andrewh3340
GUI Comparison--Signal-to-Noise ratio
The above two images are screenshots from two popular online role-playing computer games, Phantasy Star Online (PSO) and War of Warcraft (WOW). The graphical user interface (GUI) in WOW is heavily detailed and packed with information. It exhibits an astonishing level of complexity that only increases as the player progresses through the game. As the player advances, he or she accumulates more items, skills, and abilities, each of which are represented by a very small but detailed image on the hotkey panel and assigned a corresponding keystroke. The GUI is further complicated during times of escalated online activity due to the presence of player nametags which hover above the heads of the avatars on screen, detailed information about each member of the player's party in the upper left corner of the screen, and a running chat log in the lower left corner. Various other items crowding up the interface such as the area map, item descriptions, health bars, and messages pertaining to the progress of a battle make the screen indecipherable to all but experienced players.
Similar to WOW, PSO assigns important skills and items to particular hotkeys--not ALL of the skills and items though. The player is given the option of which skills to display in a limited space consisting of ten numbered slots (at the bottom of the screen) and a rotating wheel of keys mapped either to the controller or to other player-determined keystrokes. In PSO's GUI, the icons are easily identfiable first by their color (green denotes healing items/spells, red denotes physical attacks, orange represents fire-based magic, etc.) and then by a simple symbol which distinguishes each item from other items of similar color. The interface is very easy to visually navigate, even during moments of intense play such as boss battles. Chat messages are displayed only temporarily via speech bubbles, but a chat log can be accessed within the game's menu. PSO's interface successfully eliminates noise by paring down to the bare essentials and making those essentials very easy to access.
GUI Comparison--Signal-to-Noise ratio
The above two images are screenshots from two popular online role-playing computer games, Phantasy Star Online (PSO) and War of Warcraft (WOW). The graphical user interface (GUI) in WOW is heavily detailed and packed with information. It exhibits an astonishing level of complexity that only increases as the player progresses through the game. As the player advances, he or she accumulates more items, skills, and abilities, each of which are represented by a very small but detailed image on the hotkey panel and assigned a corresponding keystroke. The GUI is further complicated during times of escalated online activity due to the presence of player nametags which hover above the heads of the avatars on screen, detailed information about each member of the player's party in the upper left corner of the screen, and a running chat log in the lower left corner. Various other items crowding up the interface such as the area map, item descriptions, health bars, and messages pertaining to the progress of a battle make the screen indecipherable to all but experienced players.
Similar to WOW, PSO assigns important skills and items to particular hotkeys--not ALL of the skills and items though. The player is given the option of which skills to display in a limited space consisting of ten numbered slots (at the bottom of the screen) and a rotating wheel of keys mapped either to the controller or to other player-determined keystrokes. In PSO's GUI, the icons are easily identfiable first by their color (green denotes healing items/spells, red denotes physical attacks, orange represents fire-based magic, etc.) and then by a simple symbol which distinguishes each item from other items of similar color. The interface is very easy to visually navigate, even during moments of intense play such as boss battles. Chat messages are displayed only temporarily via speech bubbles, but a chat log can be accessed within the game's menu. PSO's interface successfully eliminates noise by paring down to the bare essentials and making those essentials very easy to access.