The Games UI Database is a collection of screenshots of the user interfaces of various video games, filterable by a number of different categories. Definitely interesting to look through and possibly useful reference as well.
∞PlayStation 5 User Experience Revealed
For the last few months Sony and Microsoft have slowly been revealing more and more information about their next gen consoles, but we hadn’t seen anything at all yet on what the PlayStation 5 would look like once you booted it up. Last week, Sony released a brief video detailing the new experience and some of the new features coming with the PS5 in November.
A prominent feature of the new user experience is a cards-based interface that appears when you press the PS button. The cards allow quick access to recent and suggested content and features and leverage a new concept called “Activities” that Sony hopes will help gamers discover new gameplay features. Some of the activities shown off include party features, social sharing, and highlighting particular in game objectives complete with tasks list, percentage complete, and (for PlayStation Plus users only) in game video hints.
While the cards UI looks great, the success of the feature will be heavily dependent on developers to come up with creative and useful ways to utilize the game-specific activities. I’m not sure yet whether it’ll take off beyond Sony first party titles or if it will be useful for all game genres. If it doesn’t take off within games, the cards could still turn out to be good ways to provide quick contextual options for access system features but only time will tell.
For me personally, as long as the PlayStation 5 and Xbox Series X allow me to get in and out of the games I want to play quickly I am happy to see them experiment with what “next gen” could mean for the rest of the user experience.
The UX of LEGO Interface Panels
Dating back 50 years at this point, LEGO has designed tiny little user interfaces meant to be recognized by human-sized humans and “usable” by minifig-sized humans as well. An Austrian interaction technologist and design engineer does a fantastic deep dive into the design of LEGO interface panels as well as their real world counterparts.
Reimagining a Self Ordering Experience
Some great thoughts and looks into the design process self-serve pizza ordering kiosk app.
Starting a kiosk project at work and diving into some of the best practices and details of designing for a gigantic touchscreen. This article on how designing for a large public touchscreen is alike and different from mobile was super informative.
∞Top 10 Application-Design Mistakes from Nielsen Norman Group. Application usability is enhanced when the UI guides and supports users through the workflow.
∞First Run UX is catalog of first run user experiences in mobile apps and other products curated by Krystal Higgins. Great resource for inspiration and best practices to make sure new users to your app hit the ground running.
∞Hamburger menu alternatives for mobile navigation
Hamburger menu alternatives for mobile navigation. My personal favorite has always been “Priority+” which this article calls a “progressively collapsing” menu. Really makes you focus on the top 3-4 most important items.
Dropdowns Should be the UI of Last Resort
Some great details and examples from Luke W. of optimizing web forms for mobile entry. Main focus of this article is that standard dropdowns should be the UI of last resort. Going with a mobile-optimized option like a toggle, steppers, or custom solution can simplify mobile forms and improve conversation rates.
Tesla Apple Watch app
Eleks Labs has written up a really interesting look at their Tesla Apple Watch app. The walkthrough of the process and technical details is a good read for anyone interested in doing their own Apple Watch work. Both their UX decisions and workarounds due to technical limitations seem like they’re going to be valuable lessons.