Introduction

Have you ever had trouble figuring out a menu in a video game? Frustration over the HUD (heads-up display) not displaying the information you need? Or played a game where the gameplay controls just made sense and felt second nature? These are just some of many aspects I aim to examine in this blog.

VGUX (Video Game User Experience) has been a long time in the making. I’ve had this blog in mind for a couple years now, but being young blood in the design field as a UX Designer, the hesitation of adding my thoughts/ideas into the design world about my favorite medium was intimidating. Thanks to the encouragement from friends and the growing desire to explore my passion of UX design in games, VGUX is finally here.

To provide a brief introduction to user experience design, here’s a great quote from Usability.gov (really great resource for those in the UX field):

“User experience (UX) focuses on having a deep understanding of users, what they need, what they value, their abilities, and also their limitations. It also takes into account the business goals and objectives of the group managing the project. UX best practices promote improving the quality of the user’s interaction with and perceptions of your product and any related services.” (Source)

Games are different from traditional digital mediums (apps/websites), and I have no true experience working with them. Able to connect with some incredible Tech Ladies who work in the video game industry, they provided advice and resources I could utilize to learn more about UX in game design. Through them, I found “Heuristic Evaluation for Games: Usability Principles for Video Game Design” by David Pinelle, Nelson Wong, and Tadeusz Stach, a paper that develops heuristics for evaluating the usability of video games. Pinelle, Wong, and Stach’s usability principles will be used as a resource for this blog, using the following heuristics:

• Consistency
• Customizability
• Predictability
• Proper Views
• Skip non-playable content
• Input mappings
• Controls
• Game status
• Training and help
• Visual representations.

The purpose of this blog is to take a look at the usability of video game interfaces and how they affect the player’s experience. My personal goal with this exploration is to take a deeper dive into games and gain a deeper understanding of their crafted experiences. Currently working in software design, a dream is to someday work with games. I hope this blog will act as a personal vessel to explore how these interfaces and displays are created and utilized. This is a learning experience, and I welcome you all on this journey with me!

What a creative blog name, amirite?! ;)

Big thank you to Wei-Wei Huang for creating the VGUX logo!

Follow the official VGUX twitter @vgux_

Or follow my personal twitter @cbro_oks