Hacker News Board Hacker News, browsed like a classic message board
Live data from Hacker News

The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

gameuidatabase.com

Post reply on HN
Print view View original

21–30 of 104 posts

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#21

Post by xipho »

Neputys wrote: post #19
xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

As long as you exclude UI/UX from "getting things done" it's going to be notoriously bad. Academia, government, enterprise all the same. There's no accountability to actual users and doing UX properly would turn the whole project on it's head so guess why no one cares...

| There's no accountability to actual users and doing UX properly would turn the whole project on it's head so guess why no one cares...

I don't think we're saying they don't care.

It's a balance, right? I've been around long enought to see the UI/UX world emerge and become more defined, but some of that world is common sense that comes with experience. In my experience some UI/UX is hot-air, and in fact gets in the way of getting things done, but other bits/and insights are super useful. What I'm suggesting is to tease out specifics with reference to systems that others are familiar with- games.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#23

Post by sh1mmer »

I’d love to see something like this for game mechanics, although that might be harder to achieve.

For example being able to find games that have certain movement mechanics and compare them would be amazing. Like “jump”, “double jump”, “sliding”, “ice surfaces”, etc

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#24

Post by petargyurov »

xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

> scientific software ... where interfaces are notoriously bad.

I think the problem here is two fold: bad UIs and bad APIs. In the science world, there doesn't seem to be any abstraction between backend and frotnend -- the whole thing is one intertwined mess.

Scientists don't always write great software; they write scripts that get the job done quickly in a very specific way. Pair that with the lack of time that they have to wrap things in a GUI and you get a Tkinter/Qt app that is unmaintanable.

I'm currently volunteering with the NZ Department of Conservation. Here is a tiny preview [0] of an app that I have just started making for them. It's purpose is to aid scientists with processing camera trap images using machine learning. I'm building the UI using ElectronJS and Svelte, whilst the backend is a separate Python project.

[0] https://streamable.com/0ji1ii

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#25

Post by maxwelljoslyn »

sh1mmer wrote: post #23

I’d love to see something like this for game mechanics, although that might be harder to achieve. For example being able to find games that have certain movement mechanics and compare them would be amazing. Like “jump”, “double jump”, “sliding”, “ice surfaces”, etc

You might be interested in the "operational logics and playable models" section on this page:

https://eis.ucsc.edu/analyses-and-approaches/

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#26

Post by SahAssar »

xgulfie wrote: post #15
m12k wrote: post #11

Earlier quoted context omitted.

IANAL but it's probably covered by fair use. Otherwise "Let's Play Videos" on YouTube would not be possible(and they actually show all the content in the game, while this shows single screenshots). Same goes for games review sites, Metacritic, game wikis etc that all have screenshots. It's definitely not in the interest of a game publisher to disallow the internet to show off their game, but they probably can't legal…

Let's Play videos only exist because publishers allow them to. They aren't fair use. They could drop the DMCA hammer tomorrow but they don't because it makes them money. Edit: obviously I'm not supporting this but this is the legal reality.

There are differing opinions on this from what I've heard. If the let's play video competes with the experience of playing the game then it seems like it would be as you say, but for many cases that would probably not be true. This is still not decided in court though and just because someone can DMCA someone else does not mean they are in the right legally. It would also be different in different countries, the free use doctrine and DMCA are a American concepts.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#27

Post by marapuru »

Neputys wrote: post #18
Minor49er wrote: post #14

The amount of games and screens is impressive, but for a site calling itself a database, it should take things further. Mainly, there ought to be a lot more textual content. For example, rather than just a screenshot of the options menu for a given game, there should be tables listing all of the options and their possible settings. Rather than just an in-game screenshot, each UI element should be called out and detai…

I'm a UI designer for almost a second decade now. In short textual content is the last thing I need from a site like this. Forgive me but that is just a load of pointless academic pedantry.

I disagree. I've been a UI / UX designer for various pieces of software and the thing I miss in all the collected screenshots online _is_ text. It makes things more easily searchable and comparable. For example, is a health bar vertically or horizontally positioned? Top right or top left? What's the used color?

All these things could show me the obvious choice when designing a health bar in a specific type of game or interface.

No website with screenshot (or otherwise UI based visuals) in collections has this searchable content.

So for me, as a UI designer, I would definitely benefit from more textual information.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#28

Post by ThomPete »

xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

At First Principle we have tried to offer our design help for free for the scientific research community because we want to support the community. Whether robotics, ai or medical.

Most of the time there isn't really an interest from the people involved because they just want to do the research and not add the work of getting a proper interface working ontop of what they already have to deal with.

The offer still stands though.

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#29

Post by brianzelip »

xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

Cheers to Pixo! As a UIUC alumn, it's great to see their work referenced on HN!

Re: The Game UI Database, a comprehensive reference of game interface design

#30

Post by Neputys »

petargyurov wrote: post #24
xipho wrote: post #12

We build scientific software ( http://taxonworks.org/ ) where interfaces are notoriously bad. I feel the scientific community would benefit so much from a (sponsored?) program that paired game developers (or UI/UX specialists, or game psychologists) with teams building scientific software. For example we help describe species- while not quite the same thing, gamers do that everywhere, skinning, equiping, stat-min-max…

> scientific software ... where interfaces are notoriously bad. I think the problem here is two fold: bad UIs and bad APIs. In the science world, there doesn't seem to be any abstraction between backend and frotnend -- the whole thing is one intertwined mess. Scientists don't always write great software; they write scripts that get the job done quickly in a very specific way. Pair that with the lack of time that they…

How is Electron doing btw? I'm itching to use it in one project but it doesn't feel like it's getting any traction in the community for a long time now. Since it's a long term project I kind of get mixed feelings about using it.
Post reply on HN