User Interface Design in Game Development : How does the game industry create user interface design?

Abstract: The game development processes behind entertainment games are not well understood. While there are studies that report on user interface evaluation in game production, there are very few studies that report on user interface design. The purpose of study is to explore and learn more about the game industry perspective and their processes behind user interface design. A systematic literature review was performed on the Game developers Conference database, GDC Vault. The review uncovered 105 presentations that relate to UI Design. A thematic analysis was performed to explore the eight most relevant presentations to the research question. The analysis resulted in two themes. The first theme describes UI designers’ experience of interdisciplinary collaboration. The second theme describe two seemingly conflicting goals in the UI design process: aesthetics and usability. The study contributes to the field of game development research with some knowledge about how the game industry create UI design.