How the Graphical Representation of the HUD Affects the Usability of a Third Person Game

The HUD is what allows players to interact with the game world and therefore thevisual representation of it is of importance to usability. Usability being broken down intothree components: effectiveness, efficiency and satisfaction. To study the subject athird person action game was made for the purpose. The game contained two differentHUD versions to test different approaches to UI design. Results for the study were, inrelation to usability, inconclusive due to a lack of participants and varying degrees ofexperience within the pool of participants. Preferences were gathered however, andpreferences towards the stylized HUD were shown. Further study is promising as othergenres could more easily adapt theories from other software fields