Syntactical Guidelines & Video Games

image source: http://tinypic.com/view.php?pic=2j177yh&s=4

The LittleBigPlanet "popit" menu puts Syntactical Guidelines to good use. I believe the strength lies in the organizational grouping of the various objects the player can use. For example, in the image, all the "sound effect" shapes are grouped together. Another way that the menu is successful is because it uses balance to organize and present itself. The menu is a rectangular shape and all the images within it are aligned to a grid. For the player, this provides a predictable layout from which to find the items they need.










image source: http://arcadeberg.com/files/2009/04/eso_hud.jpg

This videogame does not have good design and does not use the Syntactical Guidelines well. There is just too much information on the interface. The designer used too much stress for all the different menus. For example, the character window (top left) and map (top right) are both highlighted with a bright blue. There are also other bright blue points on the screen. The stress put on all these objects does not make any of them stand out anymore. It does not use Balance and Imbalance properly either. There is no sense of stability as the menus are all scattered. All the points of interest cause too much imbalance, creating a screen full of clutter rather than an understandable interface.