GUI Reflection Questions

What did you do and how did you do it?

I made a GUI for my futuristic environment I first planed  it out by drawing three GUI based on other games GUI's I then took the one I liked the the most and I put it in to Photoshop. so I could see how the final product would look like. After that I took  the image from my animation and put it into flash I  then re-created the GUI using the tools flash had and to make the map seep through I turned down the opacity in before placing the square and I changed the colour of the outline to white so the map it noticeable to the player but does not obstruct the players view. I then turned the map, health, stamina, XP bar and the icons along the ability bar into buttons so that when the mouse hovered over it information about it would come up and when clicked it would show more information about it. For example when you hover over the health bar a pop up would come up and tell up the exact amount of health you have. When clicked it would show any items that can be used to recover health.

Does your final design meet your original intentions?

My final design does meet my original intentions in terms with design however technically I have made use of the buttons by making the health and stamina bar give information on what items can recover health or stamina. 

Self evaluation 
How did you manage your time? How could you manage your time more effectively?

I managed my time by planning what I wanted to do with my GUI. I first started to draw ideas and have a mindmap showing what I had to have on my GUI. because of these to thing I was able to make my GUI on Photoshop easily allowing my to clearly see what I wanted to do on Flash.

What did you struggle with? 

I struggled with making the map work properly as I wanted the button to show the larger map sign with the cursor hovers over the mini map and when clicked and held a large map would show up. However when I tested it the large map sign came up when the cursor was not on it but goes when the cursor hovers over something else.
     

What did you find easy?

I found the design of the GUI the easiest thing to do because I used the designs of other games GUI on my computer so I had a reference to base my GUI on.

How does your finished design compare to professional examples?

From the professional examples I have got on my blog I think that my GUI has strengths and weakness. My GUI allows people to see a larger map and particular items in the players inventory that would be usable when they put the cursor over the button this allows the player to do things like heal without stopping gameplay. I think that my interface could take up less space like the Vampire the Masquerade GUI however to make up for the amount of space used  I have made it all transparent so the player can see what is going on behind it.       

What could you improve upon?

I could improve on the map I think that the main problem with the GUI is the fact that the sign is up all the time and if I could change this I think that the GUI would be improved.

If you were to do it again what would you do differently next time?

If I could do this again I may change the shape of some things as Flash only has rectangles and can not use circular rectangles so there is a little bit of white at the corners of the health and the stamina bars.