Homework 10: Interfaces

1) list ten examples of interfaces between people and the real world.
1. Pan is the interface to cook
2. Cell phone is  the interface to call
3. Deck of card is the interface to card game
4. Cup is the interface to drinking
5. Knife is the interface to cut
6. Table is the interface to put something
7. Road is the interface to drive
8. Car is the interface to transfer
9. Towel is the interface to sweep something 
10. Micphone is the interface to expand voice

2) Give an example of a good interface between player and game. Explain why it is a good interface
One good example is Fallout 3's Pipboy - or, more specifically, the short animation of your character raising the Pipboy to eye level whenever you access it:The animation lasts for only half a second, so you might not put much thought into it. But watch how it challenges the patience of your players after sitting through it countless times over the course of an 80 hour game. Never conclude that your player will "get used to" doing something in a non-optimal way. They will only seethe and bad-mouth your lack of design sense.

3) Give an example of a poor interface between player and game. Explain why it is a poor interface
Oblivion's UI is a classic example of one platform's UI being incompatible with another. Even though Oblivion was ported from consoles to PC, it still retained its controller-focused UI. This is completely analogous to releasing a game on iOS or Android and making the player move an on-screen cursor around like they're using a laptop's trackpad instead of taking advantage of absolute touch positioning.
So what makes Oblivion's UI so bad? It's a combination of wasted space, improper scaling, and inappropriate controls.