Hello everybody,

Me and a friend of mine are making a game for mobile phones. I can't describe the idea of the game because my friend is very paranoid.

Anyway, we have a carousel slider that player can use to select an object (the object in the middle is selected, in this case the chicken) and then tap somewhere to spawn it in game.
Our fear is that the user experience won't be that great. Its ok that the object in the center to be selected or we should let the player click on any object to select it?

Do you have any suggestions to help us design a carousel slider that can be fun to use and player can get along with?

[attachment=27020:2015-04-27_224830.png]

Do you show "stats" or anything for the "selected item" when it is selected?

If not, and there's no other reason to have an item selected other than to be the one you spawn when you hit Go, I'd probably remove that entirely and just let you directly tap an icon to spawn it.

If you are going to keep the "go" button, the "selected" item should be highlighted or raised or something to indicate it's the one that will be used. It's not obvious as it is.

Fundamentally, mobile touchscreen games should embrace the directness of touch as a user interface paradigm and not port old conventions using the finger as a proxy for the mouse cursor.

Do you show "stats" or anything for the "selected item" when it is selected?

If not, and there's no other reason to have an item selected other than to be the one you spawn when you hit Go, I'd probably remove that entirely and just let you directly tap an icon to spawn it.

If you are going to keep the "go" button, the "selected" item should be highlighted or raised or something to indicate it's the one that will be used. It's not obvious as it is.

Fundamentally, mobile touchscreen games should embrace the directness of touch as a user interface paradigm and not port old conventions using the finger as a proxy for the mouse cursor.

The only stats shown are the name of the object and the number of objects that can be spawned. The GO button starts the game after you spawned your objects.
So it would be better to let the player tap on any objects and then highlight the selected item?

So it would be better to let the player tap on any objects and then highlight the selected item?

That's my guess, yes. I expect to be able to touch things on the screen on a mobile game these days.

It's possible it doesn't work well in the context of your specific gameplay, it's hard to say for sure without actual playtesting. but I think you should try it out.

Thank you Josh! I will try this out and then do a lot of playtesting to find out the best way to do this.

What is the cost of the user selecting the wrong thing?

The "go" button serves as a confirmation.

When the costs are low there is no need for confirmation. If they accidentally bump the button they get learn not to bump the button.

When the costs are high, especially for costs of using unique or cash-purchased items, the extra confirmation step is important.

What is the cost of the user selecting the wrong thing?

The "go" button serves as a confirmation.

When the costs are low there is no need for confirmation. If they accidentally bump the button they get learn not to bump the button.

When the costs are high, especially for costs of using unique or cash-purchased items, the extra confirmation step is important.

The costs in the worst case scenario is losing a life for selecting the wrong things. The extra confirmation step is a dialog where I ask the player if "he is sure" or what?

I feel like I should put this here. It's not 100% relevant to the case in point, but to my mind it's good general advice.

I feel like I should put this here. It's not 100% relevant to the case in point, but to my mind it's good general advice.

Basically this ^^^ :)

Also for the carousel picture of OP, there is no indication right now that any of items is selected. All three items look like "buttons" that can be pressed. So you either may go this way - let user click one of them and change look to depressed (user or button - probably both :)) or make the middle one bigger and the side ones partially hidden behind edges. You may also rethink the arrows as on touch screen I would expect actual sliding across the items to work instead of arrow buttons.

How many options are there for the player to choose from?

If there are few enough that you can fit them all comfortably in a single row on the screen, then it might be worth looking at whether this fits with your UI: the user can then just tap on whichever they want at any given time.

If not, a pop-up menu (with the options arranged in a grid) might be another option worth considering.