PS4 Dualshock Controller Design Overview — Interface + Action
Whether you’re into video games or not, if you’ve spent any time in your past playing Pacman or any other classic games, I’m sure you know that the Video Gaming industry has evolved into one of the most profitable industries of our times, with leaps of technological advances taking places as each new generation console is introduced. I am a gamer, always have been since my mom used to take me to the local arcade in the shopping mall. Back then however, things were pretty simple. Games like Moon Patrol or Russian Attack were my favorites. You would explore a 2d, linear map with little more than a joystick, and up to 4 to 6 buttons, that would trigger an action or results in the game. Fast forward to 2016 and things have gotten a lot more complicated, or as I like to say possible, with what can be done. Let’s start by taking a look at this controller as the standard interface (or remote control) for the PS4 menu screen.
Upon booting the PS4 into its default state, the above diagram illustrates the input mappings that are assigned to the Operating System’s main screen.
In this state the controller is acting like a remote control (much in the same way if you had a Roku) for you to select a game, a television app, or the now partnered Spotify music player. The mappings that have been established for the controller tend to be shared for the majority of the top layer of applications you will use when running them on the system. However, once you decide to boot up a game, you are then entering the world and mapping that specific developer has set up for your controller. Let’s use one of my favorite titles, Bloodborne, by Fromsoft’s amazing director Hidetaka Miyazaki.
As you can see, the mapping of every manual trigger on the controller has now been given entirely different sets of rules and actions. Bumper buttons become attack buttons, the analog sticks that were used to access the keyboard and for scrolling now control your character and the world’s camera as you travel. There are also combinations of button instances that will result in an action (such as pressing forward on the left stick and pressing R2 to perform a jumping attack). However, there is one button that still remains constant throughout all games and that is the mighty OPTIONS button. From here you can change the games settings, customize stats and game details for the type of game you are playing, view world maps, and so much more. Here’s a look at once instance of an option screen from Bloodborne:
I’m sure if you aren’t a fan of action RPG’s (Role Playing Games) or these games in general, I’ve already lost you, but look at how much information pressing the OPTION button puts in front of your eyes! Across the top of the screen it shows we are viewing the Left Hand weapon inventory, but pressing L1 or R1 to scroll between the types of weapons, armor, gems, runes or chalices we have, will each give its own screen that we can then dive deeper into to customize our simply view our characters core stats.
I find within these menus is when I have the most conversations with myself. What decisions do I need to make? Why is this screen not taking me to the next one like it should? Wouldn’t it be awesome if pressing X while this was selected resulted in this outcome?! Luckily when it comes to Fromsoft’s games, I find I don’t have many of these conversations with myself, but there are other game developers out there that I feel don’t spend enough time thinking about the User Experience while playing their games, and they view the Menu screen as just some loose nuts and bolts that have to be there to give some customization to what’s going on.
I’m hoping to see more UX designers get involved in the world of gaming. As the processors and capabilities of these consoles keep growing, we’re going to need to continue streamlining our interactions between what a simple controller can do and the endless possibilities these directors and developers conjure up.