User interface models for conversations
There is a long history of presenting dialogue options to players in video games and other interactive projects. From the earliest text prompts to complicated layers of menus in more modern video games, each generation of video game systems has introduced different methods of presenting information. However, two general models appear in many games: lists and radial menus. They can be explained as follows:
- Based on the original presentation of one choice after another in a vertical arrangement, the list pattern first appeared in early computer games and continues in visual designs where there is more space to show a variety of longer-text options to a player.
- The second model, the radial menu pattern, generally appears as part of role-playing games on video game consoles or mobile game spaces where there is limited visual space and, thus, options are arranged in a circle for easy access when using a controller.
In the first...
