Cheese or Font Elements:
Core:
- Cheese/font name prompts
- Empty box for players to respond to prompts
- Prev button
- Next button
- Timer
- Score count
Supportive:
- Play Game button
- Table with all prompts and empty boxes
- Caption above cheese or font name (“Cheese or font?”)
- Instructions above empty boxes (“Enter C or F”)
Extraneous:
- Average player scores
- Final percent score
- Give up option mid-game
- Pause option
- Ads
Thumbnails:
Exploring proximity:
The existing design of Cheese or Font does not incorporate proximity as well as it could – as shown in my leftmost thumbnail, all elements are on the same line and relatively close together, so there is little subgrouping. In my designs, I tried to use proximity to create groups of elements. In all of them, I grouped the empty response box with the Previous/Next buttons by keeping them close together, in a line, and similar in size. I also kept the prompt (the name of the cheese/font) physically close to the response/buttons group to make it clear that the player is responding to the prompt in the available box.
I took more liberties with the timer and score elements. In all my designs, they are situated further from the prompt/response group than in the original design to show that they are not related to the player’s actions. However, in some of the thumbnails, they are grouped together by proximity, while in others they are not. This reflects the fact that I feel they can be stand-alone elements or part of the same group, since they both keep track of progress in some way.
Beautiful Game Example:
I think Journey is a beautiful game. It uses a single color gradient, rather than overwhelming the player with many colors. It also uses contrast to distinguish the player, who is cloaked in a black robe. The design is minimalistic and extremely visually pleasing.
