Due to my major influences being games such as Journey, Limbo, Never Alone and many more I thought a lot about what they have in common. I came to the conclusion that they all have a very polished user experience. The games aren't crazy big, they include what they require and bin everything else. The biggest influence for me currently is Apple. Having looked into their design before I know that their UX design is very upper echelon, and I want to find out how and why that is so that I can use the information to create a polished user experience for my audience.
"Apple products are often defined by small details, especially those around interaction"
When I think of an apple product, I think of a single polished item that is much more desirable than another product that has 5 different variants but just aren't that great. The polished design of one product far outweighs the desirability of a multitude of choices, this is used in everything from phones to watches. Obviously the magnitude of this design can't be achieved with a team of one, but it's definitely possible to use take inspiration and create a small, very polished area.
Apple likes well-rounded designers, the type of designers that fiddle with code in their spare time so they understand how the pipeline works, they don't have a set of rigid tasks they must complete as they believe you can not innovate if there is a deadline involved, instead they will create ideas, and sit on them until they find a context to use it in.(fastcodedesign.com)
"Every product at apple starts with design"
UX can be the be all or end all, my game could look cool and have sweet mechanics, but if the movement and camera are clunky then people will put it down and never return. Let's take the smooth scroll interaction for example, when you scroll up and down on a macbook, the screen follows and fades, it feels organic, like the trackpad is an extension of your hand. This is exactly what I've tried to re-create with the camera movement in my game. As my character moves the camera delays and then follows, and then transitions to it's new location.
Apple always maintain a coherent design vocabulary between their products, originating from the "Snow White" design language Steve Jobs invented with Hartmut Esslinger of Frog Design. This design was used to create the apple products from 1984 to 1990.
In conclusion everything in my game must maintain a similar visual language in conjunction with my colour choices. If everything is kept coherent and simple then my prototype will not only fit criteria, but it will be a product than I can work from, iterate and maybe even release as a full game. Considering design and functionality in unison from the start will entitle me to grow my game so that there is a balance, similarly to the balanced user experience that apple products offer.
Reference -
"Apple products are often defined by small details, especially those around interaction"
When I think of an apple product, I think of a single polished item that is much more desirable than another product that has 5 different variants but just aren't that great. The polished design of one product far outweighs the desirability of a multitude of choices, this is used in everything from phones to watches. Obviously the magnitude of this design can't be achieved with a team of one, but it's definitely possible to use take inspiration and create a small, very polished area.
Apple likes well-rounded designers, the type of designers that fiddle with code in their spare time so they understand how the pipeline works, they don't have a set of rigid tasks they must complete as they believe you can not innovate if there is a deadline involved, instead they will create ideas, and sit on them until they find a context to use it in.(fastcodedesign.com)
"Every product at apple starts with design"
UX can be the be all or end all, my game could look cool and have sweet mechanics, but if the movement and camera are clunky then people will put it down and never return. Let's take the smooth scroll interaction for example, when you scroll up and down on a macbook, the screen follows and fades, it feels organic, like the trackpad is an extension of your hand. This is exactly what I've tried to re-create with the camera movement in my game. As my character moves the camera delays and then follows, and then transitions to it's new location.
Apple always maintain a coherent design vocabulary between their products, originating from the "Snow White" design language Steve Jobs invented with Hartmut Esslinger of Frog Design. This design was used to create the apple products from 1984 to 1990.
In conclusion everything in my game must maintain a similar visual language in conjunction with my colour choices. If everything is kept coherent and simple then my prototype will not only fit criteria, but it will be a product than I can work from, iterate and maybe even release as a full game. Considering design and functionality in unison from the start will entitle me to grow my game so that there is a balance, similarly to the balanced user experience that apple products offer.
Reference -
http://www.fastcodesign.com/3030923/4-myths-about-apple-design-from-an-ex-apple-designer
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/407782/the-secret-of-apple-design/
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/01/24/this-is-how-apples-top-secret-product-development-process-works/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_design_language
http://www.technologyreview.com/featuredstory/407782/the-secret-of-apple-design/
http://thenextweb.com/apple/2012/01/24/this-is-how-apples-top-secret-product-development-process-works/
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Snow_White_design_language
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