Good UI Principles 2b: More Info Is Not Good Info

Okay, I admit that I’ve only just started these essays and I’ve already blatantly lied to you. Not only did I not post my first one over the weekend like I promised, I’m also doing a bait and switch on the topic. Instead of talking about the development path between console and PC UI first, there’s something that came up in conversation today that I’d rather devote the first entry to, and its position on my list is 2b (because it kind of dovetails into a couple of other points I had made earlier on my list). Here’s the tenet:

Giving the player all information at all times is not only not advantageous, but actively damaging to the game experience.

It’s a subpoint on my list because it dovetails into a larger point, which is that a UI’s job is to present only the information you need when you actually need it, and that information shouldn’t crowd your screen at any other time.

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Good UI Principles: The Intro

I’ve spent the last five years of my game industry career making user interfaces for games of many types — PC games, console games, games that ship on PC and multiple console platforms, first-person shooters, third-person action games, and strategy action games. And I spent the five years prior to that working in areas of game development that touched heavily on the user interface experience — web design for some of the largest game web sites on the net, marketing materials for games, and more.
I’ve learned a lot over those many years, and about a year ago I decided it would be kind of cool to keep track of the things I’ve learned about UI design and the user experience in games in some kind of list. The list has since grown to include about twenty items so far and as long as I work in UI I can only assume that the list will continue to grow. I’ve taken to calling the list “Good UI Principles” and I’ve decided it would be a great idea to start expanding on each one of the items in my list in a collection of blog essays because discussion about good UI design is surprisingly hard to find. As to whether or not I’ll actually contribute anything to a discussion about good UI design remains to be seen, but hey, what’s the harm in trying?

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