A Joystick Usability Conversation with nem0
me:
select and start are traditionally different button types
also 10% of people are color blind. more male than female
i don't know how much of a legacy BA are that they're usually left right like on the NES pad.
also by putting LR with the other buttons you're giving more work to the primary fingers using the other buttons. originally index fingers are for only LR. now they're getting mixed in with other fingers and can be confused with other buttons. this may not be good.
whew.
just some suggestions.
not off the top of my head
i'm just starting to think about gaming ui
since this is for sf2 it's more specialized
nemo:
Well, I was thinking I could also use it for RPGs and maybe Gradius 3 or something, but I don't think it'd work well for, say, Super Metroid.
me:
don't remember those...
are you going to wire this up yourself? :D
nemo:
Yep. ^_^ I'm insane.
me:
cool!
using an old nes advantage or something?
in terms of making this thing you should probably measure the button placement with your fingers arched
stuff like that
nemo:
Got an old SNES pad, and I'm ordering some actual arcade parts at the end of the week.
NES Advantages are really nasty to fix. The PCB is hooked onto the rheostats that control the turbo speed, so unless you snap the whole thing off, you can't really do much with it. 9_9 Lame.
me:
i see...
nod (hopefully) intelligently
nemo:
Yeah, I did that. I have about 5 pages of possible button layouts. ^^; The one online is a combination of a standardized one (all buttons laid out 4 cm apart at the center) and one that fit my fingers.
I might arc the buttons a bit more, but the current one works ok.
me:
if this is primarily for sf2 maybe you should label them that way
make a grid:
| low | mid | high |
| punch | y | b | l |
| kick | x | a | r |
nemo:
Ooh, that could be cool...
me:
or label the actual buttons, with the letters as secondary labelling for other games
nemo:
Cool... Yeah, I haven't really done much of the labeling stuff yet. ^^; I want to do some reasonably slick labeling and maybe paint some detail work on it and stuff, but I'm more worried about doing the hardware stuff first.
me:
true
labelling helps to plan out the hardware layout
thinking about where to put these things and in such a way that they make sense to a newbie is important
nemo:
true, also. The colors match up with the buttons on my current gamepad, but the labels are... a bit off. 9_9;;; I wasn't thinking too hard when I did that, apparently. (I also did it at work, and I didn't have a pad to look at there... ^^;;;)
Wonder if there are any other SF2 fans here who'd playtest the thing for me...
me:
probably
also since you're not looking at the console while playing shape and position are really important, moreso than color
if your hand slips you should be able to find your position without looking
it's not really feasbile to have different shape buttons but if the buttons are spaced properly, with maybe a small pad for the heel of your palm, it should work well
nemo:
True, true. I'm not sure about hitting the right row (although having a pad to rest your palm on would work well for that), but keeping on the correct buttons along the row wouldn't be too hard.
I think...
me:
user testing will show what people do, although it's hard to think of how to do that without building this first.
i guess go to arcades and observe people playing an make extrapolations on how your interface will work.
nemo:
That's kind of how I came up with this layout in the first place... It's like a combination of the NeoGeo style 4-button pad and the SF2 style 6-button pad.
I suppose I could build a few different models from cardboard and test them with the buttons before doing it in wood.
me:
but it's hard to get realistic responses because you don't have appropriate feedback and game situation...
need to do something now, ttyl?
nemo:
Sure, np. ^^ See ya later.
me:
sure :D
|