[MUD-Dev] Re: Article: A Summary of Principles for User-Interface Design.

[Adam J. Thornton]

On Fri, Aug 21, 1998 at 02:52:51PM -0700, J C Lawrence wrote:
>   Okay, now consider that instead of using a web browser you are
> instead trying to play a MUD and that this is your interface to the
> game.  How obvious is it to you, as a user, just by static
> observation, what you can *DO* in this game world?  How obvious is it
> to you HOW to DO those things?

_Return To Zork_ was an execrable game, but it had a really, really good
interface.  Possibly more useful for a largely (or completely) text-based
environment would be an interface like Infocom's foray into the CRPG world,
_Quarterstaff_; the game itself was Mac-only and buggy as hell, so it
didn't get the attention it deserved, but it had a really interesting
multi-window menu-or-command-line driven interface.

_About Face_ is an interesting book.  It's aimed at application
programmers, rather than anything with a real-time component, but worth
checking out.  Alan Cooper wrote it, and it's IDG Press.

What I'd like to implement in the fantasy world where I manage to write the
client I want to is an interface that's a hybrid of _Return To Zork_ and
_Ultima Underworld I_; modal, so you can be in "examine" mode or "combat"
mode or "manipulate" mode or "talk" mode, and then some sort of context
menu that depends on the selected object that gives you access to the less
common verbs, some of which are object-dependent (you can dig up a shrub,
but not a horse; you can set fire to a letter, but not a bronze statue).

Adam
--
adam at princeton.edu 
"There's a border to somewhere waiting, and a tank full of time." - J. Steinman