GT Life Menu Design Competition

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Nice one zero. It feels right for some reason.

How would the events work exactly? It looks like you browse and jump through different events right from the menu. Haven't seen that before.
 
daus26
Nice one zero. It feels right for some reason.

How would the events work exactly? It looks like you browse and jump through different events right from the menu. Haven't seen that before.
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Well, I didn't think the whole thing through, but I wanted to use the calendar some how. My idea is something like sign for a event, for instance Sunday Cup, you register for that race, but you will only be able to race the next Sunday.
So, on that Sunday you have a "Race Day".
Now about signing for those events... well I don't really know how, to be honest... I didn't think about it.:sick:
 
Haha, ok. Cool.

Maybe you don't need to sign up? Some race days are only available on certain days for example. Sometimes more than one is even available.

Cool concept nonetheless.
 
zero6
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So, here's my take...
Ended up not "feeling" like GT at all, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I see you guys are opting for some kind of selectable grid, I kind of agree that the grid thing might be the best option for a console.

but anyway... the left column on "my" menu is basically a list with every option. From Garage to photo travel.
Selecting that option a new board appears on the right side (which would be a map for the racing events).
That's pretty much it. I would also change this map, but it was the best I could get.
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I think the map looks awesome, except for the missing corner - can you fix that?

I also think you should think one more time about the navigation, perhaps come up with another concept for it, considering the dual shock controller will probably still be the main tool.

There's a lot of arrows and icons on many different places, I think that might be confusing for the user. What do they do and how do I use them?

And how do I know which objects I can interact with and which I can not? How do I move from the bottom menu bar to the mail icon on top - do I have to click my way through a bunch of other stuff before getting there? Is there a logical sense of motion? If I click "up", do the cursor move up and does it move to the "up" which I wanted? How do I know where the cursor is? Is it easy to see?

There seems to be a lot of hidden objects in the scrollable menu to the left. How do you scroll that bar? The calendar and "current car" occupies a lot of space in that menu, is there some other possible solution that could free some space so that you don't need to scroll? Same with the Nissan GT-R's over "Race day", I imagine it's a pop-up, but it's occupying a lot of space too.

The map looks awesome, if you can come up with a navigation that makes sense on the dual shock controller, then you're in business :)
 
I would agree, design wise it's very professional but from a UI point of view it's not good at all. It looks like a PC desktop or something, designed for mouse input. certainly not something to navigate around on a pad or wheel.
 
Like I said before, I didn't think everything through... It was more of a design thing...
But the basic concept is you can choose any option on the left bar. Imagine if you scroll down to garage, the garage button will turn into a image (like the race day button in this case).
If you select the button, a new "board" appears on the right. So if you select garage, a list will pop up on the right.
you go back to the "left bar" pressing circle.
If nothing is selected, maybe we could have a photo slide or something.

There isn't a cursor, but I think it would be easier if there was one. Right now, you know you are selecting an option when you see the orange bar over the button.

I know this isn't a very user friendly UI, but I'm sure someone could work on this...
Oh and thanks for the compliments and opinions.:)
 
As long as I don't have to guess which way the selection will be, I'm fine. It seems to be either left-right, or up-down. Now that you explain it, it seems simple enough for me.
 
^ Thank you very much!

I found some time and cleaned up / enhanced a few things, added oil change warning light next to car name. I hated not knowing whether my car needed one or not. This will probably be my final entry but i guess I will wait a bit more just in case I change my mind about anything. Thank you all for the comments! 👍

F I N A L – E N T R Y

GT6-MENU_zps849385b9.jpg


Photo Credit: Old Tiger
 
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@shawtyoner I simply adore your interface. Awesome work on it. :)
 
@shawtyoner Gorgeous UI man. Looks slick, clean and simple. The update is much nicer too with the white stroke border on the categories not selected.
👍
 
@shawtyoner I'll be suprised if PD doesn't use your design. Excellent work!
 
shawtyoner
GT6-MENU_zps849385b9.jpg


Photo Credit: Old Tiger
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This is excelent! Looks easy to navigate, and I like how it would use your "current car" as the background image. My opinion, PD needs to take this interface and run with it.
 
A_Higher_Place
Awesome idea and I like where you're going with it.

Personally? I can't stand the font being used.

But none the less 👍
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Thanks. What is wrong with the font? How would you change it? Let me know and I will edit it to see what fits better.
👍
 
Very cool Scuderia!
 
shawtyoner
Very cool Scuderia!
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Thanks shawtyoner. I have enjoyed designing pieces for this thread despite, on a couple of occasions, spending an hour painstakingly making little details only to reluctantly admit to myself that they look rubbish. That's frustrating!

I'm happy with this piece though. I may try animate it next.
 
lebes14
+1, this is my favorite.
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Thanks Lebes14. I appreciate that considering some of the others are, Shawtyoner's in particular, very good and well thought out.

symustafa1996
For the bottom one, with the LFA pic does each corresponding category (career, GT Auto etc.) have it's own picture? Love the font used for the A and B-Spec levels, by the way.
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Thanks for that Symustafa. Yes, each category has it's own image. I decided to use the Lexus LF-A here because it is part of a fantastic series of photos at Fuji Speedway taken just prior to the cars launch.

Also, I would allow the custom background to be an image of the current car or a set photo taken previously by the player.


As I mentioned yesterday, I have started a couple of designs which I have scrapped due to not being happy with how they were developing. Here is a Map version I was working on but discontinued. As it was not completed it is a little rough in places.

The idea was to present a simple grid but in a map style - It is 3-layer 3-icon so it would be easily navigable with Quit kept separate.

g6Jqr.jpg
 
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Scuderia Paul
Thanks for that Symustafa. Yes, each category has it's own image. I decided to use the Lexus LF-A here because it is part of a fantastic series of photos at Fuji Speedway taken just prior to the cars launch.

Also, I would allow the custom background to be an image of the current car or a set photo taken previously by the player.


As I mentioned yesterday, I have started a couple of designs which I have scrapped due to not being happy with how they were developing. Here is a Map version I was working on but discontinued. As it was not completed it is a little rough in places.

The idea was to present a simple grid but in a map style - It is 3-layer 3-icon so it would be easily navigable with Quit kept separate.

g6Jqr.jpg
Click to expand...

I like the map idea, like previous GT titles. But GT4, for example, was very complicated in the sense that there was icons everywhere. I was thinking like on the map, in the showroom, for example, you could organize cars into manufacturer, category, etc. to purchase them. Or something like GT2, where each manufacturer has their own workshop and used car dealer.

Another idea is to minimize loading screens. Maybe on each track, every time you select one, you will enter free roam and on the track, on certain areas, you can choose if you want to free race or go online on the track, etc. The parts manufacturer can have their own headquarters on each track, for example if you want HKS parts, you have to go to Tsukuba. And other basic stuff like oil change and paint can have their own sub-menu, like GT5.
 
Hey everyone, been following this thread closely over the past month. And wow what can I say, GREAT WORK EVERYONE! :) I'm just loving all the designs you guys submitted and thank you for putting the time & effort in to keep us all in discussion.👍

Since I've been following this thread for a while, you guys have inspired me to throw something together of my own menu design concept.

It may look a little rough around the edges but here are some of my ideas. As I am almost back at University, I'm not going to have as much free time to polish this design up (As much as i want to!:)).

However I am going to try my hardest to find some time, to add some more of my ideas to this thread.

Finally, this is a WIP, so critique is very very welcome.:tup:And I will listen to you guys and try to improve upon it.

Ok, so here goes:


CLICK TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE 1920X1080

GT6 Menu Concept by braderzf50, on Flickr​

So as you can see, it's quite a simple design with a large portion of the background image exposed.

The main buttons run along the top half of the screen where you can gain access to races, your garage and GT Auto etc. Once clicked on one of these buttons, the remaining screen space will be filled with the corresponding screen menu. I was thinking the menus could slide in from the sides (along with other small but polished transitions) of the screen as I can only assume that GT6 (hopefully) will be on the next generation of console. I only mention this because I'm not sure what kind of power that would require from the PS3 as I'm not that clued up on that kind of thing.

Anyway, carrying on...

Along the very top of the screen, we have the current A & B Spec levels, credit count and the current weather for the track you will race next in the career mode. The weather would link to the real life circuit and the current weather conditions (e.g. Nurburgring, lets say its raining there in real life. It will have rain forecasted on here too :)) with the option to refresh via the triangle button on the control pad. As you can also see, I have made use of some of the other buttons on the control pad to activate other various functions, in which I was thinking these could be customisable to a user preferred shortcut.

Also the current car that the user is in, is placed to the right of the screen inside its own tab in which we can press a button on the control pad to gain access to more details about the current vehicle the user is driving, along with an image maybe.

The background image would definitely be customisable to the users required photograph.

I also added a function to Hide/Show the main interface elements to have a full screen of your favourite background image, maybe the function to have a slideshow of the users photo mode pics playing through.

Well thats as much as I can explain right now, I just hope you understand what I was trying to explain.:)

I will try and create more menu screenshots to fully explain what I mean, hopefully sometime in the near future.:)


Many thanks everyone!👍:)

Brad.
 
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gt5 brad gt5
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Nice job Brad. I like your category icons but what are the mini icons to the right hand side? I assume the cog is Settings but the other 2 are?

If I was to make minor changes I would remove the refresh weather and GT Life icons and reduce the space allocation for your A-Spec, B-Spec and current credits and put current car and time in that area. In fact the refresh weather could be removed all together as being connected to PSN and the GT server it could update automatically.

The option to hide the UI icons is nice especially if it is possible to have a video playing like the current GT5 main menu demos. Another little element which will add polish is changing your control icons to the coloured versions like what Shawtyoner and I use.

As you said yourself it needs a little refining but I think you have a fundamentally clean and functional design. If you have the time to make some minor changes, be them my suggestions or not, I would really like to see what you come back with. Good stuff though!
👍
 
Are you guys coming up with more designs? I enjoyed some these a lot.
 
8158447835_4e73129941_z.jpg


Okay, I'll say this first, quality isn't best because I used Paint to do it.

So my idea is that this is main menu, GT life and Pre-Race menu combined and you are all the time at some race track's pit garage. Best thing in this is that you can easily tune your car in your garage and go quickly to the track.

I tried to made it simple as possible and I just wanted it to be a bit like GT5's main menu and current GT life combined.

Mainly my point wasn't make it cool looking, I wanted to show this idea of ''Pre-race menu-GT life-Main menu-combination''

Events
Special events, seasonals, GT series, (real racing series's?).

Dealerships
Online, old and new.

GT Auto
Tuning parts shop and car service (oil change, aero parts etc.)

Online
Access to friends' profiles and lobby list, (auction hall?)

Editor
Track editor, (event editor?), (livery editor?)

Travel
Travelling to different countries; visit places to take photos and maybe cruise around, also access to special events/tuning parts/items

8158448369_e42f2b55f2_z.jpg


I had to show you this ''My garage'' screen because it's big part of this menu idea

''Test on track'' means that you can go immediately to the track where you currently are.

I'm not here for the contest, I wanted to only show you this.
 
shawtyoner
^ Thank you very much!

I found some time and cleaned up / enhanced a few things, added oil change warning light next to car name. I hated not knowing whether my car needed one or not. This will probably be my final entry but i guess I will wait a bit more just in case I change my mind about anything. Thank you all for the comments! 👍

F I N A L – E N T R Y

GT6-MENU_zps849385b9.jpg


Photo Credit: Old Tiger
Click to expand...

This is hands down the best I've seen in this thread. It looks simple and professional yet still retains the typical Gran Turismo feeling. One thing I've always liked about GT menus is that they've got loads of character. I've played a lot of Forza games and their menus are easier to navigate and look very slick, but they're very sterile. They lack character and warmth, they take you out of the game. In GT it's one organic experience.

This has the best of both worlds. Easy to navigate, intuitive and it just screems Gran Turismo. I still have one issue with it and that's the top right menu. I don't like the idea of the back button. Why not go back when you press O? And the other buttons could perhaps go behind the start button. That's just my personal preference though, overall I think this is an excellent attempt.
 
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