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If web-applications had HUDs

Fred Oliveira on March 20, 2006

Game designers are faced with a challenge - they need to get rid of HUDs in their games for several reasons: it goes against immersive gameplay, damages some HDTV screens through burn-in, and casual players need a simplified interface to feel at ease with playing a game. So if the HUD must go, what can be done?

Is there really enough information that needs to be 100% of the time in front of the player? And shifting planes to web applications, is there information in your app that needs to be visible at all times? How long do you think people will be looking at it instead of the rest of the functionality? In fact, do you even need a dashboard at all?

These are the questions you need to be asking yourself to stand out from the croud and help your user actually use your application. If you’re providing a service through your app, will persistant information be helpful or will it just clutter up the screen? Frequently, web applications tell us things we already know, or that are just not relevant to the task we’re trying to accomplish. If we can trim those situations down and decrease the complexity of the user interface, you’ll be game. Literally.

Article notes: If you want to read more about the HUD dillema, read the Gamasutra feature “Off with their HUDs“. In the picture, Katamari Damacy, © Namco - arguably the most innovative game out in the last few years and admitedly a recent addiction.


Comments on this post

Dan

For a great example of a game that has no HUD yet still provides you with all the information you need about your current situation, check out King Kong, available on the PC, XBox360, PS2 and GameCube.

Cobalt Revolver

Sorry to contact you via this contact box but I thought it would be faster this way - someone has ripped off your website - http://kim.syndromedia.se/?p=247

I noticed that you both had the same wordpress design so I asked the guy on that site if I could use it (since I figured it was public). When he told me it was just for his site I figured that he had stolen it from you, so I thought I’d tell you!

Fred

Wow, yeah, this has happened before. He could at least mention the inspiration. Not that I have a problem with people learning from the CSS I’ve put up - in fact, I recommend it -, but I’ve had people email and ask (like I specifically request in the CSS file). Thanks for the heads up, very appreciated. Now back to the regular programme.

Update: he’s emailed apologizing, end of story. Lets get back to talking about design and usability ;-)

Kim Lindberg

I hope you are okay with me linking to my site Fred, but I just want a chance to defend myself :-) Cobalt - please read this.

Michael Zuschlag

I’m all for removing unnecessary clutter from user interfaces and certainly something like constantly displayed decorative graphics or slogans should be on the hit list of any web site designer. However, it isn’t how *long* your users look at certain information that matters, but *when* do they need to look at it. The key problem is often you don’t know when, so once the frequency of use for the information passes a certain threshold, you’re best off displaying it all the time. Given the slow responsiveness of the web, frequency of use has to be pretty low or existing clutter has to be awfully high to justify tucking the info a click or two away.
I think we can agree that a well designed HUD improves human performance, but in game design you’re not necessarily out to maximize performance –games are supposed to be challenging. Have to mentally track how many bullets remaining in your magazine? Heck, don’t you think real Secret Service agents have to do that too? But with a web site, you *are* looking to maximize performance. In our current IPod-driven trend to “simplify” things, we must not declutter arbitrarily.

Chris Saad

The concept of a web app HUD is interesting in that web-apps actually have less reach than client-side apps.

On the client-side we have taken it for granted that we can flash up a form any time we want. On the web the developer is stuck in the sandbox.

This is the driving force behind our project - a sort of all-purpose heads-up-display for web apps - on the client-side.

WeBreakStuff » What we can learn from gaming consoles

[...] For more on what we can learn from games and the gaming world, see the previous article about designing HUDs on games and web applications for insight and discussion on how important it is to keep information constantly in sight - and when that’s an error. [...]

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