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HCI Design in Games

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Title: HCI Design in Games

1
HCI Design in Games

Cindy Song
Fall 06

2
Agenda

Intro
Four Concepts
Effortless Community
Learning by Watching
Deep Customizability
Fluid System-Human Interaction
Hands-On
Conclusion

3
Goal

Learn novel design concepts from games

IntroFour ConceptsHands-OnConclusion
Goal Questions to Keep In Mind
4
Questions to Keep In Mind

How do they apply to general apps?
Differences b/t games general apps?
Multi-user vs. single-user mindsets?
3D vs. 2D?
One app open vs. multiple windows?
Motivation life/death vs. finishing 5-min early?

IntroFour ConceptsHands-OnConclusion
Goal Questions to Keep In Mind
5
Effortless Community

Motivation
Communities Serve as Valuable resources
Comment on content
Resolve problems
Provide collaboration
Challenges
Critical mass
Access to the Internet
Ability to find or form the right subgroups
Games make it easy
Participation in communities
Group forming in communities

IntroFour ConceptsHands-OnConclusion
Motivation ChallengesGames Easy to
ConnectGames Easy to Identify and Form
GroupsComparison with General Apps
Effortless Community Learning by Watching Deep
Customizability Fluid System-Human Interaction
6
Connect to Community

Integration
Game and community
Easy to access
Host Servers
Dedicated reliable game servers
Enable gamers to host communities on their own
game servers
Takes a few clicks from within the game itself
Benefits
Attract critical mass of users
Participate in the same location
Available for collaboration
Nature of Games
Multi-player community is a requirement

Requirements for Collaborator is Situational
General questions (i.e. workaround)
Wide group or anyone nearby
Specific tasks
Compatible personalities
Similar levels of expertise
Common interests
Games provide
Meeting places
In-game grouping

Discuss Strategy
Solve Problems
Customize games
Match-Making
Stats
Profiles

Situation
Massive multiplayer games
Thousands of people
Same game world
No defined end to the game
Gamer has identity within the world
Location (i.e. secret cow level)
Conversation channels (i.e. network lag)
Friend lists
Visual identity (i.e. skills, loyalties,
expertise)
Explicit teams (i.e. private communication,
tracking mechanisms)
Guilds (66 of WoW characters, 90 if gt level 43)

Explicit Team
Restricted conversations
Locate allies

Social Pressure
Facilitates group forming
43 more often to be in a group

CHI 06
IntroFour ConceptsHands-OnConclusion
Motivation ChallengesGames Easy to
ConnectGames Easy to Identify and Form
GroupsComparison with General Apps
Effortless Community Learning by Watching Deep
Customizability Fluid System-Human Interaction
12
Social Aspects of WoW

In WoW
Being surrounded by others
Café Analogy
Interacting with an audience
Identity it is not the people that are
addictive but rather, its the image of myself
I get from other people. CHI 06
Laughing at and with others
Other players are a spectacle adds
entertainment
i.e. Impromptu dance performance by a group of
characters waiting for a boat
i.e. Gnome wearing a deep-dive helmet in an
auction house
/silly command

General Applications
Graphics Designers who use Photoshop
Java Programmers who use JBuilder
Architects who use AutoCAD
Channels
Newsgroups
Websites
Size
Comp.graphics.apps.photoshop contains gt140,000
discussion threads.

Conventional apps
Users are disconnected
Unaware of others
When communities do exist
Participation occurs outside of the application
Interaction is asynchronous (i.e. newsgroup)
Disadvantages
Requires third party tools
Extra effort
Out of the application context

Similarities
Need to build expertise
Have questions answered
Discuss approaches
Solicit Feedback
Aim for productivity and efficiency
Discussion
Could we apply community concepts to general
apps?
Integrated community
Meeting place
In-app grouping (topic-specific chats, friend
list, explicit teams)
What are some differences b/t games and general
apps that make it difficult to share HCI concepts?

Motivation
Learn from more experienced users
Observational Learning
Challenges
Users are distributed, not face-to-face
Requires embodiment and workspace awareness
Requires understanding of detailed actions
Games make it possible
Real-time awareness
Embodiment information

Convey embodiment, awareness, and task based info
Allows easy interpretation of fine-grained
actions
i.e. 3D Avatar in GhostRecon - Crouch, crawl,
jump, run, open doors, and pick up items
i.e. Strategy for fighting lightening demons in
Diablo II

Shared views of workspace and awareness
Explored in groupware
Not much in single-user applications
i.e. VNC
OS-level App-level
Provides awareness (mouse, dropdown menu
selection)
Not adequate task information (key sequences)

19
Games vs. General Apps

Similarities
Benefit from observational learning
Discussion
Could we apply learning-by-watching concepts to
general apps?
Real-time awareness (i.e. mouse loc, dropdown
selection)
Task-based information (i.e. present sequence of
actions)
Visual presentation (i.e. players status)
What are some differences b/t games and general
apps that make it difficult to share HCI concepts?

20
Deep Customizability

Motivation
There is no single configuration best for all
tasks.
Increase efficiency usability
Challenges
Usually takes effort to customize
Games innovate
Anything-goes UI malleability
Natural extensibility
Portable customizations

21
Anything-Goes UI Malleability

UI element locations
New command container
Remap controls

22
Natural Extensibility

Macros
Everquest 2 mouse clicks
MS Word 7 actions before starting, 5 more to
place onto a toolbar to use
Simplicity
Use macro even for a few minutes worth of
activity

23
Portable Customizations

Save, move, and share modifications and
extensions
XML files for configurations
Mod kits for simplifying creation, editing, and
installation of extensions, layouts, and skins
Gamers with no experience can use these
interfaces
Controversy How much control to give the users?

24
Games vs. General Apps

Similarities
Goal performance and productivity
Discussion
Could we apply customizability concepts to
general apps?
Anything-Goes UI Malleability (palettes of tools,
remap func)
Natural Extensibility (i.e. macro)
Portable Customizations (i.e. XML)
What are some differences b/t games and general
apps that make it difficult to share HCI
concepts?

25
Fluid System-Human Interaction

Motivation
Minimize disruptions to work flow
Less user attention
Less user effort
Games use novel approaches
Calm messaging
Attention-aware interface elements
Context-aware view behaviors

26
Calm Messaging

Audio
Recorded voice notifications
Spatialized environmental sound
Transient Text
Gradually fades
Automatically-scrolled message area
Animation
Match level of visibility with importance
Indicate direction, location, and priority

27
Warcraft III

Red concentric circles and arrows
Voice type of event

28
Other Fluid UI

Attention-aware
Transparency levels reflect user attention
(mouse-over)
Context-aware
Zoom, pan, and rotate views
Neverwinter Nights 3 camera behaviors
Easy to toggle using key shortcuts

29
Everquest
30
Games vs. General Apps

Similarities
Goal no disruption to workflow
Discussion
Could we apply customizability concepts to
general apps?
Calm Messaging (i.e. audio, transient text,
animation)
Attention-aware (Transparent out-of-focused
windows)
Context-aware (i.e. zoom, pan, rotate views)
What are some differences b/t games and general
apps that make it difficult to share HCI
concepts?

31
Hands-On Diablo II