention to patterns

Users spend the majority of their time on interfaces other than your own (Facebook, MySpace, Blogger, Bank of America, school/university, news websites, etc). There is no need to reinvent the wheel. Those interfaces may solve some of the same problems that users perceive within the one you are creating. By using familiar UI patterns, you will help your users feel at home.

CoTweet uses a familiar UI pattern found in email applications.

3. Stay consistent

“The more users’ expectations prove right, the more they will feel in control of the system and the more they will like it.” – Jakob Nielson

Your users need consistency. They need to know that once they learn to do something, they will be able to do it again. Language, layout, and design are just a few interface elements that need consistency. A consistent interface enables your users to have a better understanding of how things will work, increasing their efficiency.

4. Use visual hierarchy

“Designers can create normalcy out of chaos; they can clearly communicate ideas through the organizing and manipulating of words and pictures.” – Jeffery Veen, The Art and Science of Web Design

Design your interface in a way that allows the user to focus on what is most important. The size, color, and placement of each element work together, creating a clear path to understanding your interface. A clear hierarchy will go great lengths in reducing the appearance of complexity (even when the actions themselves are complex).

5. Provide feedback

Your interface should at all times speak to your user, when his/her actions are both right and wrong or misunderstood. Always inform your users of actions, changes in state and errors, or exceptions that occur. Visual cues or simple messaging can show the user whether his or her actions have led to the expected result.

BantamLive provides inline loading indicators for most actions within their interface.

6. Be forgiving

No matter how clear your design is, people will make mistakes. Your UI should allow for and tolerate user error. Design ways for users to undo actions, and be forgiving with varied inputs (no one likes to start over because he/she put in the wrong birth date format). Also, if the user does cause an error, use your messaging as a teachable situation by showing what action was wrong, and ensure that she/he knows how to prevent the error from occurring again.
A great example can be seen in How to increase signups with easier captchas.

7. Empower your user

Once a user has become experienced with your interface, reward him/her and take off the training wheels. The breakdown of complex tasks into simple steps will become cumbersome and distracting. Providing more abstract ways, like keyboard shortcuts, to accomplish tasks will allow your design to get out of the way.

8. Speak their language

“If you think every pixel, every icon, every typeface matters, then you also need to believe every letter matters. ” – Getting Real

All interfaces require some level of copywriting. Keep things conversational, not sensational. Provide clear and concise labels for actions and keep your messaging simple. Your users will appreciate it, because they won’t hear you – they will hear themselves and/or their peers.

9. Keep it simple

“A modern paradox is that it’s simpler to create complex interfaces because it’s so complex to simplify them.” – Pär Almqvist

The best interface designs are invisible. They do not contain UI-bling or unnecessary elements. Instead, the necessary elements are succinct and make sense. Whenever you are thinking about adding a new feature or element to your interface, ask the question, “Does the user really need this?” or “Why does the user want this very clever animated gif?” Are you adding things because you like or want them? Never let your UI ego steal the show.

10. Keep moving forward

Grandpa Bud: If I gave up every time I failed, I would never have invented my fireproof pants!
[Pants burn up, revealing his underwear]
Grandpa Bud: Still working the kinks out a bit.
from Meet the Robinsons

Meet the Robinsons is one of my all time favorite movies. Throughout the movie Lewis, the protagonist, is challenged to “keep moving forward.” This is a key principle in UI design.
It is often said when developing interfaces that you need to fail fast, and iterate often. When creating a UI, you will make mistakes. Just keep moving forward, and remember to keep your UI out of the way.

Creating immersive experiences with diegetic interfaces

Link: http://www.cooper.com/journal/2010/08/diagetic_interfaces.html/

Creating immersive experiences with diegetic interfaces

by Imon Deshmukh on August 14, 2010 | Comments (4)

I like to think of Interaction Design in its purest form as being about shaping the perception of an environment of any kind. Yes, today the discipline is so closely tied to visual displays and software that it almost seems to revolve around that medium alone, but that’s only because as of now, that’s pretty much the only part of our environment over which we have complete control.
The one field that has come closest to overcoming this limitation is the video game industry whose 3D games are the most vivid and complete alternate realities technology has been able to achieve. Game designers have control over more aspects of an environment, albeit a virtual one, than anyone else.
Lately I’ve been thinking a lot about this idea that interfaces can be more closely integrated with the environment in which they operate. I’d like to share some of what I’ve learned from the universe of video games and how it might be applicable to other kinds of designed experiences.
In Designing for the Digital Age, Kim Goodwin criticizes the term “Experience design” as being too presumptuous because we don’t really have the power to determine exactly what kind of experience each person with their own beliefs and perceptions has. Even when we work across an entire event from start (e.g. booking a flight) to finish (arriving at the door), there are still countless factors outside our control that can significantly impact how a person will experience it.
Video game designers on the other hand can orchestrate a precise scenario since almost every detail in their virtual world is for them to determine. They can arrange exactly what kind of person sits next to you on a flight no matter who you are or how many times you take that flight.
That isn’t to say that videogames don't have their limitations. Of course, it isn’t completely true that game designers can determine who sits next to you. They can only determine who your avatar sits next to. The most significant weakness of videogames is the inability to truly inhabit a designed environment or narrative. As much control as we may have over a virtual world, as long as we are confined to experiencing it through television screens and speakers, it won’t be anywhere near comparable to our real world.
Fortunately, there’s a growing effort to address this lack of immersion.
A key area of the problem lies in how we’re presented and interact with complex information diegetically, that is, interfaces that actually exist within the game world itself.

Before continuing, it helps to be familiar with some basic concepts and terminology around diegesis in computer graphics, the different spaces of representation between the actual player and their avatar. The diagram above illustrates the four main types of information representation in games.

Non-diegetic representations remain the most common type of interface in games. In first person shooters, arguably the most immersive type of game since we usually see the scenery through our avatar’s view, the head-up display has remained an expected element since Wolfenstein 3D first created the genre.
While we’re mainly talking about the diegetic space here, spatial representations are worth touching on. While not truly diegetic, spatial representations nonetheless manage to embed interface elements in a less disruptive way by integrating them more seamlessly into the 3D world. Mirror’s Edge uses this to great effect by highlighting objects visually as a navigation aid for the player as they move through complex urban settings using creative ways besides plain running.
If we’re aiming for immersion though, the interface will usually have to be at least partially diegetic (and Mirror’s Edge actually does make use of them as well; that is, the interface is visible to the character in the game and exists “physically”, so to say, in that world. There has been some discussion recently on the merits of diegetic representations of information versus the more traditional non-diegetic type (typically HUDs). The fact that there is a debate on this issue alone reflects the progress graphics technology has made recently. For most of the history of video games, diegetic interfaces were impractical or plain impossible because of computing or hardware limitations.

Here is a fairly recent example of a diegetic interface in the Need For Speed series that illustrates a common problem with in-game interfaces. Even though I initially liked the realistic cockpit view, I eventually switched over to the HUD mode most of the time because it was just easier to follow than the digitized instrument panels.

In comparison, it's worth noting the more effective use of the actual rear view mirrors for their intended purpose. Traditionally, these types of auxiliary views were usually featured in a non-diegetic window overlay, presumably because of the difficulty of displaying real-time scenes at non-orthogonal angles and in an amorphous frame.

In the early 1990s, LucasArts’ X-Wing series used an in-game cockpit that was effective enough that most of the instrumentation did not have an alternative non-diegetic representation as an option. There is a tradeoff though. Unlike some driving games in which the view pans horizontally when the car takes a turn, the instruments here are on a static background that we never see from any other angle.

One of the most graphically impressive (and demanding of computer hardware) games is Crytek’s Far Cry 2 where several types of information are presented through their actual medium diegetically (map, watch, GPS, etc.).

As Marcus Andrews points out in Gamasutra, Far Cry 2 does use a traditional HUD sometimes to complement the diegetic elements. He views this as a failure on the designers’ part to express all information in the diegetic manner, but others have argued that it may have been merely the case that they determined the combination of the two was the most effective way to balance immersion and clarity of information.

There are games that have a fully diegetic interface. The most notable recent example of this is Dead Space which set an explicit direction from the start of its development to have all interactions take place within the fictional world.

This led to clever but logical ways to represent game mechanics traditionally displayed in HUDs. For example, a tube filled with a luminous liquid on the avatar’s back acts as a health indicator while the hints for the player are displayed as messages from other characters in the game.

Interestingly, this has been partially facilitated by not using the standard first person perspective used in First Person Shooters (hence the name). Instead it has a third person tracking view where the player’s character is visible from behind and the game is played mainly by seeing over the character’s shoulder. Unlike a straight first person view where the hologram screen would take up most of our field of view, this perspective allows the use of the interface while still being able to watch the area in front of them. (This can be critical because the monsters in Dead Space won’t wait around while you’re busy saving your game.)

Finally, there’s Aliens: Colonial Marines. As the in-game still shows, there are no non-diegetic elements present in the first person view. The avatar is holding a device instead that will be immediately familiar to anyone who has seen Aliens. Even in the film, the motion tracker served as an effective diegetic interface since the audience could clearly understand what the moving dots on the display meant.
While it’s a little odd that it took a quarter century until someone made a true video game adaptation of a film that has more or less served as a template for the First Person Shooter genre, it’s just as well since even ten years ago, it would have been impossible to render a motion tracker so realistically and effectively in a game.
Technology seems to be finally overcoming the restrictions that have kept diegetic interfaces limited to gimmickry until now. While still in its infancy, the push to duplicate more of our natural interactions with our environment seems to be gaining momentum as evidenced by new products using non-traditional interaction models. Most of them, like the popular Nintendo Wii, have yet to deal with immersion in terms of interfaces. On the other hand, Microsoft’s, whose controller-free gaming technology Kinect is about to enter the market, has stated its intention to eliminate what it calls the “barrier” between the player and the game world.
While researching this article, I was really interested to find how other professions are making use of this technology. To my surprise, I struggled to find examples. While 3D has been widely adopted by fields like architecture and medicine in other ways, the value placed on presenting complex information in more immersive ways still seems to be largely limited to entertainment media.
How can this technology be applied outside gaming and what value would it be providing that other alternatives cannot?

In a way, diegetic interfaces have been used for training purposes since the first flight simulators were created to teach pilots to fly by instruments. The instruments may not have been represented on a digital display, but they were complex interfaces in an immersive simulated environment, which fits the definition of a truly diegetic interface at least as much the in world devices in Dead Space.

Modern professional flight simulators still use physical interfaces. Unfortunately, while it may be cost less than using a real airplane, the price of these devices still remained out of the reach of most people. This all changed when PC based flight simulation software brought the experience, complete with diegetic instrumentation, to the mass market.
Why not extend this to other types of complex products as well? At Cooper, we're currently working on a life-supporting medical device that’s used on critical patients in operating rooms and intensive care units. Not surprisingly, training people to use this device is not a simple task. Let’s say there are 3 components required to create an effective training scenario for this type of product.

1. The user interface, which in this case is likely to be a touchscreen plus separate hardware buttons.
2. Basic hardware parts like storage compartments, cables and other tasks that require physical interaction.
3. An environment that is frequently unpredictable and chaotic including other people who have different personalities.

The two last points are fairly easy to simulate with 3D simulations and advanced AI and in fact are in use already. Interactions with more complex interfaces, often screen-based, however are still divorced from these and exist as separate recreations of the screen only. Embedding this last component into the virtual space would finally create an immersive learning environment that is the next best thing to using the real thing but far more affordable.
I’m interested if anyone else is aware of other applications of diegetic user interfaces. How else might these ideas be applied?

Video Game Interface Elements

Video Game Interface Elements

Link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/VideoGameInterfaceElements

It's like "Game Over" man, Game Over!

— Corporal Hudson, Aliens

Unlike noninteractive media, video games often require that incidental information be immediately available. Video games use a variety of mechanisms to present this information. Likewise, they have many kinds of commands, and different ways of accepting them. See also Interface Screw and Interface Spoiler for some metafictional uses of the interface.
These elements include:

• Action Bar
  A UI element consisting of a box or strip of icons (or menu items) corresponding to actions which can be performed.
• Attract Mode
  Animation that plays when no one is actively playing the game.
• Boss Subtitles
  Where the boss is introduced with a big show of its name and a title or descriptive line.
• Break Meter
  A usually graphical display that shows how close a character or enemy is to being "broken", a state where they will be more vulnerable to attacks.
• Character Name Limits
  The player's name can be only so many letters long.
• Color-Coded Elements
  Every magical effect has a color associated with it, allowing the player to tell at a glance which element a given ability is.
• Diegetic Interface
  When the game interface exists in-universe, rather than being strictly for the player's benefit.
• Dramatic Disappearing Display
  During a climactic Boss Battle or event, the game's display (showing Score, the Life Meter and such) vanishes, leaving a completely unobstructed view of the game area.
• Emote Command
  A command in a multi-user game that depicts an emotion or personal action.
  • Emote Animation
    An animation that triggers during an Emote Command.
• General Gaming Gamepads
  The usual types of controllers used with video game systems over the years.
• Holler Button
  Pressing a button to call NPCs over.
• Hot Bar
  A row of user-configurable buttons, usually located near the bottom or top of the screen.
• Heads Up Display
  Heads-Up Display: A device which projects supplemental information onto the surface reflection of a transparent panel.
• Idle Animation
  The animation that is displayed when a character, especially a player-controlled character, is just standing around.
• Interface Screw
  When the game unexpectedly changes the interface to mess with the player.
• Interface Spoiler
  When the way an in-game menu is constructed gives away details about the rest of the game.
• Level Map Display
• Light Gun
  A video game controller shaped like a gun.
• Main Window
  The place where the action of the game takes place.
• My Name Is ???
  When the name of something - be it a character, object or menu item - is unknown, it will often be represented by a string of question marks.
• Ominous Save Prompt
  An unusual-looking save prompt which comes just before something really nasty goes down.
• The Pennyfarthing Effect
  What happens when an early version of a mechanic or interface is more complicated than a more recent one.
• Pet Interface
  An interface in which you are given a sidekick, usually a pet, that acts as a guide/virtual pet of sorts in the world.
• Playable Menu
  Fully interactivized main menu sequence.
• Point-and-Click Map
  A game world map containing active areas, clicking on which instantly transports the character to the corresponding level.
• Ring Menu
  An interface element where a list of possible actions are displayed in a ring or circle, often around a character.
• Score Screen
  A screen that comes up after a level is beaten, tallying stuff like collectibles and your rating.
• Scrolling Text
  When characters talk, it doesn't just appear instantly, it goes letter by letter.
• Shows Damage
  Where the character or enemy graphically is shown with damaged clothing or body parts.
• Slash Command
  A text command, beginning with a "/", usually found in MMORPGs.
• Spinventory
  The inventory screen uses the actual in-game 3D model of the item, and lets you see it by spinning it around.
• Squad Controls
  The player is given limited control over their NPC allies through a handful of predefined commands.
• Start Screen
  A static screen, or else an Attract Mode, which usually contains the title and a pulsating "PRESS START" prompt.
• Stat Meters
  Graphical depictions of a statistical quantity, most often the player-character's current status.
  • Life Meter
    A meter, usually a coloured bar, that displays the Hit Points of a character.
    • Multiple Life Bars
      It's more complex than a single pile of Hit Points.
    • Critical Annoyance
      A warning sound that plays over and over again when you are low on health or some other bad thing is imminent.
  • Mana Meter
    A meter that describes the amount of power a character has remaining for his special abilities.
    • Charge Meter
      An indicator of how long you've held down a particular button in order to build up to the capability to perform a special, powerful action.
  • Sprint Meter
    A graphical depiction of some aspect of a character's condition other than his remaining health, e.g. his ability to run at high speed.
    • Oxygen Meter
      A meter indicating the breath or oxygen left while underwater.
    • Sanity Meter
      A meter showing how much (or how little) sanity a character has.
  • Experience Meter
    A meter that shows the current experience of a character, usually showing progress between two levels.
  • Karma Meter
    A meter that indicates how "good" or "bad" you are acting at that point. May be invisible.
    • Evil Is Petty
      The tendency of "evil" meaning just being really mean to people.
    • Wanted Meter
      A meter that represents how much of the local authority's ire you've drawn.
• Stat-O-Vision
  A display that shows all sorts of information about the target or enemy being scanned.
• Status Line
  A display element showing the current disposition of the player, e.g. score, health, ammo etc.
• Stock Control Settings
  The common standards in button layout.
• Symbol Drawing Interface
  You have to draw symbols on the screen to perform certain actions.
• Taunt Button
  A button that activates an Emote Animation of a character taunting others.
• Text Parser
  A form of input that takes commands from the player and simplifies this to commands that the game engine can understand.
  • Hello, Insert Name Here
    Games let you name your characters. Renaming your hero to "POOP" can result in hours of fun.
• Themed Cursor
  Your cursor is based from some in-game element.
• Vanity Window
  Part of the screen filled with a logo or other static image, leaving the Main Window to be smaller, to save on processing power.
• World Map
  A map drawn to much smaller scale than the main areas of the game, used to allow the player to travel between areas faster than "real time", as well as (sometimes) explore.
• Zip Mode
  A shortcut so that you don't have to watch your character walk all the way across the screen. 

Opinion: Grim Fandango And Diegesis In Games

Opinion: Grim Fandango And Diegesis In Games

Link:http://www.gamasutra.com/view/news/21172/Opinion_Grim_Fandango_And_Diegesis_In_Games.php

Like the radio playing 'Still Alive' in Portal, "diegesis" means music, titles and other effects seen both by the audience and the fictional characters in films -- Gregory Weir examines the concept in LucasArts' Grim Fandango, suggesting it has fascinating applications for games.]

In video games, there is a division between the world inhabited by the game's characters and the representation of that world to the player. The game environment, world objects, and most sound effects and dialogue exist in the game world; that is, they can be perceived by characters.

Other elements, such as most background music, loading screens, and subtitles, exist outside of the game world. They are part of the narration of the game, and help to provide the player with information or emotion that is not necessarily apparent to the characters of the game.

The film world calls this concept "diegesis." This is most easily explained in relation to music. If a film's music comes from a source inside the world of the film, like Casablanca's piano-playing Sam, it is said to be diegetic.

The dramatic music that plays over a James Bond action scene, however, cannot be heard by Bond; it is non-diegetic. Video game music can be looked at in the same way; Super Mario Bros.'s earworm background music is decidedly non-diegetic, but when the player comes across a radio in Portal playing a Latin version of "Still Alive," that music is diegetic. The player character Chell can hear it just like the player can.

Diegesis In Games

The concept of diegesis applies to more than just music, of course. HUD elements can be non-diegetic or, as in Metroid Prime or Star Wars: Republic Commando, incorporated into the player character's helmet and therefore diegetic.

Metroid Prime, in fact, plays with diegesis via the game's very interface. By using the X-Ray Visor, it becomes clear that while the player selects Samus's weapons with the C Stick, Samus herself chooses weapons by moving her fingers into various positions.

One work that pays particular attention to the concept of diegesis is LucasArts's 1998 game Grim Fandango. The game creates a very cinematic atmosphere by dispensing with many non-diegetic elements.

Playing the game feels very much like watching a film noir piece due in part to this decision. By looking at how Grim Fandango handles diegesis, we can see how this concept can be used in video games.

Grim Fandango's Design Decisions

Grim Fandango is the successor to a long line of adventure games put out by LucasArts. All of the company's previous titles use the SCUMM engine, where the player controls the game with a mouse cursor, choosing verbs for the player character from a list or a "verb coin." Clicking on the ground moves the character, and the character's inventory of held items either occupies a portion of the screen or is visible via a secondary screen.

Grim Fandango, however, is based on a new engine. The GrimE engine, as used in this game, has no visible verb list, no mouse cursor, no inventory screen, and no hover text for world objects. Instead of clicking to move the main character, Manny Calavera, the player steers him with the keyboard.

Interactive objects are indicated by Manny turning his head to look at them as he moves. The non-diegetic inventory screen is replaced by a close-up view of Manny's jacket, where he takes out various objects as the player flips through his collection, putting each item away before taking out the next.

This design decision has clear advantages. The lack of non-diegetic screen elements encourages player immersion by making the game world seem less artificial, and the inventory system does a similar thing by ensuring that every player action, even that of searching through the inventory, represents an action taken by Manny.

Additionally, the gameplay looks more cinematic, which reinforces the game's connection to its film noir inspirations. The game almost feels like playing a CGI noir film.

The Downsides Of Diegesis

However, the diegetic elements have their downsides. The movement system is often more awkward than the simple click-to-move approach, and Manny's gaze is a less useful indicator when he is near multiple interactive objects.

The one-item-at-a-time inventory system creates the most problems; at some points in the game, Manny is carrying a large number of things, and scrolling through them all can be annoying, with the amount of time it takes for Manny to remove each item from his jacket and describe what it is.

There are still several non-diegetic elements left in the game. The conversation system is a notable exception to the immersive interface. When Manny speaks to someone, Grim Fandango presents a rather standard conversation tree interface, with visible options that the player can scroll through and pick from. It's understandable why the developers made this choice.

A diegetic alternative could be created, maybe letting Manny think about various topics in his head and mumble the options to himself, but this would probably be even more awkward than the inventory system... and would make Manny's character much more tongue-tied and socially awkward.

The other major non-diegetic element is the music. Most of Grim Fandango's music is non-diegetic; generally, the wide array of jazzy tunes don't come from an in-game source. This is in keeping with the cinematic feel of the game.

While the music seems to work against the player's suspension of disbelief, it does support the illusion of the game as film. This is an aspect that would have been easy to make diegetic; there are ample opportunities in the world of the game for diegetic music. However, the developers' choice to make the music non-diegetic doesn't weaken the game.

The Fourth Wall

Diegesis is fundamentally a method of bringing the player closer to the game. Every non-diegetic element, whether it's a mouse cursor or a soundtrack, serves to reinforce the "fourth wall" between the player and the game world.

By removing non-diegetic elements, the developer can make it easier for the player to lose herself in the game via immersion. That isn't to say that immersion isn't possible in a heavily non-diegetic game, but all other things being equal, a diegetic game will be more immersive.

There's an important caveat, though. If an element of the gameplay experience is made diegetic at the cost of usability, the player is pulled out of the experience again. Consider Manny's coat-based inventory; using this system is actually more difficult than it would be for Manny to actually pull something out of his pocket.

In this case, immersion would probably be restored by using an easier but less diegetic inventory system. This would undermine Grim Fandango's goal of creating a cinematic experience, but it would make the game less frustrating and easier to use.

Grim Fandango is one of the most well-crafted video games of all time, and it has a lot to teach us about how video games can and should be made. Its use of diegesis is probably the way in which the game is most unique among games.

Diegesis is something that all developers should consider in the course of making a game: when is it better for an element of the game to be diegetic, and when is it best to make it separate from the game world? By considering this, developers can ensure that their game strikes the best balance between immersion and usability.

[Gregory Weir is a writer, game developer, and software programmer. He maintains Ludus Novus, a podcast and accompanying blog dedicated to the art of interaction. He can be reached at Gregory.Weir@gmail.com.]

The "Plane" Between Worlds: Diegesis In Games

The "Plane" Between Worlds: Diegesis In Games

Link:http://myportfolio.usc.edu/mgrattan/2010/02/the_plane_between_worlds_diegesis_in_games.html

There has been discussion lately regarding "diegetic" versus "non-diegetic" user interfaces, and in this entry I enter into the conversation with a response to Marcus Andrews' article entitled "Game UI Discoveries: What Players Want," asserting that immersion is sometimes but not always limited to a realistic connection between player and avatar.

As discussed in a previous post, exploring what motivates a player to participate in a game is essential to creating a satisfying experience; however, the interface through which the player translates themselves into the game and receives information is just as important a consideration. While a "good" user interface provides a user with an intuitive set of commands and necessary information, a poor one can easily leave a player frustrated, confused, or uninterested. Currently, one of the debates surrounding user interface design involves the concepts of "diegetic" and "non-diegetic" strategies and whether the player is more deeply immersed as a result of either. Some argue that a diegetic approach causes greater immersion because the player interacts directly within the context of the game, while others claim that diegetic interfaces are unable to provide the necessary volume of information that the player needs without becoming overly cryptic. Although the weight of each argument depends on the given game, there are many examples of each which demonstrate both their advantages and disadvantages, and consistency is key. Additionally, this debate is expected to gain additional attention with upcoming technologies such as 3D and Natal which will change the way some games are perceived and played. Therefore, this week I have chosen to address Marcus Andrews' recent article entitled "Game UI Discoveries: What Players Want," found at Gamasutra. In it, he describes some of the terminology used in user interface design and examines some of the pros and cons of diegetic and non-diegetic interfaces by looking at a few specific examples of games which implement them, including "Dead Space" (pictured above) -- a prime example of diegesis. My response to Andrews' article can be found below as well as on the article itself.
"Game UI Discoveries: What Players Want"
Comment
As a newer game designer interested in current design trends and exploring today's challenges in the field, I was drawn to your article analyzing the benefits and drawbacks of diegetic user interfaces in specific games. I appreciate the range of genres which are covered by your examples, which goes a long way to highlight how one method may shine in a particular genre and be much less useful in another. I also agree that although diegetic interfaces can create a more direct connection between the player and the respective "organism," the multitude of player commands and abilities in some cases (such as many "massively multiplayer" online games) outnumbers what you refer to as "real estate" within the game world. This idea of the organism is compelling, and although the concept itself is always at the center of decisions regarding a game's user interface, it seems extremely useful to encapsulate it with this metaphor. Furthermore, the comparison of the organism to a human prosthesis is similar to the "mental model" described by Tracy Fullerton and Chris Swain as an extension of the player's perception of their role within a game in their book, Game Design Workshop. According to Fullerton and Swain, this mental model "can either help players to understand your game, or it can cause them to misunderstand it." In relation to the article, I interpret this claim to resemble the patient's understanding of a new prosthesis with preserved functionality versus one which sacrifices such functionality for "authenticity."
The article mentions during the "Far Cry 2" example that the combination of both diegetic and non-diegetic interface elements makes the game feel "conflicted." Do you think that this property holds true as a general rule? For example, would you come to the same conclusion for a game such as "Grand Theft Auto 4" which contains diegetic elements such as the cell phone and non-diegetic elements such as the world map? I certainly agree with your statement which says that a compromise between the two methods is greatest "if a diegetic interface is the goal from the beginning." I believe the same to be true for a non-diegetic interface. However, was this not the goal in "Far Cry 2?" I think one of the main issues of its interface may have been in the non-diegetic elements being "forced in" rather than the diegetic ones as a result of the games "lack of real estate." Perhaps it is also useful to explore this question on a grander scale for upcoming technological advances that are expected to be seen in games such as 3D viewing and Microsoft's Natal. I'm curious about your thoughts on how these technologies will affect both the usefulness and importance of diegesis in game user interfaces.

User interface design in video games

User interface design in video games

By Anthony Stonehouse



User interface design in games differs from other UI design because it involves an additional element — fiction. The fiction involves an avatar of the actual user, or in this case, player. The player becomes an invisible, but key element to the story, much like a narrator in a novel or film.
This fiction can either be linked directly to the UI, partly, or not at all. There seems to be a growing debate with which is more immersive for the player. One side of the debate is that UI elements that sit within the game world, and therefore ‘viewable’ by both the player and avatar, are the more immersive and provide a more seem-less experience. However these elements are often clunky and inherit many restrictions. They need to strictly adhere to to the fictional narrative and adopt the visual design of the game’s art direction. They also sit within the geometry of the game’s perspective, often rendered on a 3D plane that can reduce their legibility.
Erik Fagerholt and Magnus Lorentzon explore these theories in their thesis for Chalmers University of Technology titled: Beyond the HUD — User Interfaces for Increased Player Immersion in FPS Games. They introduce the term diegetic interfaces for UI elements that exist within the game world that the player and avatar can interact with through visual, audible or haptic means.
I believe well executed diegetic UI elements do benefit the player by enhancing their experience of the narrative. However, they are more difficult to implement because the inherit restrictions.
Metro 2033 uses a complete diegetic UI with no HUD elements to help to support the game’s narrative. It does seem to run the risk of frustrating the player though slow response times but perhaps this forms part of the game mechanic, I have yet to play the game.

Metro 2033's diegetic interface

A well executed example that I am familiar with, and one that is often used, is the act of interacting with the phone in Grand Theft Auto 4. It mimics the real world interaction — you hear the ringing and there is a delay before you answer it, the act of answering itself is often an awkward process in reality. The game’s fiction adopts real world fiction so perhaps it makes diegetic elements easier to integrate.

Grand Theft Auto IV mobile phone interface element

UI elements can also exist in the game world and not be viewable by the player’s avatar, therefor avoiding the clunkiness of having to interact with the avatar (but also avoiding jumping out to menus) and the need to strictly conform to the game world’s art direction. They still need to follow the rules of the game’s fiction so they help immerse the player and provide a seamless experience.
These elements can either exist within the geometry of the word, or on the camera/screen for the player. Fagerholt and Lorentzon use the term Spatial to define elements of the UI that sit in the geometry and Meta to define elements that exist on the camera.
Fable 2’s dotted line that guides you to locations marked on your map is an example of a Spatial element, it exists in the game world but the avatar doesn’t interact with it. It ensures a more seamless experience, avoiding jumping out to a map screen as often.

Fable 2's glowing trail

Splinter Cell Convictions also adopts some nice Spatial elements in the form of projections that illustrate objectives within the game world. Their scale does seem to challenge the fiction slightly more than other examples.

Splinter Cell Conviction's objectives projected in the game world

A common example of a Meta UI element is blood the splatters on the screen as a form of health bar, as in the recently launched Modern Warfare 2.

Lastly there are the traditional non-diegetic UI elements. They have the freedom to be removed completely from the game’s fiction and geometry and can adopt their own visual treatment, though often influenced by the game’s art direction.
I think these elements are best used when the diegetic, meta and spatial forms provide restrictions that break the seamlessness, consistency or legibly of the UI element. World of Warcraft has a pure non-diegetic UI, that adds nothing to the fiction. It does allow the user to completely customise though, hopefully ensuring a familiar experience.

Here are some visual representations of these concepts that have been adapted from Fagerholt and Lorentzon’s thesis.

For further reading; Marcus Andrews from DICE examines recent games using these theories from Fagerholt and Lorentzon in this article posted on Gamasutra. Michael Grattan, a senior at the University of Souther California writes a response to the article on his blog. Dave Russell has also written an article on his blog.
New physical interaction methods make their way to the PS3 and 360 this year, called Move and Natal respectively. These technologies promise to challenge current best practice in game UI design and generate even more innovation in the area. As a designer currently working in web design I’m almost jealous of the levels of interaction plus the addition of audio and haptic elements available in game UI — while I’m still refined to users with an outdated keyboard and mouse. Web does offer other challenges and more variety in content delivery though.

Video game user interface design: Diegesis theory

Video game user interface design: Diegesis theory

 by Dave Russell on 2 February

Interface design is often one of the most challenging aspects of game development. There is a lot of information to convey to the player and little screen space with which to do it. When the interface is poorly designed, a good game concept can be reduced to a frustrating user experience.

There are several theories that can be used by designers to analyse a user interface and help them break down choices. The theory we will look at here is called diegesis theory. It is adapted from diegesis theory used in literature, film and theatre. Diegesis refers to the world in which the story is set, and hence it focuses on games as stories.

There are two concepts core to this theory: narrative and the fourth wall.

Narrative

Narrative is a message that conveys the particulars of an act or occurrence or course of events. In simple terms, it is the story the designer wishes to convey; be it the story of blocks falling from the sky which need to land in the right place (Tetris), or a journey through a strange land (Machinarium).

Not all elements of a game are part of the narration. For example, the game menus and the HUD, because the game’s characters are not aware of these elements. This does not mean these components do not support the narrative. For example, a futuristic game typically has GUI elements that also appear futuristic.

The fourth wall

The fourth wall is the imaginary divide between the player and the world of the game. In order for the player to immerse themselves in the game world, he needs to move through the fourth wall. The ease with which the player moves between the real world and the game world depends on the way the interface designer delivers information to the player.

Posting your latest game accomplishments on Facebook is an example of how a game extends beyond the fourth wall. To further delve into this concept, one should read Steven Conway’s interesting discussion of the fourth wall in games: A Circular Wall? Reformulating the Fourth Wall for Video Games.

Interface components

We can now ask ourselves two questions about any interface component:

• Is the component part of the game story? (Is it part of the narrative?)
• Is the component part of the game space? (Is it behind the fourth wall?)

Depending on the answers, we can classify the component into one of four classes: diegetic; non-diegetic; spatial; or meta.
The diagram below shows how the questions relate to the classes.

Diagram adapted from Gamasutra.

Diegetic Components

For diegetic components, we answer our two questions as follows:

• Is the interface component in the game story? YES
• Is the component in the game space? YES

Diegetic components provide the player with cues and information without distracting them from the narration of the world. These cues are something that the player’s avatar and other characters in the game world are aware of, and can interact with. This makes the experience more immersive and cinematic.

In Far Cry 2 an attempt is made to make the experience as diegetic as possible – there is no HUD. The use of numerous in-game gadgets and items allows the player to get information without referring to elements outside of, or superimposed over the reality of the game world.

While this is great for the immersion of the game, if it is not done correctly, it can have the opposite effect. For example, in the adventure game Grim Fandango the player is forced to search through their inventory one item at a time. This frustrating process breaks the player’s suspension of disbelief, and he pops back into reality.

Depending on the type of game you are designing, a completely immersive and realistic world may not be what you are looking to achieve, and this may in fact break the narrative of your story.

In Grim Fandango, the character’s head turns towards objects to indicate that they are interactive. Although it is perhaps a more realistic way to deliver information, the movement is awkward and unnatural. It is distracting and not as helpful as the glowing objects and mouse cursor changes traditional to adventure games.

Examples of diegetic interface

Designing diegetic interface components to replace common HUD elements requires a clever approach. Some examples follow:

In real time strategy games, diegetic components are elements such as the visual damage to units and buildings.

In Far Cry 2 the player can use a compass to help them navigate through the game world – far more immersive compared to the non-diegetic compasses that appear in HUDs of many other games.

In Dead Space, instead of providing a typical health bar overlay, the player’s health is indicated by the high-tech meter on the avatar’s suit.

Non-Diegetic Components

For non-diegetic components, we answer our two questions as follows:

• Is the interface component in the game story? NO
• Is the component in the game space? NO

We have all become very comfortable with the use of a heads up display (HUD) in games. This system provide us with key information in a fairly simple manner. If done correctly the player doesn’t even know it is there.

Some games, such as Gears of War, have a minimalist approach which limits the number of HUD items, while others, such as World of Warcraft, provide extensive HUD information.

An example a HUD being used poorly is the widget in Gears of War. The widget appears when the player selects a new weapon. This widget breaks the flow of the game, distracting the player from the world in which they have spent the last few minutes immersing themselves.
There are less intrusive user interface mechanisms one could use for a simple action such as selecting weapons. If the player is able to see the actual weapon in the game world there is little or no need to show a non-diegetic cue for swapping weapons.

World of Warcraft has a complicated but flexible and customisable user interface that allows players to optimise it to their personal play experience requirements. They can choose how much clutter fills the screen depending on their needs.

Although the game is often criticized for its complicated interface (by pointing out that the game cannot be played competitively without customizing it), it must be remembered that World of Warcraft is a complicated game that allows for many different types of play. The complexity of the interface is a result of the complexity of the game.
World of Warcraft has a rich user interface to support the vast amount of information given to the player. The interface is complex, because the game is complex.
It is not always clear whether a component is non-diegetic. Is the speedometer in the HUD of a racing game really a non-diegetic component? The speedometer is just a conveniently placed clone of the actual diegetic speedometer which is presumably inside the car.

The interface on the left is diegetic; the interface on the right is non-diegetic.

Spatial Components

For spatial components, we answer our two questions as follows:

• Is the interface component in the game story? NO
• Is the component in the game space? YES

These are components that are visualised within the game world but are not part of the game world. The game’s characters are also unaware of these spatial components. For example, the aura selection brackets around units in real time strategy games. They are used to provide extra information on a component in the world, although that information is not part of the narrative. The information is provided in the location on which the player is focused, reducing clutter in the HUD.

A good example of this are the auras in Warcraft 3. These indicate the gameplay effect that is currently in place and the range within which units will be effected. Another example are the icons that appear above the heads of characters in The Sims.

The selection brackets in Warcraft 3 immediately make it clear which units the player has control of. The brackets’ location in space makes selecting appropriate units much easier. Think of how difficult it would be the select them from a list in the HUD – it would be very difficult to see which units are closest to the action taking place in the game world.

Meta Components

For meta components, we answer our two questions as follows:

• Is the interface component in the game story? YES
• Is the component in the game space? NO

Meta representations are components that are expressed as part of the narrative, but not as part the game world. These can be effects that are rendered onto the screen such as cracked glass and blood splatters – effects that interact with the fourth wall are the most common examples.

These components aim to draw the user into the reality of the game by applying cues to the screen as if the game were directly interacting with the player. An example of this is the blood splatter on the screen used in Killzone 2. Note that this interface component also affects gameplay by reducing visibility.

Diegesis Theory in 2D Games

So far, we have only covered 3D games. The concepts we have discussed so far still apply to 2D games.

Think of a 2D game as a flattened representation of a 3D world. Take Pac-Man as an example. There is still the concept of a world, or narrative component, and components that are outside the narrative. The pills, walls and ghosts are all diegetic component of Pac-Man’s world. The scores and details around the game would are non-diegetic.

An example of a purely diegetic 2D game is Limbo. All user cues are presented within the world that the character perceives. The game leverages this pure in-world experience to help the user become immersed into the game. From the background to the foreground the entire world is part of your experience. There is nothing with which players interact that is not part of the narrative.

Spatial representations in 2D games are the auras or indicators, such as arrows, that are present in the game world, although the characters are unaware of them, and objects are unaffected by them. An examples of this are the paths and warning icons in Flight Control.

Although it is easy to imagine screen cracks and blood spatters against the screen in a 2D game, this is rarely done, and no examples of meta interface components come to mind. (If you think of anything, let us know in the comments!)

Diegetic Interface

Link: http://tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pmwiki.php/Main/DiegeticInterface

Diegetic Interface

Game interface elements that are a part of the game universe. "Diegetic" is a term meaning "within the narrative", usually used in reference to music. Diegetic music is heard by the characters because it's actually being played in the scene (as opposed to non-diegetic background music). Diegetic menus are the same — they actually exist in the game world, rather than simply appearing for the benefit of the player.
This is generally handled in one of two ways. Sometimes the normal player HUD is explained as being part of the character's equipment — common if he's robotic, a cyborg, or wearing Powered Armor, and justified if the game is in first-person perspective. Other times, the game simply uses in-game indications of things that a HUD would normally tell you; a wounded character will limp instead of having a Life Meter, for example.
Vehicle simulators call this a virtual cockpit, and it tends to be the most detailed and realistic interface mode short of a hardware sim with actual panels. In these cases, a 2-D control panel laid out for easier reading without scrolling is usually included as an easier-to-program option.
Generally, this is done in order to increase immersion; it's much easier to believe that your character is a real person in a real situation when the screen isn't cluttered with inexplicable icons representing health and ammo. In some cases, this means that actions done via menus are actually happening in real time — browsing your inventory may leave the player open to attack, so you can't pause the action midbattle to grab a handy medkit.
A diegetic interface often averts Menu Time Lockout. Robo Cam is when one is applied to a character's view outside of video games. Justified Save Point is related. May justify Interface Screw as well. See also Painting the Fourth Wall, where this is temporarily invoked for the sake of Post Modernism, and usually Played for Laughs.

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Examples:
Diegetic HUDs

• Halo, a First-Person Shooter in which you play as a Space Marine with Powered Armor. Your HUD is projected on this inside of your helmet's visor, and some weapons have readouts as well: small LCDs for human weapons, and holograms for the aliens. During Noble Six's Last Stand in Halo: Reach, the visor, and thus the interface, shows damage.
• Half-Life and its sequels and add-ons, also with Powered Armor. Strangely, Gordon is never depicted wearing a helmet.
• Crysis, which overlaps with Interface Screw when certain enemies and weapons (like EMPs) cause your HUD to go fuzzy or fail entirely.
  • Crysis 2 also adds a gorgeous new bobbing effect for the HUD when you move, and makes it look more realistic (like a fighter plane HUD). All of this is a wee bit strange when you consider that the Crysis: Legion book calls it a "BUD" (Brain-Up Display), like a neural interface.
• Metroid Prime, which also has some Interface Screw elements similar to Crysis.
• Azraels Tear, again with Powered Armor.
• System Shock, as part of the cyber-interface implanted in the beginning of the game. The player can even improve the interface by finding hardware, such as targeting aids, health monitors, infrared, a widened field of vision, and a multimedia data reader (a CD drive?).
• Strange Journey has all the interface elements as part of the PC's Demonica Suit.
  • Likewise, the contents of the upper screen of the DS is identical to the display of the characters' Demon Summoning Program in Devil Survivor 2: this is where they find out the names of the Cosmic Horrors they're being attacked by and they directly refer to the skills shown there later in the game.
• In Deus Ex Human Revolution your HUD doesn't even exist until Adam Jensen gets cybernetic implants (including his eyes) after a brutal beatdown.
• In Bulletstorm, the player character has no HUD until he puts on the Leash, which then injects him with nanomachines.
• The Journeyman Project.
• Star Wars Republic Commando, once again with Powered Armor. As with Crysis, there are certain areas and weapons that cause your HUD to go crazy.
• Battlefield 2142 has the HUD projected onto everyone's Net Bat Helmet visor from within. Like the above example, the HUD disappears and the entire screen appears washed-out with flickering static if an EMP weapon goes off nearby. Interestingly, this distruption also disables the networked battlefield system that displays the positions of hostiles spotted by one soldier to everyone on the team.
• FEAR 2's HUD is projected on the character's glasses and goes missing when they are briefly removed.
• The Project Eden interface appears to be projected on some kind of contact lens as it is seen booting up when the character does something with their eye.
• In Borderlands, the cute Claptrap robot gives you the device displaying your HUD before you can even move.
• Starsiege: Tribes and its sequels outfit everyone with Powered Armor as a rule, but the HUD doesn't look particularly diegetic until Tribes Ascend.
• I Miss the Sunrise is a Turn Based Strategy example. Yes, really. The main character is a commander of a fleet who has a unique protein in their body that, when combined with a chemical, greatly augments their mental capabilities, allowing them to take as long as they want to formulate an order without taking any time from an outside perspective. The images displayed on the screen are what the character literally sees from their cockpit (probably not the menus, though).
• In Perfect Dark, Joanna is equipped with a headset that deploys a small screen over her field of vision which acts as the game's menu, similar to James Bond's wristwatch computer from Goldeneye.

Virtual Cockpits

• Many Racing Games replace the HUD with the car's dashboard when using a first-person viewpoint.
• Gran Turismo V has realistic simulated interiors for all its cars, a first for the series.
• The HUD in Ace Combat, especially in Cockpit View. The same applies for Tom Clancy's H.A.W.X..
• Descent and its sequels provide an optional cockpit view to increase the sense the player was Material Defender in the Pyro-GX and successor ships.
• The MechWarrior series. The HUD is presumably a function of the neurohelmet every MechWarrior wears for the 'Mech to keep balanced given its superimposed nature, though.
• Steel Battalion, in spades. Every VT generation has its own cockpit, and Line of Contact adds even more cockpits with support/indirect-fire and Jaralaccs VTs now having their own. The VT Operations Manual goes into extensive detail on what all of the cockpit lights and gauges mean, and not a single one is there for mere decoration.
  • Steel Battalion: Heavy Armor takes this even further by its use of Kinect, potentially allowing you to reach out and interact with secondary cockpit controls, or interacting with your crewmates.
• Orbiter has one for the most popular built-in spacecraft, and the space shuttle. Unfortunately (or maybe not) most of the switches on the shuttle panel are dummies, and most of the special functions aren't usable from the mouse interface. A lot of the better realized add-ons have them, but most skip the extra work and only include a 2D panel.
• Microsoft Flight Simulator has had active virtual cockpits since the 2004 edition, and a basic implementation back in '95.
• Too many combat flight simulators to count. Fully realistic settings in most of them will even enforce cockpit view, with no non-diegetic gauges to rely on. In extreme cases such as Falcon 4.0, DCS: Ka-50 Black Shark and DCS: A-10C Warthog, the cockpits are fully clickable to the point where the player can even go through a cold start procedure using the virtual cockpit!

Other Examples

• Jurassic Park Trespasser was probably the first first-person game to have absolutely no HUD. Instead, the player character would verbally call out the amount of ammo left in a gun ("five shots left," "feels half full," etc.) and a tattoo on her chest (which could be viewed by looking down) indicated the amount of health the character had.
• In Dead Space, everything is diegetic. Health levels and power-up charge are given via displays on Isaac's suit, menus are Holographic Terminals projected by either his suit or the machinery he's interacting with, and even the "go here next" hints are glowing lines on the floor generated by a projector in Isaac's glove, presumably in conjunction with the ship's computer (which would, naturally, know how to get you where you want to go).
• Metro 2033 handles almost everything diegetically. Damage causes your vision to narrow and red out, while low air causes blurry vision and labored breathing. One button lets you look at your watch (which shows time until air runs out and ambient light level, for sneaking) while another brings up his notes (listing your next objective, with a compass pointing the way). The only non-diegetic part of the interface is your weapon selection and ammo count — though for some weapons, even the ammo count is visible on the weapon. Even better, the hardest difficulties turn off the non-diegetic parts. Better count those bullets!
• The Director in Crackdown refers to columns of light and other things visible in the game as being part of a graphical interface attached to the player character's eyes.
• Fallout 3 and Fallout: New Vegas have diegetic menus in the form of a wrist-mounted computer called the Pip-boy 3000. It somehow lets you do things like use items, manage your equipment and other inventory, and physically examine yourself for wounds. It also runs on an equivalent of MS-DOS. Note, however, that the HUD itself is mostly non-diegetic, as the ammo counter, HP and AP meters, and compass pips aren't justified in-game.
• The Starcraft 2 research and armory screens are set up something like this. The entire ship may also count as well.
• In the Sly Cooper game series, the sparkles that mark areas that can Sly and the others can use (Climbing, Crawling Under, etc.) are noted as being visible in-universe, to Sly at least, and represent "thieving opportunities". In the 2nd and 3rd games, the starting locations of missions and the locations of objectives are made visible with holographic markers that are also explicitly said to be visible to the characters.
• Pretty much everything in the Assassin's Creed series. The HUD, highlighted targets, and even things like the pause menu are explained as being part of the Game Within A Game that is the Animus. Indeed, during the segments outside the Animus, the game goes out of its way to avoid having any sort of HUD at all, except when essential.
• Escape from Monkey Island displays your items in a circle orbiting around you when you open your inventory. Other characters can apparently see this and make comments like "you better clear up that clutter when you're done".
• The Getaway doesn't have any kind of HUD to try and make the game more cinematic and immersible. Rather than a health bar, your character develops bloodstains and a limp the more they get hurt. Rather than floating health kits, leaning against a wall recovers you health (and removes bloodstains). And rather than a minimap or GPS arrow pointing you to your destination, your cars indicators will blink when you should turn, and both will flash when you reach your destination. The game did come with an actual map of London to help you find your way around though.
• James Bond in Golden Eye 1997 could switch weapons using the readout on his laser watch. The bad guys would kindly stop shooting and wait for him to finish what he was up to before resuming the firefight.
  • You could do the same in The World Is Not Enough with a Motorola cell phone.
• Splinter Cell mixes it with Product Placement in the form of a Palm OPSAT or a Sony Ericsson phone as pause menus.
• In Hammerfight, the tutorial mentions that flying machines are controlled with a mouse.
• In Nier, Grimoire Weiss functions as your menu/journal/inventory. When he's not in your party (such as before you meet him), your menu/journal/inventory is extremely limited.
• Digital: A Love Story is a Visual Novel that is presented entirely in a GUI reminiscent of Amiga Workbench.
• Quite a few DS games use this with whatever's on the bottom screen, such as:
  • Pokemon Diamond And Pearl/Platinum's Pokétch, followed by Black and White's C-Gear.
    • And Pokémon Ranger's menu is the very Capture Styler your character uses for, well, everything.
  • Grand Theft Auto: Chinatown Wars shows you Huang's PDA, though that doesn't quite explain why you change weapons and throw grenades with it, or how it knows when he is about to die.
  • Mega Man Star Force uses the Transer.
    • Similarly, Mega Man Battle Network 5: Double Team DS shows the PET on the bottom screen at all times. It even includes a 3D model of the Blue Bomber himself as a bonus.
• In Minecraft, you have to craft your maps, and they only update if you're holding them.
• The interface menus in Silent Hill: Shattered Memories are in the form of a shoehorned mobile phone. While it does result in funny things like a messaging menu that can only receive messages, it does add to the immersion—particularly when you are chased by monsters and you need to look at the map.
• The video-game adaptation of Peter Jackson's King Kong remake deserves some mention because its Diegetic Interface is a total lack of HUD. Despite taking the exact opposite tactic, it still increases immersion by forcing you to pay attention to how many shots you've fired, your character's movespeed and labored breathing, the ambient noise of the game environment, and so on.
• Silent Hill Downpour is a minor example; there's no HUD, but there are context commands and an inventory screen. The easiest way to tell how much more damage Murphey's taken is Murphey's appearance—whether he can still run or just barely drag himself around, and the extent of bruising visible on his body are the tell tale signs of damage.