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UX & Game Design: Signs & Feedback

Writer's picture: Liam CharltonLiam Charlton

Updated: Oct 11, 2021

This series is a revised collection of extracts on topics I researched for my dissertation about e-commerce and gamification.


 

Games Designers prepare the player for interaction with a game element by indicating the function of the element through Signs & Feedback. Maeda (2006) writes;


“The best designers marry function with form to create intuitive experiences that we understand immediately… the ability to instil a sense of instant familiarity”.


Signs are self-explanatory visual cues that influence user behaviour. Feedback is information relayed to the user in response to the behaviour, often following a sign-posted cue. This includes kinaesthetic, visual and auditory responses from any asset.


This applies widely in design, take this example from a shooting game tutorial; there are two barrels loaded on to the back of a truck. One of the barrels is red, the other is grey. You are asked to blow up the truck by shooting one of the barrels, which barrel do you shoot?



The red one, right? Red means danger. BOOM, truck blows up.


In this example the user is presented with a task that has multiple options, and without using nudges or text prompts, the user makes their own decision by looking at the contextual signs in front of them and learning from the feedback.


Teaching the user how to interface by emulating interactions that they already understand can help empirically inform other methodologies like testing reward loops, creating flow states and forming predictable behaviour.


Another game example, Hearthstone, is a benchmark in signs & feedback design. Blizzard bring together work from multiple disciplines like art, animation and design to form a coherent experience that allows beginners to understand complex mechanics.





By deconstructing the available actions in this scene, patterns in signs and feedback jump out. Green glow means action possible, the buttons look and feedback like IRL buttons and flying purple crystals cause damage. This is applied consistently and conscientiously towards the conversion goals and monetisation..


“The best feedback is immediate, so as to create a clear and inherent correlation between the action or stimulus and the feedback of the reaction.


With this unambiguous association, the player can begin to understand the game environment, and better execute actions intentionally and in a correct and coherent manner”

Chris McEntee, Ubisoft Designer


Combining signs and feedback to allow easier execution of actions is a key method of forming predictable patterns in user behaviour. Once you track these patterns, you can begin to validate any behavioural assumptions and segment your audience.

©2024 by Liam Charlton.

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