[games_access] A catalog of 1 switch interface patterns?

[Tim Chase]

On 01/19/2011 08:38 AM, Tim Holt wrote:
> I'm wondering if there are any studies or design
> patterns/templates for effective 1 switch interfaces. I don't
> mean hardware but rather software and specifically user
> interface design.

The first place I'd start:

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/2316/one_button_games.php

being one of the best collections on the topic I've seen, 
including Flash demos of several aspects.

> For example, suppose I want the user to enter a number from 0
> to 9.  I can certainly make one up, but has anyone sat down
> and looked at how it's most effective?
>
> Another example would be highlighting of the current
> selection. A thousand ways to do it, but is there a "most
> effective" way?

While I don't know of any catalog of "most effective" ways to do 
these things, some lend themselves better than others.  For 
picking letters/numbers/menu-options, many of the games I've seen 
use a timed rotating selector.  This could be a pointer rotating 
around a dial, a highlight skimming from top-to-bottom (or 
left-to-right), etc...once the highlight/pointer is over the 
desired item, the button-press chooses.  It may also be good to 
include a cancel/back option and an "I'm done"/okay button with 
longer dwells (and for text-entry, a backspace).  One of the 
other things I've liked with the rotating-highlight in a menu is 
having it actually slide over the blanks-between-options too so 
that there's a bit of space between them to assist you in 
choosing the option you want, rather than being off by a fraction 
of a second.

I hope this gives you some good leads/ideas...

-tim