Hi all, I'm looking into some elements of user interface design that are particularly good or particularly bad. For example, something that software designers include in an earlier edition of a piece of software, then remove it in a later edition, could be considered 'bad' (presumably due to negative user feedback), whereas ones which stand the test of time through years or even decades, could be considered 'good'. This could be anything as simple as a flashing button that gets your attention, to complex interfaces that let you roll-your-own in a given scripting language. If it applies, post the link to a screenshot if you have easy access to one. While I'm not specifically looking for examples in games, I am looking for ones which could be applied to games. Choices posted here are, at least partially, likely going to be personal preference, but I'm interested to see peoples' opinions on various aspects of UI design that they felt either made the game, or broke the game (or made them want to break it). To give you an example... System: Neverwinter Nights' 'radial menu' system Experiences: Played the game on and off for a couple of years; I personally hated the radial menu due to its multi-tiered organization, which I felt was clumsy. I used hotkeys instead, but avoided the numpad shortcuts (imagine '562' performs an emote, but '526' casts a fireball!) Proof: NWN2 dropped the radial menu! Thanks for listening,

Something that's really important to me is the amount of clicks it takes to get somewhere in your interface, or to access a piece of information. Especially important in real-time games - I don't want to have to go through several menus and buttons and sub-tabs just to get to a piece of information or option.

I prefer almost everything laid out on the screen in panels so I won't have to go through windows to get to them. Just as well, it would be great if much of the information that isn't needed at the moment becomes hidden or fade away. Basically automate the informing process a bit for the player.

Things that are very important or constantly used should be very easy for the player to access to. Hotbar/Skillbars with hotkeys, etc.

Ultimately, it depends on the purpose of your software (what type of game / how it is played) and what type of hardware you are using (what type of keymappings you are going to use, are you going to use only the mouse or keyboard + mouse, gamepad for console, or some app on your cellphone). Lets say we're talking about a computer game: a casual time-management game is going to need a completely different type of interface design than a FPS. A RTS game will require different things out of its interface than say a TBS. Reasons for these designs might include the targeted audience, playstyle, particular elements of the genre, etc.

Wouldn't it be great if the game gave you the power to customize your own interface? I've seen a couple of MMOs do this, with not only the sizing/resizing of your panels, but also what kinds of info panels are more useful to you (I know City of Heroes/Villains has this).