I was told that I should post here instead of in the Unity UI subforum. So, here it goes.
I have a minimap on the screen that is 1/9 of the full camera view size (split in 9 equal parts, the minimap takes up one of the squares). But I have 4 corners that I can choose from: lower left, lower right, upper left, and upper right.
Which corner is the best place to put the minimap at, so when the player sees it, it is more pleasing?
I know lower left and upper right are corners where the minimaps will usually be placed. But I would like to have some opinions before continuing. Care to give any?
Traditionally it’s the lower right. Unless there were studies done years ago, I don’t know of if there is an actual reason for it though.
Just taking apart quadrants, top and bottom should have be a pretty objective decision. Depending on the camera angle and the intended focus, you might have to consider the range of color (especially if it’s a translucent minimap) and where the action is. With a lower camera angle, the upper half of the screen can easily go from washed out skies to pitch black caverns. The other issue is that sometimes the center of action is lower on the screen, so a minimap in the lower half can obstruct the view, if not obstruct mouse input.
As far as left or right, my gut says right because top left is usually where health bars go (so it’s right for balance).
I read your question and i thought it was strange that I even have an opinion on this. My gut says top right. I can’t really pinpoint why. Playing WoW for so long perhaps?
It most certainly can’t obstruct the gameplay view.
I think games like WoW use upper right because the player looks forward and down on their character, so the minimap’s out of the way.
In RTSes, on the other hand, the player scans the entire world, and a minimap in the upper right would block their view of what’s incoming in the distance.
So it’s a pure top-down view, not seen on an angle?
Since it’s an RTS, I’ll go in with the others to vote lower right, since that’s what players are used to. Also, your action buttons will probably at the bottom, and it’s important to keep those close to the minimap for efficiency. [EDIT: I forgot that a lot of RTSes also use lower left. So one of those lower corners. :-)]
I’ve seen minimaps for RTS everywhere. There is no particular standard for where they should be. Nor do I think there is any particular science behind it. Simply choose a location that works with your overall AI and look. And one that isn’t going to block the players view of anything important.
Here are a few locations from games I’ve played and loved over the years. Supreme Commander was the only one where the minimap actually became a talking point. And that was because it was a relatively cool idea to be able to zoom smoothly between minimap and the playing field.
I’ve always liked my minimap in the bottom left for any RTS. When commanding troops it always feels more natural to have their menu at the bottom right. Hope this helps you in your decision!
Minimap is used for overview, if people try to orient themselves they mostly look at the start (top left in europe & america). Take Reading for example, if you read you start at the top left corner of the text.
So my brain is primed to look at the top left corner when interpreting visual input while knowing that related soon-to-be-interpreted content is to be found to the right and bottom of that point. My peripheral view is therefore better trained on the bottom right quadrant of my visual field (I speculate that if you would map the visual cortex for the quadrants of your vision you will see that this quadrant has a larger size in the brain)
So my answer is "minimap on top left" - if it is very mandatory to gameplay (needed to be looked at often) because of the speculation that your lower right peripheral field of view can better track the content of the main screen than any other quadrant while looking at the minimap.
Pick a game that comes close to yours (genre) and is the most successful in its genre (MMO → WoW etc.).
get inspiration from their UI layout
No I don’t like copycats that’s not my point, but chances are that players have played that other game before (most successful → higher percentage) and the UI or at least the minimap position feels familiar … to most.
Given a choice, having the minimap position changeable means players can choose.
Personally, I like my minimap in the top, right corner – the same place as the rear view mirror is when I’m driving. My eyes and brain are comfortable with the quick glances up to it as I’m doing other things in the game.
This is more a UX(User experience) issue than a game design one.
Personally I would do some UX testing or even better get a third party UX lab to test it for you. A couple months ago our game was submitted to a UX Lab to do some testing on our game and through the use of eye-tracking they found where most of the users spent their time looking at. we changed our UI based on the results to make it more palatable to our users. Our UI has gone through several iterations in the past couple months and it has gotten better with each iteration.
get others to play-test your game and ask what they feel. Don’t worry if you don’t get it right on the first try. its more important that you have something to show so that you know how you can improve it through iteration. That said don’t fall in love with your (UI) design because in order for it to evolve you will need to be prepared to change it
I loved that walk through history, but what it tells me is the Minimap is always connected to the UI in RTSs… so where you want your UI will dictate at least half of where the minimap can be. (IE: If its vertical left, you’re either top left or bottom left).
