Tuesday, January 13, 2009

game interface ideas from other fields

Check out this dashboard from a Ford car (the Fusion I think) introduced at the 2009 Detroit Car Show - here's a link to the post.





Like a videogame, the info needs to be scanned often and quickly, and understanding it can't distract too much from the other tasks underway (shooting monsters and cruising along at 75 mph (don't tell my mom I speed, ok?). This dashboard has taken those needs into account with visuals such as bar graphs for gas and power steering fluid levels, for average MPG. And check out those vines; they live or die based on how fuel-efficiently you drive.


Check out the link in the article cited above for the Lamborgini dashboard - wtf?


Once you learn what all the dials and needles do (read the manual? - I don't see much text on the dashboard itself), is this a better idea for a videogame interface?

Here are some pictures of other dashboards for comparison.

A cluster of gauges as typically seen on kit-carsImage via WikipediaPhotograph of a Toyota Formula One car's steer...Image via Wikipedia




We need to look for interface ideas in lots of other info-rich places - maybe those car GPS systems, or even things like complicated phone bills or monthly statements from people with actively traded brokerage accounts or mutual statement quarterly statements.

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