Dots That Go for Walks: How to Maximize Minimal UI

In this 2017 GDC talk, PlayDots' Margaret Robertson, takes viewers through a set of design principles that show how the simplest visual elements can be brought to life in game interfaces through thoughtful implementation.

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[Tapahtumahorisontti]

I've been searching for exactly these kinds of illustrations on how to design the GUI. Excellent use of examples, too.

[bradleysmith]

I love the font she picked for her slides. :)

[rsoftgames]

This is amazing ! Even making a PC game, these design tips she gave us, fit very well in the entire UI ...

[brannonharris]

Mini metro looks boring af. Lol. But great talk!

[sdhority]

Greetings from 2024... I think I'm in the wrong room...

[joshuagrams]

Oi. She's hard to listen to, with all the awkward hesitation and searching for words and the jokes that are just trying *way* too hard.

And...almost all the examples bug me. I remember (from tigsource?) the clock in Mini Metro being a *big* problem, with *most* players never figuring out that it was a button, and the devs trying a bunch of different changes and eventually I have the impression that they just threw up their hands and decided that it was more important to have the visual thing look the way they wanted than to fix the interface problem? Similarly, I'd love to see playtest data on TouchTone: how many people were stuck on that screen for a bit because they couldn't figure out what to do?

The icons in the Reigns example are using a fairly unsaturated red and green to indicate positive and negative changes: won't that be utterly horrible for people with any sort of colorblindness? Which is very weird considering that she makes a big deal about designing for colorblind people at the end.

And the boosted/unboosted companion: isn't it a common recommendation, backed up by research, to avoid toggle buttons which change their text based on the current state, because a fair number of casual users will be confused as to whether the text indicates the current state or the state that the button press will change to?

There were a bunch of good thoughts and recommendations in here, but...the execution...yikes.

[lukasthompson]

Get rid of the UI, too much going on these days killing the actual game.