Shapes

Week Twenty-four

(or UI II)

I hope you've had a great week! I thought I would talk a little bit more about the UI since I'm still working on certain aspects and continuing to develop artwork. I decided to show some of my sketch pages this week in the gallery below. Both pages show my UI ideation process on paper.

Last week I laid out the fundamental concepts behind the UI I'm designing for AIM<. This week I'll go into a little more detail regarding one of the most enjoyable parts to develop; the artwork.

The artwork is primarily icons. This decision is largely influenced by design conventions already established by shooters and further enhanced by the TCG (trading card game) influence I mentioned near the end of my blog post last week.

Beginning with the earliest shooters, specific iconography is developed to quickly communicate to players vital information, like health and ammo, at a glance during frenzied action sequences. Many shooters have their own iconography. Shape language is typically quickly established early in the game so that later, during more difficult levels, players can quickly identify important pickups, power-ups, avatar status, etc.

In AIM<, players will be able to see at a glance where resources and threats are and quickly make decisions. I designed the icons with high contrast to stand out from the  environment. Also, each icon uses shape language that varies greatly from one another to avoid confusion. The final color schemes for the UI will further enhance recognition.

TCG cards use a similar logic for iconography as shooters but take the concept a little further. It's common for TCGs to sum up complex functions with a single icon. Icons are even able to be strung together to form even more complex function statements. Iconography is key to card designs since space (or real estate) is often limited to a very small area. Important information must be able to be communicated at a glance without competing too much with illustrations, or breaking aesthetic uniformity and consistency.

I created a couple variations for many of the elements featured on the "cards" in AIM<, seeking to establish a uniform aesthetic among the different icons. All of them need to look like they fit in the same game. I also had to be sure that each icon could be resized and used at different locations consistently, without having to change any of the elements that compose the icon. Some basic graphic design knowledge has been very helpful when making these decisions.

Game design, I've learned, really is a multi-disciplinary exercise. Every course I've taken has been influential in some form or fashion.

I look forward to sharing more with about the design process behind AIM< next week! Have an awesome weekend!

AIM< UI Concept Sketches Page 1 by Aram Wahler

AIM< UI Concept Sketches Page 2 by Aram Wahler