Survey
After making a survey and asking a number of people to complete it, my results have been a mix of good and bad (to how well my UI relates to my target studio, Valve).
My goal with this UI was to create a complex and functioning set of tabs with submenus that interacted individually from each other with different functions. For example, a tab for settings, with sub tabs for Video, Audio, Game, etc. which have options in to change each thing about the game. I created them like this because most of Valve's games work off tab menus, so creating tab systems and optimising them sets me in good stead to work at Valve on their tab systems.
I feel that my project is quite good, the style is intriguing, and the colour palette is consistent (apart from the unfinished white parts, which are white because they are unfinished). I know of some bugs that are still prevalent in the buttons, like when you pressed on a button, drag off and back on it, then release it, the text is in its hovered state but the rest of the button thinks otherwise, but other than those minor bugs, it's very much bug free and usable. This bug is only in button that currently have no function, so tabs aren't affected, and buttons that do something take you somewhere so you don't actually see the effect anyway, so if all the buttons had a function, it wouldn't even be a problem anyone would notice or know about.
Blue is used a lot in this UI, and that makes it consistent, but also a bit bland, as there's not much diversity, so everything blends in to each other easily. Not to mention the box outline that holds the contents of each tab looks very basic and uninviting. This certainly could be fixed with it being an image with tabs coming off it to have the selected tabs actually be a part of it like in my style plan. I didn't do this however because I couldn't find an easy way to switch between images of the same size that also scale to the screen size and aspect ratio like a rectangle does, as it would most likely stretch and look off if I tried.
After seeing that 60% of people think my UI relates to Jurassic World: Evolution, I feel quite happy, as I was basing the style off that game. Although my chosen studio is Valve, and I based the layout off.
42.9% of people said that it doesn't fit the Valve aesthetic, which I slightly agree with, as most of Valve's UIs are quite monochromatic, glossy or complex, and mine is flat and simple. However I do think that if improved upon, then it could certainly stand as something Valve would make because of its over complexity, not just visual simplicity.
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When asked why people think this, some said the layout reminds them of Valve's UIs, which I agree with as I was using tabs which both of Valve's most played games use (DotA 2 & CS:GO). Another was similar, stating it had a lot of information, which I also liked as there were parts which I wondered were too big or spaced out, so hearing this certainly made me feel better about it. All the No answers however were very similar, all being how my UI is too modern and sci-fi to fit with Valve's old style. Although I do agree with them to an extent, I feel like Valve's newer games certainly have more fancy UIs, like their Panorama system used in DotA 2 and CS:GO, with CS:GO being flat and clean, almost like Windows 10, and DotA 2 being skeuomorphic and complex. Half-Life: Alyx adopts this UI system too and has a very futuristic style, so I'm assuming they are comparing my UI to older Valve games, and older CS:GO versions, as those used Scaleform, a Flash-based UI which is very much a product of its time.
DotA 2 Panorama
Scaleform
Panorama
Half-Life: Alyx Panorama
After seeing the results I was surprised more people didn't say No, as until recently, animations have been sparse in Valve games. However, if the UI would be better with animations, then it should have animations, and I do partially agree with that, however not having animations makes it more simple than it otherwise would be with animations, which could easily bloat the experience and feel too artificial and forced. Not having animations is fine if the rest of the UI possesses that lovingly created feel that it should.
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As for why people chose what they chose, the Yes answer was mainly to make it more intriguing and complex, which I assume is more to do with eye-candy, as the UI is already quite complex without them. One answer sticks out to me though: "More excitement and all that, y'know?". This made me think about if my UI was boring to use, and in most cases, yes it is. There isn't the pizazz that Valve's UIs possess, juse because it is quite static. A thought I had to eliminate this however was to make it 2.5D, similar to Crysis 2's UI, where it moves a bit with the cursor. The only problem with this is that it can get very tiring and annoying to use if it moves too much, because users think a button is in one place, and then it isn't anymore, which causes confusion. Other answers stated that it isn't really necessary, as Valve have an older look to their UIs (similar to the previous question's answers), so being more static embraces that Valve feel, which I do have to agree on. Although the Crysis effect would be cool, it doesn't fit all too well with Valve's UIs since it's way too flashy and "out-there".
Multiple questions had similar answers, so I'll analyse them as a group.
One of these questions was "What can be done to improve the UI to fit the aesthetic more?", to which the general consensus was to change the colour, which I found both odd and agreeable, as the blue is overwhelming, but since almost everything is blue, it all slots together as one thing. I'm not very good at colour theory however, so that is a reason why the colours may not be very good, as I made the palette without properly researching how colours and shades interact with each other to avoid sharp contrast, etc.
Another question was "What do you think should be changed/added about the UI?", which had similar answers to the previous question, but did still yield good answers and criticisms. Some answers were about colour and transitions, which I stated above, but others stated I should try a black and white greyscale palette instead, which was a very good idea, as if a UI works in greyscale, then it's most likely going to work with any colour palette and for anything viewing it, so for my future projects, I will certainly use multiple palettes and shades to ensure that it works on all of them and allows for the best UX across the board.
The third question was simply "Would you change the colours?", to which 85.7% said "Yes", which is enough for me to know that I need to improve my colour theory and colour palette making skills.
This question I had already mostly known what the answers would be like, since I had asked the community of whom I was targeting the game to how intuitive the UI was when I was making the concept in Illustrator. Because I had done this research and was part of the target audience myself, I was happy when I saw that everyone said it was intuitive, as I feel it's intuitive also.
After analysing the survey's results, I have realised the importance of time, and how it has changed the way games are both made and seen. Valve is a company that innovates, and so if I am not innovating, then I can't really be compared to them, and since my UI doesn't use new graphical effects or parallax 2.5D movement, etc., I am unable to reach the level of professionality and quality of Valve. This is due to my skill level and time constraints also though, as not only would I have had to learn how to do these effects, but also would need to understand and know why and how they work to fully be knowledgeable in it, which would've taken up too much time to justify in this project. In the future though, I will certainly do more research before planning the UI as to what certain effects I may need to implement before-hand so I can learn them before starting creating the project.
Action Plan
The weakest part of this project was my interaction with Valve's audience. Being a Valve fan myself, I took my own experiences and thoughts about their UIs and mainly used that, instead of incorporating those into other people's views. This ultimately led to a UI that was swayed in my favour majorly, and didn't appeal to the other kinds of Valve fans. To solve this for future projects, I will conduct more surveys and research into the audience to find trends and characteristics that I can then apply to my project, and that I can also use to get feedback on said project from them later on.
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I will also analyse more UIs from other games of different and similar genres to get a clearer view of how different genres affect the UI, and what trends or design techniques I should be using for my particular genre. Since I don't like conforming to one main genre however, I will use this research to create my own set of rules that I will follow, as this will ensure that my design will stay consistent throughout the project and game, and prevent confusion with users.
Bibliography
DotA 2 Panorama - Doswa_Mikesell. (2021). Missing the old main menu #justiceforpotatopc. Available: https://www.reddit.com/r/DotA2/comments/lgl882/missing_the_old_main_menu_justiceforpotatopc/. Last accessed 29th November 2021.
CS:GO Scaleform - Cash, J. (2018). -SCALEFORM TO REMAIN IN CS:GO. Available: https://www.change.org/p/valve-scaleform-to-remain-in-cs-go. Last accessed 29th November 2021.
CS:GO Panorama - Valve. (2018). Panoramic View. Available: https://blog.counter-strike.net/index.php/2018/06/20482/. Last accessed 29th November 2021.
Half-Life: Alyx Panorama - Pimp My Type. (2021). How to pick a Typeface for User Interface and App Design?. Available: https://pimpmytype.com/functional-text/. Last accessed 29th November 2021.