Mock-Ups & Pie: That’s a nice nose ring; I think it would look better on THE BAR!
“I’m not putting my mouth on that thing.”
- Full Throttle
<3 Vector.
One of the significant differences between the first half of The Golden Age of The Adventure Games and the last half is the Pie Menu UI system. Long story short, the Pie Menu system or ‘Verb Coin’ system as LucasArts called it cut the distance and the amount of clicks that a user had to perform in order to complete a task, such as “Look at Rope”. Instead of moving the pointer to the ‘Look at…’ button, then moving it to the object, then click the object; you simply click and hold the cursor over object and drag your mouse to look icon and release. It be came very easy to perform this action blindly. It’s all a bunch of Fitts’s Law Bullshit that that average jerk dosen’t care about until it’s not there. I’m looking at you Maya users!
Which brings me to my point. I have decided to forgo the early LucasArts games UI (think Fate of Atlantis) for the later ‘Verb Coin’ system (think Full Throttle). Infact, look at the mockup.