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阐述游戏UI设计原理之反馈要求(2)

发布时间:2012-11-13 14:27:08 Tags:,,,,

作者:Dirk Knemeyer

反馈

今天让我们来说说用户反馈:也就是用户对于设计发展的影响。与其它元素不同,大多数资深设计师也很容易忽视反馈。因为他们总是更加相信自己的天赋和直觉,总觉得自己清楚所有创造前景。通常情况下,如果你想成为一名最优秀的设计师,你就需要掌握获得反馈的最佳方法,并明确反馈所呈现的形式。而一般的设计师则更倾向于将反馈当成整个设计过程中的一部分。对于他们来说,通过反馈所获得的经验教训不如意识元素重要,但却超越了方法视角。(请点击此处阅读本系列第1篇

Feedback(from bestcollegesonline)

Feedback(from bestcollegesonline)

创建原型

完善设计的最佳方法便是尽早创建原型,并在创造过程中更频繁地创建原型。这也是为何电子游戏设计师更愿意将编码(而不是美术或图像设计)当成个人技能的主要原因:为了明确某些理念是否有效,你就需要将其从脑子中提取出来并交给用户进行测试。

完美像素

为了有效地评估UI,你就必须在相对于成品(你所预想的)的适当位置上设置每个像素点。

这时候你便能够有效地区分游戏原型和UI原型。你必须先完成游戏原型的创建。也就是在获得最初理念的几天内先创造出游戏原型。这时候你不可能获得最完美的像素,因为“这只是尚未成熟的理念”与“还有许多事情要做,我们知道自己拥有一个很不错的理念,而现在就让我们去落实它”这两种想法之间存在着缺口。从根本上看来,UI便是用户“落实行动”的表现。而像素完美原理则是对这一点的支持。

当你创造了一个可行的UI,你就需要为游戏设定一个方向,并清楚地定义UI中将出现哪些数据和功能,从而尽可能快速地实现完美像素。当然了,在此之后你可能还需要对某些内容进行修改或重新创造。也就是比起创造出一些粗糙的内容,达到完美像素需要花费更长的时间。但是这一切的投入都是值得的,因为你将能尽早获得正确且有效的用户反馈。反复的迭代与观察将能够帮你在成本中呈现出更加出色的UI。

大声地说出缺陷

反馈中自然也存在赞扬的空间,就像在青年足球联盟中,每个人都能获得奖杯!但是说实在的,对于设计师来说(包含UI设计),最有用的反馈应该是扯破脸说直话。说出自己喜欢的内容当然也有帮助,但是真正有效的反馈还是那些负面因素及其原因。如果你是接收反馈之人,最好能清清楚楚地告诉测试者直接说出对该设计的看法,不要顾及你的感受。毕竟你希望最终创造出真正优秀的作品,而不是暂时接受某些奉承但却最终获得一件糟糕的产品。而如果你是给予反馈之人,请务必提及任何你不喜欢的内容,并明白地解释其中的原因。如果你使用非常恭敬的语言去回馈设计师的糟糕设计,这并不可能带给他们任何正面的帮助。

利用自己的创造力

比起更加广泛的软件设计产业,游戏设计领域在这一点上表现得更好。测试软件设计的最佳方法便是在开发过程的早期阶段使用软件本身进行测试。一般情况下,创造团队中的成员总是喜欢使用自己所创造的内容。这么做不仅更加简单,而且还能够直接获得来自目标用户的反馈信息。可以说这是最理想的方法了。但是除此之外,你还必须重视那些不喜欢游戏的玩家们的意见。从这些玩家的反馈中你可以明确其他玩家和消费者对于游戏的看法。最重要的是,你将能够从中获得有关整体设计的最完整的反馈。

停止盲目寻求别人的认可

在我的职业生涯中曾经与100多名设计师直接合作过,其中不乏许多非常出色的人才。但是他们身上且并非总是闪烁着积极的光芒,也就是“他们都拥有设计师的共性。”其中一点便是不断取悦别人。也就是:设计师会因为上司或客户对某些内容不满意而熬夜修改。设计师会为了赢得别人的认可而加班加点,并投入更多成本。当然了,这也是一种高尚人格的表现,但是在残酷的商业世界中,这种特性有可能会阻碍他们的进一步发展。

关于这一特性的另外一种表现便是寻求别人的许可。因为怕别人难以接受而不敢寻求创新;或者总是在进一步发展前先寻求上司的许可;抵制开发周期而选择老旧的瀑布式开发过程。所有的这些表现都证明了设计师在开发过程中总是倾向于寻求别人的许可。

设计最具魔力的一点(也是苹果多次向我们呈现的内容)便是为开发者提供创造新事物的绝佳机遇。游戏UI是游戏中最具活力的一大平台。设计师必须清楚,不管他们是为了迎合他人的喜好还是最大限度地发挥自己的创造性,他们的体内都居住着一位创造者或魔术师。这是一种拥有不同特性的角色,你需要拥有最大胆的信仰,并不惧妥协地坚持这一信仰向前发展。

所以当你意识到自己拥有“设计师共性”,或不断地寻求获得别人的认可时,请记得,真正优秀的设计(包含UI)是源自大胆的创造行为。敢于冒险,打破常规,寻求宽恕而非许可,如此你才能创造出真正吸引别人眼球的设计。

与用户“约会”

在现实生活中,成功的约会总是能为你今后的生活带来巨大的帮助。如果你懂得如何在约会中征服对象,你便能在今后的生活中有效地利用对方。

所以为了获得有效的反馈,设计师也需要与用户进行“约会”。当我们第一次与某人见面时,我们总是会积极地表现自我,并呈现出自己最完美的一面。所以将用户当成你的约会对象吧,也就是尽你所能去吸引他们的注意力。我的诗歌教授曾经说过“爱便意味着关注”。而这也意味着整个生命的改变。在现实中,当你关注着某人时便意味着你喜欢对方。而当对方接受了如此浓厚的爱意时,他们也会给予你同等的回应。

所以:

经常保持联系。如果对方在很长一段时间后才联系你,这便表示他不是很在意你。所以请主动与你的用户进行交流。这么做也能够增强你对于用户的关心,让他们感觉到自己在你心里是有分量的。

呈现出兴趣。如果别人真的有在关注自己,我们便能够感受到他浓厚的兴趣。当你在面对用户时,请保持适当的眼神交流,并利用点头和手势去表现你的倾听与回答,最好能够通过记笔记而暗示对方你非常重视他们的看法。如果是远距离交流(游戏邦注:只通过声音),你就需要确保你的声音始终充满热情。而如果是基于电子邮件,你就需要保证准确地回答对方的每一个问题,并在字里行间中流露出感激之情。请一定要让用户真切感受到他们在你心中的重要性。

快速回应。随时追踪每个人的看法。例如,当你推出下一个版本时,让Tommy清楚自己所提出的按键不像按键的意见得到了认可,并呈献给玩家经过修改后的新按键。回应用户的每个评价,让他们感受到你真的在听取他们的反馈,并且这些反馈对游戏也能够产生重要的影响。如此将鼓励他们提供更多有效的反馈,并推动游戏的进一步完善。

“与用户约会”将帮助设计师获得更多有效的反馈和意见,并因此创造出更加优秀的游戏UI。

本文为游戏邦/gamerboom.com编译,拒绝任何不保留版权的转载,如需转载请联系:游戏邦

Design Axioms for Game UI – Part II: Feedback

by Dirk Knemeyer

Feedback

Today we’re going to look at issues relating to feedback: how people can best impact the evolution of a design. Unlike some other aspects, feedback is most likely to be overlooked by the most talented and natural designers. That is because they are more likely to trust their own talent and instincts, and have a clear and interesting vision for what they are trying to create. Often top designers need to be trained in the very need to get feedback in the proper ways, as well as the shape that feedback should take. On the other hand, your average designer is more likely to naturally turn to feedback as a component of their design process. For them, these lessons on feedback are less important from an awareness aspect and more from a method perspective.

Prototype Like Crazy

The best way to improve a design is to get prototypes made as early and as regularly in the creation process as possible. That is one of the reasons why digital game designers are more likely to have coding as a personal skill than art or graphic design: ultimately, to figure out if something is any good, you need to get it out of the laboratory of your mind and into the hands of users.

Pixel Perfect

Remember our Lorem Ipsum lesson from Part I? This is its twin. To evaluate a UI properly you absolutely need every pixel to be in its right place relative to the finished product you envision. Otherwise, there is no way to properly evaluate it.

This is a good moment to emphasize the different between a prototype of your game, and a prototype of your UI. The former should precede the latter. That is, game prototypes should be getting made within days of having the original idea. These cannot be pixel perfect right out of the gate, because the gap between “Here’s my half-baked idea” and  “A lot of work has been done, we know we have a good concept on our hands, now let’s get down to making it real” does not allow it. UI, ultimately, is the user’s manifestation of “making it real”. The pixel perfect axiom speaks to that, in particular.

Once you are creating a working UI, one in which you have a set direction for the game and have clearly defined what data and functionality needs to be apparent on the UI, you need to get that to pixel perfection as quickly as you can. Yes, you will likely need to do re-work later. Yes, pixel perfection takes longer than jamming out something that gets it done but looks shoddy. The time spent is more than worth it, because you get correct and useful feedback on the UI earlier in the process. This extra time, iteration and insight leads to having better, more effective UIs in the final product.

Bitch! Loud and Often

There’s a place for praise and compliments. It’s called youth league soccer where everyone gets a trophy! Seriously though, the best thing you can do for any design, certainly to include a UI, is rip it apart. Pointing out what you like has a place as well, but ultimately knowing what is wrong and why is the most important thing that can happen in the feedback process. So if you are someone who is getting the feedback, tell people before, during and after that they should tear your design apart and not worry about your feelings. After all, you want to design something awesome, not get some faint praise that leads to shipping something bad. Then, if you are someone who is giving the feedback, mention every little thing you don’t like, and have a clear, thoughtful explanation as to WHY. Use respectful language and try to manage the feelings of the creator if they are not taking it the right way. However, in the long run, you simply aren’t helping them get to an outcome they can be proud of by holding back. Get it out there!

Eat Your Own Dog Food

This is done much more and better in game design than in the broader software design industry that I come from. The best way to test software design is to be using the software yourself, as early in the development process as possible. For the most part, teams of creators should be people who would be legitimately interested in using the thing they are creating. So not only shouldn’t this be too difficult, but the feedback you are getting is from users who are in the target audience for what is being created. That is ideal. However, you also need to have people who don’t like the game they’re working on to “dogfood it,” as well. The feedback you get from them will give you interesting insights into other possible players and purchasers, people who are not represented by the fanboys that comprise the typical development teams. The bottom line is, the testers who have the most feedback about the design overall should be yourselves.

Stop Seeking Approval from Others

I’ve worked directly with more than 100 designers at this point in my career. Lots of amazing people. But there are some not-always-positive designedly traits that I refer to as “They’ve got the designer gene.” One of those is an eagerness to please creatively. You know what I’m talking about: the designer who works late into the night because their manager or client asked for an extra revision. The designer who would rather work extra to satisfy the dissatisfied then ask them for an extra week, or another few thousand dollars. Certainly, this impulse to serve and to please is a noble human characteristic. But in the big, scary world of business it can get in the way.

Another way these traits manifest is by seeking approval. Being afraid to do something new out of fear that it will upset someone. Or, waiting for a sign-off before continuing to keep things progressing. Or, being uncomfortable in more lean development cycles and gravitating to the more black-and-white waterfall processes of old. All of these things, in different ways, represent the designer seeking approval from others.

One of the magical things about design – and Apple has shown us this so many times – is that it is this wonderful opportunity to create something new and wonderful. Game UI is the platform within which the wonderful lives within games. Designers must become comfortable with the fact that, even if they are drawn to please others and would rather give more of themselves creatively than sully the process with aspects of business, they inhabit the role of creator and magician. That is a role that requires different traits, those of boldness, audacity, irrational faith in yourself, and belief in a vision to the degree that you will see it thru regardless of the compromises it requires.

So if you have that “designer gene” or just try to be respectful and responsive and eager-to-please, remember that great design of any kind including the UI ultimately is an act of bold and audacious creation. Take chances. Break rules. Ask for forgiveness, not permission.

Date Your Users

Everything you need to be successful in life can be learned from dating. If you understand how to get people into bed, you have the core knowledge and skills to move people in the way you want and need them in the rest of your life.

Getting great feedback from users requires “dating” them. You know: that time when you first meet someone, are still on your best behavior, and are eagerly and actively doing your utmost to get them in the sack, or keep spending time with you, or get married. Think of your users like a person you are dating. That means pay attention. A poetry professor of mine had the wonderful quote, “Love means paying attention.” That single line has transformed my life. The reality is, when you pay attention to something, you are showing it love. And when things are shown love they are naturally compelled to return that love to you.

So:

Stay in frequent contact. If they contact you after a period of time, just checking in to see how things are going or if they can help some more, it is a sure sign that you are not paying proper attention. Be proactive and regular in your communication with users. It reinforces that you care, and that they are important.

Show interest. We can tell if people are paying attention to us. When working with users that means, when working face-to-face, maintain eye contact, use head nodding and gestures to show you hear and acknowledge them, and take notes to make it clear what they’re saying matters. When dealing with them remotely, voice only, be sure to sure you are interested and enthusiastic in your voice. By email, be sure to respond to every single question that they have and be appreciative in your words and phrases. Make them feel like they are making a potentially important contribution.

Be responsive. Keep track of who-said-what. When you push the next version, make a point to show Tommy that his comment about the buttons not really looking like buttons was heard loud and clear; after all, see these great, puffy new buttons?! Close the loop so the users can see that they were listened to, and their comments made a real difference. This will encourage them to give you more feedback, creating a lovely little loop of continual improvement.

“Dating your users” will unlock great feedback and insight that will make your UI far better than it would be otherwise.

So those are our axioms on feedback. Next time we will cover the axioms relevant to that most mystical-but-central part of the UI: the interaction layer.(source:gamasutra)


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