[MUD-Dev] UI Design in MMOs

[Tom "cro" Gordon]

Derek Liccardi wrote::

> This is somewhat of a rant but it's an issue that I was hoping
> would be resolved by the newer games that largely hasn't been
> resolved at all.  Having spent a majority of my career in business
> application design and not games, the quality of the user
> interface has always been something that was very high up on the
> list of requirements for any software application that I was
> building.  How come this is not the case with MMOs?  Even the
> latest crop of them has major UI problems that a basic UI design
> book would tell you not to do, yet there they are.  I'm going to
> slam the WoW UI here for a minute because it needs pointing out,
> but every game out there has its own issues.

I come from a similar background (Industrial Automation) (admittedly
a few years ago), and of all the existing MMO's, I have to say the
WoW interface is actually my favourite.

> In WoW, it seems like they went after their Diablo II crowd with
> an interface derived straight from that game.  Nothing is movable,
> resizable or customizable.  In an MMO where my play style is
> different from yours, you should be able to get
> comfortable. (group vs. solo, pet vs. no pet, crafting.)  Instead,
> you are forced to play the game the way the developers think is
> best.  Even the dynamic windows are not movable which will be
> nothing but frustration for crafters that need multiple bags open
> and other dialogs.

I've never played Diablo 2, so I'll accept your comment about it
being similar. But, the layout can be customised - it just takes a
little work at the script level (like AO). That said, it is still by
far the best and most useable interface I have ever come across, bar
none. It has one critical thing for any interface that most programs
- commercial software included do not have - and that is speed.
Everything appears instantly, without lagging other windows.

On the subject of UI customisatio, I'm sure some bright spark will
come up with a GUI program that lets you customise the WoW GUI from
outside - after all, it's just wrapping script in code :)

As for crafting, as a Bartle ASE player (I scored 0% on Fighter
archetype) I find the crafting interface WoW to be far friendlier
than in EQ2 or Horizons (or pretty much any other game). I do have
my own niggles with it - but nothing that is game stopping, causes
me any problems, or detracts from my enjoyment of the crafting
process.

EQ2's windows were a great pain in the neck when it came to
crafting, not being resizable, and being just that little bit too
wide to stack comfortably side by side on the screen when crafting.

[snip a lot]

> Enough of the rant; I've made my point.  Let's hope that the next
> generation of games doesn't botch the UI as badly as WoW did.  Are
> there any WoW developers on this list?  If so, please enlighten us
> on the decision process that went into your UI design.  I'd be
> interested in knowing how much attention was paid to it during the
> development cycle.  How about the other studios?  Do you typically
> pay attention to the user interface for your game or is game-play
> (of which I'd argue UI is part of but alas) and graphics all that
> matters?

I won't go much more into it - but on the subject of UI, a game's UI
is often the defining point for me of any game. If the UI doesn't
work, it doesn't matter how good the game is, I just won't play, as
I spend more time figuring out the interface than playing the game.
There's a large crop of MMO games on the market that I'd place into
this category, some of them quite large and well known - but WoW
isn't one of them. I found the interface to be intuitive, quick to
respond, logically laid out and simple to use.

Regards,
Tom "cro" Gordon
CEO, AlienPants Ltd
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