Word: Glanceable

glanceable

[glan-suh-buh l, glahn‐]

adjective Digital Technology.

1. noting or relating to information on an electronic screen that can be understood quickly or at a glance: glanceable data; a glanceable scoreboard.
2. enabling information on a screen to be quickly understood: a glanceable design; glanceable interfaces.

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               “Okay, done with the first version.” Benny said as he pushed his chair away from the desk.  He leaned back, stretching his arms over his head to work out the stiffness in his limbs, back and neck.  He would need to do more later, but this was at least good enough to keep his blood flowing.

               Benny’s partner, Kyle, scooted over and looked over Benny’s work critically. 

               “It’s no good.” Kyle said.  “Too cluttered.  Too hectic.”

               “What?  I know there’s a lot there, but it’s all needed.”

               “No it’s not.  Players should be able to get all the info at a glance.  If you have to actually read something, it’s no good.”

               Benny moved next to his partner and looked at his design.  It was true that there was a lot of information given on the UI, but they were making a complex game.  A complex UI was to be expected.  Still, Kyle was good at what he did.  The heavyset man was usually right about the matter of games and game design.  Besides, this was only the first version.  Changes were to be expected.

               “Okay, so what should I do?  I mean, the players are going to need a lot of this info, and constantly opening a menu to get it is inefficient.”

               “Please tell me you at least have this stuff on a menu.”

               “Of course I do.  Well, I will once I actually make them, but it’ll all be there, and in greater detail.”

               Kyle crossed his arms and nodded.  “Good.”

               “So, about the UI?”

               Kyle hummed thoughtfully for a moment.  “Icons.  Replace the words with images.  They don’t have to be big or detailed, just distinct.  Then use tooltips for specific details.  That way, it’s easy for the player to get a general idea of what’s happening with a quick glance, but they can also get details if they need it.”

               Benny rubbed his chin.  What Kyle said did make sense.  In his experience, most gamers were visual people.  Using simple images would be better than the words Benny was currently using.  The only problem was how much work it would take.  He would need to make hundreds of icons to represent all the information the current UI provided.  Well, it was just one more thing on the very long list of things he still needed to do.

               “Okay, so replace words with icons, got it.” Benny asked. 

               Once again, Kyle cast his eye over the screen.  He squinted and turned his head from side to side, humming and hawing as he thought.

               “It’s too spread out.  You’ll need to make it more compact.”

               That would be a lot easier to do.  “Okay, that’ll happen once the icons are put it.  Right now it’s so big because it uses words, so making it smaller now would be a nightmare.”

               “Good.”

               “Anything else?”

               “Nothing critical.  Those are the two biggest problems.  Everything else is cosmetic and optimization.  Those types of things can be done later, once we have more of the game built.”

               “Sweet.  It that case, I think I’m going to take a break.  Can’t spend all day looking at a computer, right?”

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A video game's user interface (UI) is very important.  It's how players get most of the info they use most often.  It can't have everything, but all the stuff that's needed for most situations is stored there.  So if a game has a bad UI, it won't be nearly as good as it could, even if everything else is amazing.