Bad UI Making Kids Cry?

By .edDotEd. Tuesday, September 28, 2010 3:54:35 AM

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Opera employee, user research scientist, and otaku specialist Lawrence Eng ran into a problem with the user interface (UI) of a game recently. Well, actually his young son did, and it was a Nintendo published DSiWare, too: Mario vs. Donkey Kong: Minis March Again!

In his recent blog post Bad UI Makes My Kid Cry, Lawrence illustrates a problem that I've often wondered about but could never prove existed. A problem that spans 30 years and over 200 games. A problem not tied to to the color of Mario's hat, but threaded in the fabric of game design, across systems and generations. Red.

Nintendo likes the color red for obvious reasons, I'll not get into that. In the real world, kids learn red means danger, caution, and stop. But video games don't adhere to nature's standards and sometimes artistic liberties are taken in interface design that give mixed signals. In Lawrence's example, Red to start a new game, Red to erase your data, Red to go back to the title screen, and blinking Red to cancel that erase command. Green to confirm erasure. :[ In a game that's geared toward a younger audience, you'd think the designers would make it harder to accidentally erase your data.

We've had red and green buttons across systems and on in game menus for years, sometimes performing the opposite function than you'd expect, sometimes a company will choose one function set across multiple games. Sometimes a system will make color less important. You ever watch a Playstation gamer try to start a Konami game?

Have you ever learned a hard lesson due to bad interface design?



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Comments

Rebecca L.A. GeorgeRekaG Tuesday, September 28, 2010 4:30:08 AM

I've red used for danger in videogames before.

MK-MK Tuesday, September 28, 2010 11:13:26 AM

Kids nowadays are frightened of Elmo, the danger muppet.

SpookSpook81 Tuesday, September 28, 2010 2:45:24 PM

MK: Not if they saw the Katy Perry video...they would LOVE Elmo, then wink

As for the UI...I never thought of it! I mean, it's true that red in 'the real world' means danger, but in my head it never registered to follow the same standards while playing videogames... I guess maybe that's the point? In videogames you escape to a whole new 'reality'... But yeah, in younger semi-unspoiled minds it might get confusing; 'Who am I going to listen to? Mommy or Mario? Daddy or Sackboy?'

The Last SheikahTheLastSheikah Tuesday, September 28, 2010 6:10:22 PM

"You ever watch a Playstation gamer try to start a Konami game?"
I actually lol'd at this.

AntonCaptainSeagull Tuesday, September 28, 2010 10:45:28 PM

The easiest for a kid game is when they used a picture of an eraser, or a bomb or something that without words said "erase your file"

.edDotEd Wednesday, September 29, 2010 5:10:30 PM

Originally posted by TheLastSheikah:

The Last Sheikah 28. September 2010, 13:10

"You ever watch a Playstation gamer try to start a Konami game?" I actually lol'd at this.

I'm glad someone else knows my pain! Hahaha

Dustin WilsonKhadgar Thursday, September 30, 2010 7:15:42 PM

It's obviously a failure in UI design. Nevermind color the erase button is even in the wrong location for even a literate person. The erase button should be BY FAR the smallest button on the page and should be furthest away from everything else on the screen. That way the erase button would have the least chance of being pressed by accident. Erasing should be a deliberate action anyway.

The last time I remember a bad UI design causing me to learn a hard lesson was one of the last times I used a Windows XP install disc. The first stage of it brings you to this archaic DOS-like environment where it allows you to format hard drives and transfer the installer to the main hard drive. Needless to say I formatted the wrong hard drive because the letters on the keyboard to select one hard drive over the other were dangerously close. Then again there can be multi volume encyclopedias written about Windows UI problems.

AntonCaptainSeagull Friday, October 1, 2010 3:21:56 AM

in a poll on Everybody Votes channel on Wii, they asked something like "you are... (Right Handed) (Left Handed)" or something similar with left on the right and right on the left, so I voted corectly, but when I went to predict which would get more votes I selected the wrong one because of its stupid location, and ended up missing my prediction because of it sad

Masonwaffletower Wednesday, October 6, 2010 4:33:35 AM

I think some bloggers just like reading their own material.
>.>
-

If you can't read 4 letter words, you shouldn't be playing video games. The end. This is neither an opinion nor a question nor a debate.



...............when I was 2, I read books; reading is important.

SpookSpook81 Thursday, October 7, 2010 2:28:01 PM

Maybe a harsh comment, Mason...but I think you've got a good point: WE DON'T READ ANYMORE. We've become so accustomed with certain video game standards (like hitting START to start a game or pause it, for instance) that we no longer read what the label says or what the game is telling you it does... I remember having problems sometimes when some games were bold enough to change the PAUSE action to the SELECT button instead and using the START button to open up map screens or such... Total mayhem (OK, for like five minutes...then you get the hang of it)

Rebecca L.A. GeorgeRekaG Monday, October 11, 2010 9:31:48 AM

I don't really get it actually. Because though color red also means danger in some cases, but it also is a color of love and beauty. Also ♪fun fact♪: Red is considered a lucky color in China.

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