[games_access] 9+1 Key Points

[John Bannick]

Richard,

Actually, we used presets very much like you describe in an early version 
of the GameBook.
Playtesters found them too confusing, too many options, so we took them out.
I think the problem was that the preset didn't immediately tell the gamer 
what was being set.
And we still had the specific tweak buttons as well.

I personally like the idea, as a manifestation of the Facade pattern.
We could layer the Control Panel, applying Progressive Revelation, but that 
still adds to the complexity of the UI.

In a larger context, last week a coding colleague suggested that the term 
"Advanced" be used on such panels.
His thinking being that that is a generally accepted term that both 
indicates more control and at the same time indicates more complexity. That 
would likely mitigate the "too many types of chips" problem.

This is one of those "interesting" problems for which I'm trying to resolve 
an idiom.

Thanks for the screen shot. I printed it for my work set for this project.

And thanks for your ideas.

John

At 04:56 AM 12/17/2007, you wrote:
>Hi,
>
>*quote*
>Re Item #8, Output Rendering. I'm also of the opinion that KISS trumps 
>customization. Or more specifically, even though people say they want more 
>customization, they have a limited tolerance for a multiplicity of 
>options. The poster child for this was the pagination software I built for 
>the New York Times. Literally every command was customizable; customer 
>demands! As a consequence, the product took longer to enhance, debug, and 
>support; oh, and cost more.
>*quote end*
>
>I understand where you are coming from but I think #8 can be applied to 
>games in such a way that it doesn't challenge the tolerance of a user - 
>for instance by using a limited number of presets. So for example, when 
>applied to color-blind schemes and contrast schemes, you could simply add 
>4 or so presets, each catered towards the types of color blindness and/or 
>contrast problem. A user simply chooses a preset and they're off. But I 
>guess that for many users it is important that the application allows the 
>user to tweak the presets a bit to his or her own liking. Some blind 
>people like to set the speed of their speech synthesizer to a male voice 
>at 100% speed, some to a female voice at 179% speed - based and what they 
>need most. Some people always turn of the music because the game is too 
>noisy for them too play with all the sound effects going on.
>
>Each of the given solutions/examples is already used in games nowadays, 
>many of them already together. Compared to what one can set in games 
>already (for example: 
>http://img201.imageshack.us/img201/8787/01settings8bj.jpg ), I don't think 
>an extra "accessibility settings" would hurt. I understand that when you 
>provide 36 types of chips in a supermarket, people have a hard time 
>choosing and would be better of with simply having 2 or 3 types to choose 
>from. But I also think that it is important for people with impairments 
>(which can be very diverse) to tweak parameters to their liking so it 
>works out best for them.
>
>Thank you very much for your feedback on the 9+1 list, and please feel 
>free to use any of it in your own guidelines. In the end we can compare 
>them and see what usefulness there is in there.
>
>Greets,
>
>Richard
>
>
>>
>>Some sort of marginal analysis is appropriate here.
>>
>>In any event, you did a fine job with your 9+1 Key Points.
>>Grids like this are something we can actually apply to product.
>>
>>John Bannick
>>CTO
>>7-128 Software
>>
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