DESIGN PROCESS
Workflow / Pipeline
Idea to Sketch
Part of the idea and sketching process is just working out what is necessary for this component. I constantly check between my team, my own design principles and my research to ensure the idea is solid. I will go through many sketches to see what should work best and put thought into what issues and benefits could arise from each design. Communication is vital for this stage and making clear sketches to portray ideas is a large amount of the work.
Sketch to Concept
The sketch to concept stage proceeds from when everyone in the team is happy with a design and said design follows the principles laid out from research. The objective of the concept work involved in this stage is to give an accurate representation of a components design. The concept stage can take some time to get right however usually only one piece of work is needed to be created. The most important skills involved here is the ability to use Photoshop to replicate the sketched idea accurately; and also some creativity with making the art look nice.
Concept to Prototype
The concept to prototype stage is replicating the concept art within Unity. This process happens after the team see the concept art and are happy that nothing needs to be changed. I would generally begin by researching what I need to get the prototype working. This would involve looking at Unity documentation and scoping out how it can be achieved. I would then use mixtures of canvas objects in the 3D world space (since it is for use in AR) and create some scripts for making the object as modular as possible. This is for ease of implementation. The objective of the prototype stage is to have a component that can be added into the game when needed.
Tooltip Idea Creation
UI Idea Example
Tooltip Idea Creation is an example I created for our paper prototype on the type of UI that the user would see when inspecting machine components. The design shown is easy to read, clear and informative and also which is not in the players way. It is kept to outside the area the player needs to inspect.
The tooltip shown is an example of a Diegetic Component we will have within the game. A deigetic component is a UI component which is part of the game world and a part of the story. This is good for immersion which is crucial when it comes to Augmented Reality.
"Diegetic components provide the player with cues and information without distracting them from the narration of the world." [1] UI Research Diegsis Theory. Russel, D (2011). Devmag.org
As an explanation of why this design was chosen, it includes:
- An example of the object in a icon form
- A clear title of the objects name
- Some basic information in smaller text for the user
- A colour co-ordinated status
- An area reserved only for symbols important to the user
Concept Design Process
The following is an example of the design process for creating concepts. This showcases how I create concept art in Adobe Photoshop and explains some of my thought process along the way. This is to include as a demonstration on what happens in creating concept work.