Understanding UX in video games: the diegesis theory
Every year, video games complexity keeps growing. Technology development helped videogames to get richer elements and to became what they are today: the biggest entertainment industry in the world.
Over the last 15 years, most game designers’ purpose was to create interfaces that kept the player in the game, without letting him out of the cognitive flow state and, therefore, trying to eliminate any unnecessary interface or to integrate them in the game’s world itself.
But what kind of interface can be actually considered superfluous and which one can be integrated?
Which is the very line between the player and the game’s world?
The line between good and bad UX is very tight here and it is very important to know how the game interface is classified.
First of all, we need to ask ourselves two fundamental questions during a graphic interface analysis:
Are components part of game story? Are components part of game’s space?
Answering these questions we’ll create four categories which will help us to define the interface behavior:
Diegetic, Spatial, Meta, and Non-Diegetic.
DIEGETIC COMPONENTS
Diegetic components provide the player hints and info without distracting them from the narrative. A quick example may be the number of available ammunition visible directly on the rifle in the FPS and this makes the experience more immersive and cinematographic.
Basically, diegetic components are something that the player avatar and the other characters are aware of and which they can interact with.
The design of diegetic graphic interface components to substitute HUD traditional elements requires a smart approach.
Dead Space [Visceral Games, Glen Schofield & Bret Robbins — USA 2008] represents a perfect example to explain when the diegetic interface is well used in some points and bad in others. In this game, all the graphic elements appear in the form of a hologram projected from the main character’s suit. Moreover, opening any screen — like the inventory, a map, the weapon selector — the game is neither paused nor slowed down in order to maintain the illusion. Also, instead of an overlay on the health bar, the player health is indicated on the back of the avatar suit.
An important game element like health has been handled masterly but, on the other hand, in this case, the way of using the map without slowing down or pause can be immersive but also very frustrating for the player who, especially in a game like Dead Space, can die in every moment without have the full understanding of the situation.
NON-DIEGETIC COMPONENTS
Non-diegetic components are generally identified in the HUD category.
This system provide key information in a simple way and, if designed correctly, the player could even get advantages from the presence of it. Some games, like Gears of War [Epic Games, Cliff Bleszinski — USA 2006] or the action-adventure Red Dead Redemption 2 [Rockstar Games, Imran Sarwar — USA 2018] in which there is exclusively the map and the indicators appear only when the situation requires it, they have a minimalistic approach which limits the number of HUD elements to make the experience engaging and immersive but also playable and accessible.
SPATIAL COMPONENTS
Spatial components are visualized in the game world but are not part of it, in fact the characters, even if they are influenced by it, are not aware that they are there. Just to make some examples: the aura selection brackets around the units in real time strategy games, the labels on the characters in a cooperative or competitive games to indicate players game or more, the energy bar on enemies in role play games. These elements are used to give additive information on a component of the virtual world, although that information are not part of the narrative. Information are given in the place in which the player is focalized, reducing chaos in HUD.
For example, life bar position on the player’s head makes comprehension of the mechanic immediate and strongly helps when the enemies on the screen are more than one.
META COMPONENTS
The «meta-representation» are components that are expressed as part of the narration, but not as part of the game world. These can, usually, be effects that are represented on screen like cracked glass and blood splashes. Effects that interact with the fourth wall, with the purpose of incorporating the user in the virtual reality giving him the visual illusion that the game interacts directly with him.
Practical examples can be splatter of blood in the screen in Killzone 2 [Guerrilla Games, Neil Alphonso — USA 2009] (or in most modern FPS)
Besides the meta-representations, other components that can generate a sense of immersion and identification are the so-called «meta-perceptions», thanks to which the GUI express informative elements about the psycho-physic status or the feelings of the avatar. This happens, for example, in the Uncharted [Naughty Dog — USA 2007–2017] where the image lose saturation when Nathan Drake gets hit; or in The Last of Us Naughty Dog, Neil Druckmann e Bruce Straley — USA 2013] where illumination get lower when Joel activates a special ability to hear close enemies: the only highlighted elements are the enemies, illuminated by a white light.
This method is useful to give the idea that Joel is focusing and helps the player to identify the threat.
Although meta-representations and meta-perceptions turn out, most of the time, as interesting instruments to adjust the grade of participation and engagement of the user inside the interactive videogame system, a GUI expert needs to know how to measure their use, because the abuse can reduce the visibility of the game space for the user and affect negatively on the gameplay.
To conclude, we can underline that one of the most important things to remember when you’re designing an interface is the need to know exactly how to use screen space in an efficient way, without letting the elements of which it is made to become a distraction for the player. And, whenever you decide to implement a certain interface, you need to ask yourselves if doing so you’re actually improving the videogame experience without getting in the way of the gameplay.
Does the player really need all the information that you want to show?
