Compose styles
Rather than blending styles toward a middle, this gives them roles. The first one carries the structure, the next comes in as the accent, and anything after that shows up in a single detail. Where they fight each other, it says so before you start.
How to divide the work
- Composition
- Follow Diegetic UI: Leave the four corners of the screen empty. Distribute information across the body, the held device, and the environment, and keep those roles fixed
- Type
- Set in Diegetic UI's manner (Treat every character as printed or projected onto something in the world, so it skews with the camera. Some angles will be unreadable, so carry the same meaning in shape and color too), and let Skeuomorphism's lettering (A humanist face suited to the purpose) appear only where you want the eye to catch.
- Material
- Ground in Diegetic UI's material (Use only materials the fiction can account for, such as a lit tube or a projected plane. The style collapses when the material stops being explainable, so settle the world first); bring in exactly one thing from Skeuomorphism (Precision texture only where it serves function).
- Colour
- Build on #6EC6E0, #E8A33D, #111417 and admit one accent from #d6b47b, #7a4d2c, #39342e.
Where they fight
- Diegetic UI and Skeuomorphism share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over.
- Diegetic UI and Skeuomorphism both belong to UI Expression, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable.
Caution
- Diegetic UI Building an object into the world and then printing controller button names on it mixes fiction with rules, and that is exactly where the thesis's own focus group reported the illusion breaking.
- Skeuomorphism Ornament must not bury the interaction. Expect generations who don't share the metaphor.
Image prompt
Produce four original images that take their structure from Diegetic UI (technique, 2009–) and their accent from Skeuomorphism (style, 2000s–2010s). ## What to make Make the kind of thing Diegetic UI exists for: moving health and ammunition out of the corners of a first person game and into the world itself, or placing information in VR or in a vehicle as an object in space rather than a layer stuck to the view. Choose one subject and hold it across all four. ## Structure comes from Diegetic UI - Health or ammunition shown on the protagonist's own equipment instead of in a corner of the screen - A map the character holds up and reads while still walking, rather than a paused overlay - Panels of information projected into the air that tilt with the camera because they occupy the space - Directions given by the color of a signpost standing in the world itself Composition: Leave the four corners of the screen empty. Distribute information across the body, the held device, and the environment, and keep those roles fixed. Type and lettering: Treat every character as printed or projected onto something in the world, so it skews with the camera. Some angles will be unreadable, so carry the same meaning in shape and color too. ## Accent comes from Skeuomorphism, used sparingly - Leather, metal, paper - Dimensional shadows - Real-world metaphors - Fine textures Let one material quality come from it: Precision texture only where it serves function. ## Colour and feeling Build the ground on #6EC6E0, carry the structure in #E8A33D and #111417, and let a single accent come from #7a4d2c. These are read off real works, so a direction rather than a fixed palette. Feeling to carry: play, technique, exhilaration, intimacy, trust, nostalgia. ## Where they fight - Diegetic UI and Skeuomorphism share no intent, so the contrast has to become the subject rather than something to smooth over. - Diegetic UI and Skeuomorphism both belong to UI Expression, so the difference is small. Push the roles further apart than feels comfortable. ## What goes wrong - Diegetic UI: Building an object into the world and then printing controller button names on it mixes fiction with rules, and that is exactly where the thesis's own focus group reported the illusion breaking. - Skeuomorphism: Ornament must not bury the interaction. Expect generations who don't share the metaphor. ## Across the four Keep the roles fixed in all four. Vary the framing, the scale and the arrangement so the set shows what this pairing can do rather than four versions of one picture. ## Constraints - Do not imitate, reference or name any specific artist, studio, brand, character or copyrighted work. - Do not reproduce the composition of an existing work. - Produce original compositions in the general period languages described above.
Related entries
- Diegetic UI 2009– / Technique / UI Expression
A name for the corner of game interface design where an element belongs both to the fiction and to the three dimensional world. A 2009 master's thesis at Chalmers University of Technology, written with EA DICE, mapped game UI on those two axes and reserved the word for that corner. Health glowing on the hero's own suit is the type case.
- Skeuomorphism 2000s–2010s / Style / UI Expression
Borrows cues from real materials and tools to make unknown interactions understandable. It names the principle, so Aqua and Brushed Metal are what the principle looked like when one company shipped it.
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