UI report

This is a brief summary of the game “Baby Rush”, for those who do not know about it. Baby Rush is a casual strategy game that mainly focus on taking care of babies by giving what they want, all the way until they feel sleepy (when their energy is low, they will feel tired).  Today, we will summarise on the in-game user interface (UI) elements in the game.

The first of the UI that is noticeable is the baby energy bar. It is located at the top left hand corner of the screen. It is a non-diegetic UI as it contains information of the game, but exists outside the game itself. The only good design of the UI was the use of the colour. Blue was chosen as it is something that is neutral, and does not show any sense of alert to the player themselves.

However, the main flaw of the UI design is basically on the lack of indicators. Without any instructions, player will not know that it represents the energy level for the baby. The positioning of the UI could also be in a more prominent position such that the players are able to notice it immediately. One of the prominent positions would probably be on the top middle portion of the screen.

            

The second UI that I want to go onto is the happiness status of the baby, located right beside the energy bar. It is also a non-diegetic UI as it contains information of the game, but exists outside the game itself. Similar to the energy level, I personally think that the only good thing of the UI was the use of the colour, but only to a certain extent. When the bar is empty, it’s grey, and grey does not really symbolize neutral feeling of the baby, as it’s a dull looking colour. On the other hand, when the bar starts to fill, it is yellow in colour, which I think it is a right thing to do.

Similar to the energy bar, the main flaw of the bar is the lack of indicators. It has no information regarding about the bar, and people will not know about it unless they go through tutorial. The only thing that is used in representing the bar is a small icon of baby looking happy. Also, as this is less important than the energy bar (the purpose of the happiness bar is to indicate the mood of the baby, which is interdependent to the rate of the energy loss), it can be placed at the position where the energy bar is.

The third UI that is noticeable immediately on sight is the game timer. It is also a non-diegetic UI as it tracks the amount of time taken to complete a level, but exists outside the game itself. It’s only there for achievement purposes. I personally think that the UI placement of the game timer is correct, as it does not contain any important information of the game.

The only flaw of this UI is that being a graphical and vibrant coloured game, the UI design is a bit distracting to the audience. They may think that the UI is part of the game itself.

The fourth UI of the game is actually the tutorial pop-up. It is also a non-diegetic UI as it is just a piece of instruction that guides the player along, and it appears outside the game. The good thing about the UI is that it contains short and detailed information of the game.

However, the UI placement of the pop-ups is too random, due to the game environment itself. This means that the player must change their focus from time to time.

The fifth UI of the game is the baby’s patience bar. It is a non-diegetic UI as it contains information of baby patience, but exists outside the game itself. I feel that this is by far the best UI in the game. It is located right above the baby and it’s small in size. It has also a simple design and uses red as indicator. This indicator only increases when the baby is crying, and tracks the amount of time left for the player to complete a task, or they will lose the game.

I personally think that the UI can be improved by using segments of small bars instead of a regular bar.

The sixth UI element in the game is the event icon, which determines what the baby need. This is a spatial UI as it exists together with the game environment and is not immersive. The good thing about this UI is that it is simple and appears on top of the baby. Players will know what to do from looking at it.

However, I feel that the UI can be improvised by changing to colour scheme a bit so that it does not cause confusion between the game environment and the UI itself.

The seventh UI element in the game is the player icon, which shows what the player is currently holding. This is a spatial UI as it exists together with the game environment and is not immersive. The good thing about this UI is that it is simple and appears on top of the player when they have grabbed something.

However, the main flaw of the UI lies on the design itself. It uses the same artwork as the event icon, with background colour difference. This may confuse the players. Also, I personally feel that the colour scheme can be improved by making it less contrasting.

Finally, the eighth UI element in the game is an effect given off whenever the player pushes the interact button. This is a Meta UI as it is a special effect given off that is not part of the game environment. The positive thing of the UI is that it does not take up a lot of space and appears on the direction which the player is facing (it appears in front of the player).

However, the UI is relatively transparent and player may find it distracting.