Save State Design Gameplay screen
- Save State Design Introduction
- Primary User Group
- Justification for existence
- User test to identify location
- Save State Design – Welcome Screen
- Save State Design Gameplay screen <--You're Here
- Final Design Style
- User testing session - final design
- Appendix
We already covered the welcome screen design specification where we justified the reasons for incorporating existing style to make button look consistent. In this section, however we would like to discuss implications that appeared when we started to design buttons for the gameplay screen.
- Gameplay screen is the place where user can save or load the last saved game
During the user testing session, we identified the location of the save state UI elements in the gameplay, however, the problem we encountered was the fear that the user would misinterpret the meaning of the button (cognitive association). For instance, on the welcome screen all buttons have clearly readable text. This removes all assumptions related to the meaning of the button. However, because of the limited space the top right corner of the screen can only accommodate visual representation – icon.
As seen in Figure 7, even when seeking inspiration on the internet the meaning, for example of a load button can be quite confusing. From loading the truck, to loading icon which we typically see on the mobile devices - people can interpret the “load” button differently than initially intended for.
Figure 7: different variations of “Load and Save” icons that have different meaning and can confuse our target audience. All images are from flaticon.com
To rectify the problem, we deployed several design sprints where we prototyped icon concepts and tested designs with the users.