Documentation of process (Part 1 & 2) by Akrist Bharti

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-13 20:33:49 UTC

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-13 20:34:05 UTC

Don Norman: The Design of Everyday Things

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:07:01 UTC

I dove into this particular book by Don Norman as my specific question required me to understand and explain signifiers and affordances. These two terms were crucial to better understand and create proper structured arguments about the effectiveness of visual signifiers for interactive elements

Jakob Nielsen: 10 Usability Heuristics for User Interface Design

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:14:34 UTC

After forming the groundwork in terms of terminology and understanding of concepts for my essay using Normans work. I dove into Nielsen's heuristics, which showed me exactly what can be caused by ineffective signifiers and what are the outcomes of effective signifiers that are. Essentially trying to better understand the type of engagement that is supposed to be between the user and the game itself (while yes, the article doesn't explicitly talk about signifiers in games, these methods can still be applied to visual cues in games).

Idea

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:19:09 UTC

I found it personally challenging to form an interesting guiding topic for my essay, so I decided to look back at the games I played recently, and I immediately thought about how I found Star Wars Jedi: Survivor really difficult just because as a player I couldn't visually identify the interacting elements infront of me. So I decided to take that experience and link it to one of the topics that were presented in class (I wasn't there, but I did go through the presentations on Moodle). And that is how I ended up looking into visual signifiers in interactive elements in games and their effectiveness.

Idea

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:29:45 UTC

For the essay i wanted to dive into an article that I read online years back, the inclusion of hindu gods in the MOBA game Smite. As a person from a Hindu family, I found this topic intriguing and wanted to use the articles that I read for the topic of inclusivity. While yes I am from a Hindu family I don't have any biased opinions on the matter.

Article

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:33:51 UTC

This particular article by a popular indian news media Times of India was well structured and had quotes from Rajan Zed who is the President of Universal Society of Hinduism. This particular point of view was crucial as I wanted to see both the pros and cons of the addition of the Hindu gods in Smite.

Writing Process

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:41:09 UTC

While I did not exactly find a credible article about the developer's views on the matter, it was clear that they were attempting to create a game that has a diverse set of gods from as many pantheons as possible. So I decided to use that understanding as a counterargument. Which I then followed up with a point by using a quote from Rajan Zed, which states that using Hindu gods in forms of entertainment is encouraged, but with proper guidance from custodians, which is probably the best way to go about bringing any important cultural figures into a fictional setting.

https://padlet.com/abharti0420241/documentation-of-process-part-1-2-w4z2d77ld2p4rvqh

abharti0420241_1 — 2025-05-15 00:44:13 UTC