Evaluation

When I first started this project, I didn't really know what to expect, and thought it was going to be a lot more technical than it actually was.

I found researching the Crystal Maze very interesting, as I've always loved gameshows, and I was interested in learning about a gameshow I have never seen before. I also enjoyed watching episodes of the Crystal Maze, some of them were very funny, and I felt in a lot of them, they only invited people who, let's say, weren't the sharpest tools in the shed.

Was also interesting learning about user interfaces and what they're used for in games. This also helped me to appreciate even the most simple things that appear in games, which may take weeks to design.

Doing my initial drawings was good, as I'd say the parts I enjoy the most in the projects I have to do at college are the parts I get to be the most creative and make my own choices. I also found this tough when drawing my initial designs from home, as I lost the checklist that had the list of things I needed to design for this project, and I couldn't remember exactly everything that was on the checklist so I probably did draw some designs I didn't really need to. I also found creating the 'Weapon' display confusing, as I wasn't sure if we had to create an actual weapon, and at first I thought that what was listed next to the weapon on the list (pistol, knife, crowbar) were just weapon examples, not what we had to include in an actual weapon display, which is what I realised later. However, I wasn't too worried about UIs that I didn't do initial drawings for, as I had clear plans that I could use instead of using fancy designs (things such as lives display and how we can tell which 'zone' we would be currently in) which could have resulted in making these simple things look too complicated and confusing, which is not good when designing things that should focus more on how they work than the design of them.

After drawing my initial designs, we then had to recreate our designs in Photoshop. However, I decided to recreate my designs using Adobe Illustrator, as I find it much easier to design things using Illustrator, and I also felt it would be more appropriate for the designs I wanted to create to use Illustrator. Another good reason why I used Illustrator is that I knew from previous experience that you can open up files created in Illustrator in Photoshop, which I would use later to add colour to my designs, and edit them slightly, if necessary. However, before this project it had been a while since I last used Illustrator, so at first I was a little bit rusty when using Illustrator, but soon felt fine with the program. I also felt a little bit rushed while creating my designs using Illustrator at college because I don't have Illustrator at home, so I wanted to make sure I had made as many designs as possible before the end of the session at college.

I found it quite difficult at first adding colour to the UIs I had created in Illustrator, which I had now opened in Photoshop, because I wasn't really too sure what colours I would use, as I didn't really plan the colours in my design because I didn't really want to revolve my designs around colour, and wanted to think about them at this later stage in the project, so I had to experiment at first with different colour schemes, and it took me a while to find a colour scheme that I was happy with that I could apply to all my UIs.

After trying a few colour schemes and finding one I was happy with, an idea was suggested to me to improve my UI designs by applying textures to them, but keeping the colours the same, and this is where I learned a valuable skill in Photoshop known as the Burn Tool, which helped me to create midtones and shadows in my textured UIs, which help make my UIs look a lot more realistic and 3D, even though it would still be a 2D image. I kept on working hard to try and perfect my designs, while adding textures to all my different UIs, and trying out other colours that might work better together, and I felt really pleased with the final outcome of this project, and was nowhere near as bad as I first thought it would be, as it allowed me to be creative, while learning new skills that will help me to hopefully produce better work in the future.

Even Further Designs and the Final design

Health Bar

Very little has changed in this image to the last time I developed the design for the health bar. I've made the actual bar blue, as I felt it went better with the yellow and orange borders, which I've already textured. I've also burned the edges more to give the design a lot more depth.

Also, as you can see, I've added the background to the design file so I get a feel of what my design would look like on a games background while designing the health bar. This is also a good idea when designing my other UIs.

Here, I've changed the red lines to black to take away some of the colour clashes. To be honest I did initially want to have a less striking outline, but the problem I had was, and it has appeared here, is that you can hardly see the lines that overlap the background, so I'll need to make them stand out.

What I've done here is I've hidden the blue health bar and the eye design, so I can focus more on the other parts that need editing. So here I've just selected the black outlines and applied an outer glow to them, which I am so pleased with, and now it looks really nice and understated, without having any colours that clash with the rest of the design.

Now to bring back the eye and blue bar, which I've now tried texturing them to see if they look any better. To do this I had to multiply the layers these parts of the designs were on so you could see through to the texture behind, without losing any of the colour. I feel great about this final design, and I'm so happy with how I've experimented different methods of designing and colouring my designs, and more importantly, they have paid off!

Bullet Count

I didn't really change much of the colours or design of this interface. All I did was changed the line colour to black, applied an outer glow on the black lines and changed the colour of the bullet number. The number looks much better and much more suited to the rest of the design and the aztec theme. I also hope that I would have a depleting gauge (the blue parts) as the bullets get used up, and I hope this is clear enough for people to realise. I wanted to input these features for people who find it difficult to read or understand numbers, but at the same time, I wanted to have the number in the middle for people who can read numbers to understand this interface better.

Weapon/Tool Display

Again, I found the weapon display difficult to edit, since I had merged the layers of the weapon silhouettes and the outlines. However, this looks much more like how I initially wanted it to look. I started by burning the textured parts f the interface even further to give it a more natural and aztec feel. Then I made multiple layers in photoshop of my UI so it was easier to edit separate parts, and if I made a design error, it didn't destroy my design, forcing me to start again, which I couldn't afford to do at this late stage of the design development.

At this part I got rid of the red outlines and made them black, and this looks much better in my design. However, if I had just left it as it was, the UI would be difficult to see, so I applied an outer glow on the black lines, so people would be able to see them more clearly. I must admit, this looked better already.

I also put a white peeling paint texture behind the eye part of the design, by multiplying the layer the eye was on, which I think was much more effective, and by doing this, I had learned a new skill.

Finally, I attempted to make some of the thinner lines in the design a bit thicker, so people would see and appreciate this design more, and applied an outer glow to these lines, and I feel, that by improving the design by doing these things, it has helped me to appreciate my design more as well.

Mini Map

All I felt I needed to add to my minimap design was an actual map example. Since at the time of adding this I couldn't access the internet, but thankfully I had a map example already saved onto the computer I was using (The Apple Macs at college.)

Final UI Design Layout

This is what they all would look like on a games screen. I didn't want to make them too big as they could distract players from the main objectives, and I've also tried not to make the main function of these interfaces to revolve around letters, numbers or colours, things that people with dyslexia and colour blindness have difficulty with, which is a major thing I have had to consider while making these designs. However, I still have tried to put colours that go well together in my designs, so that they look appealing to people without either dyslexia or colour blindness.

Overall I'm really happy with my designs and layout of them here, and I feel that each interface still goes really well together.

Further Designs

After looking at the UIs I had already created, I tried to see if I could think of any ideas to develop my designs even further, and try new ways to make them better. I then found out about using textures to characterize my Interfaces, and then colouring them to match what the colour scheme I had already created. After that I learned how to use a burn tool, which helps to add tonal qualities, such as shadows and midtones to colours and textures in Photoshop, and I feel that this will be very useful in upcoming projects.

The Weapon Display interface was probably the hardest to design, as I didn't know how to make it look much more effective than just adding textures. The silhouettes proved difficult too, as I had already flattened the image from before onto just one layer. I think this idea would have looked better if I was more experienced in Photoshop. However, I do agree that the texture I have used makes it look much more effective and matches the aztec theme much better.

This is how I textured my mini map, which I am very pleased with, and I think that the stony texture matches the colours and the theme really well. I just need to maybe straighten the burnt parts a bit more, and insert a map in the mouth of the design so I know what it will look like when it serves its purpose.

Really happy with how my health bar looks and I feel that the colours used in this interface go really well together. Again, I feel the textures really bring the design to life much more than it did without textures, and I feel that this has really worked well, and looks much better.

The Bullet count was the first one I worked on to add textures to it. I feel that some of the textured colours work really well together, but I do feel that there is still a slight contrast with the colours that don't really match well with each other. I also feel that I would like to change the colour of the bullet number to a more stony and aztec colour, as not only do I feel that would work much better, I feel it would go well with the theme as well.