When you think about the different forces propelling industries like gaming into new directions, it’s natural to focus on the most obvious elements, and graphical power and technical improvements are usually at the top of this list.
However, it’s often the smaller details that can make or break these kinds of products. Within design circles, it might come as no surprise that thorough testing and effective UX design can be transformative to a given production, but as a consumer, drawing your attention to that might change the way that you see the design process.
Unplayability Through Poor Testing
The testing itself might actually be one of the most important aspects of any online leisure activity. To take the example of gaming, you don’t have to look far to see many historic examples of games that were critically panned, not for their content, but because they were released in a buggy and broken state that left players unable to play them properly. Sometimes, popular opinion of a game can even make a U-turn in the years after its release once patches have been released to fix these issues, as in the case of Cyberpunk 2077 or Fallout: New Vegas.
In any case, the point remains that if games are tested thoroughly before they’re released, the chance of a negative outcome here is minimized, though often the ability to test comes down to an availability of time (Fallout: New Vegas had a total development cycle of 18 months, for example, which is very short by the standards of other games).
Quiet Interfaces as Ease of Access
It doesn’t need to be anything flashy, but if the user experience is straightforward, makes sense, and is intuitive to use, people will keep coming back. There’s a risk that if you put too much emphasis on the parts of digital media that only need to be functional, you’ll create something that’s style over substance.
Something like an online casino, for instance, is self-explanatory, and so users are going to be keen to get started and know where to go for various games and activities. If you look at jackpotcity.ca, for instance, you’ll have your attention guided toward the various exclusive games that they have, including those with modern RPG elements, while also being clearly telegraphed toward the security credentials and payment information.
UX and UI Design as Feature
While the risk of style over substance is absolutely present, it might sometimes be a risk worth taking. Some games, such as those released by the developer Atlus, have become known for making the user interface as stylish as possible, to the point where it’s basically a selling point of the games themselves. This can have the same effect as a particularly distinct art style, where it makes up for a lack of raw graphical power, creating a distinct and memorable atmosphere.It might not even be something that many players think about, but perusing the various examples can have you seeing just how much effort goes into making the UI a consistent part of the UX.
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