Blog Week 10: UI & Canal Asset

Situation:

1. Create a border asset, which will be a canal asset.

2. Work on UI art.

Task:

1. Canal assets should align perfectly (canal straight; canal curved).

2. Iterations are based on feedback.

Activities:

1. For visual research, I looked into canal references, both in games and in real-life (See Figure 1). I worked on the canal assets since this was priority, according to the lead designer. It was unclear what these assets should look like, so 2 versions were made. Then they were modeled so they aligned perfectly.

2. Worked on some more UI elements; made changes based on feedback from the lead designer. After that, worked on some HiFi screens, provided by the lead designer. As I was doing this, I found out the rotation of the hexagons was wrong. This was changed according to the LoFi prototype's icons. Next to that, I worked on updating the Art Pipeline Document regarding UI guidelines. Last, I created a first version of the product of learning goal 3, an In-Game UI Style Guide.

Besides, we had sprint review 2 this week. There were problems/difficulties regarding motivation and challenge. Based on this discussion, a plan of improvement was made. As a group, we decided we want to have a prototype done each week to actually see progress. After that, I discussed with Stan and Maria what they wanted to see regarding the Blueprint Shader.

Result:

1. Two border assets were modeled: a straight canal asset and a curved canal asset (See Figure 2).

2. A variety of buttons and icons were created; iterated at the hand of feedback. A first version of the In-Game UI Style Guide was created.

3. A plan of improvement was made to motivate and challenge ourselves as a group.

Reflection:

1. It was a bit tricky to figure out how the canal should be modeled, especially since Filip and I both had a different vision (See Figure 3). It turned out Filip's was more logical so we decided to go with that. But we still do not know if this is right, since the lead artist is not there to discuss it.

2. Regarding the icons, I spent half a day on changing the icons' rotation because of the hexagons. For a next time, I should pay more attention to the LoFi screens. If I did, I would have probably seen it sooner or even avoided this mistake.

Figure 1: Visual research canal reference board.

Figure 2: Iteration of canal asset, based on Filip's feedback.

Figure 3: Initial versions of canal asset. Left: Filip's idea; right: my idea.

Sources

UI trends in 2023: https://bootcamp.uxdesign.cc/ui-design-trends-in-2023-38c7f640277f

The key characteristics of the Smart City 6.0 concept: https://www.thesmartcityjournal.com/en/cities/the-key-characteristics-of-the-smart-city-6-0-concept