GT LIfe Menu Design Competition: The Poll

[Earth]

Please select which design is best based on style and navigation quality/ease/speed.

Here is another design, much simpler than the current GT5 Design and my other design.

Career - A-Spec and B-Spec events will be combined as well as online events/play.
Dealers - New and Used Dealerships, as well as a trader depot (online trading) Online trading would include stock & tuned cars. Custom vinyls/paint designs available at trading depot.
GT Auto - The Tuning Shop, Car Maintenance & Services, the Garage, and licenses are combined. The Tuning Shop would also contain a dyno/testing area for fine tuning. The Garage would have customizable tabs for organization.
Media - Pictures, Music, and Videos can be found here.

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Here's my take on what the next GT Life UI should look like.

On the bottom, you'll see the six main menu options: Race, Garage, Dealer, GT Auto, Travel, and Online. When you highlight one of these tabs, a pop-up will hover over the one selected, giving you more information and, in some cases, even more options. The tabs will also blink as notifications; for example, the Online tab would glow if you've recently received a gift. I thought this would be a refreshing change from the cluttered and static nature of GT5's home screen.

In the spirit of simplification, I've pared down the on-screen options to six. They aren't quite the same as they were in previous GT's though, so I'll explain:

RACE: In my version of GT6, events are structured two different ways.

"Open Events" are exactly what you've had from GT1-GT5. There are Amateur, Professional, and Expert classes composed of single races and championships. As usual, there are also a series of endurance races to compete in.

"Invitational Events" follow a schedule, like real life. As such, you can't enter them whenever you'd like. However, they are much more significant and much more rewarding than Open Events. Before you can compete in an Invitational Event, you'll have to pass a qualifier of some type. As your driver level goes up, teams will notice you and offer you rides. If you pass their tests, they may sign you for a season in a top-level series, such as WRC, NASCAR, ALMS, SuperGT, F1, etc.

GARAGE & DEALER: Virtually unchanged from the way they've always been. Additionally, you can paint, edit liveries, and view your photos from the Garage. Dealer includes new and used car dealerships.

GT AUTO: I have never understood why PD has always felt the need to separate parts and maintenance shops. Why not just combine them? So in my GT6, GT Auto is a hub for everything from oil changes to engine swaps.

TRAVEL: Travel allows you to visit any circuit or photo mode location in the game. Conduct max speed tests, go on a track day, and take shots of your new ride.

ONLINE: All multiplayer options are accessible from this menu. From here, you can visit your friends' profiles, start a race, view leaderboards, receive gifted cars, etc.

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Here is my Final Entry:

GT Online Events: Here you will find PD hosted online events, such as a miata or a corvette race.
Career: Here you will do your career. You could be a nascar driver, a rally driver, a ALMS driver. The possibilities should be endless.
WorkShop: Here you will do whatever is needed to your car. You will be able to paint, customize, add parts, tune, change wheels, maintanince, and anything else that needs to be done to your car.
Manage: here is the tricky one, Here you can chat with your friends, join/create leagues, manage mail and gifts, view your friends profiles, change your profile pic, and create bobs and edit their and your's suits. YOu will also manage all your items here.
Create-an-Event: This one speaks for itself. You create a track, or use a saved previously created track, or a stock track, and choose the cars to run, choose the laps/time, and it will automaticlly choose credits/XP earned.
Local Events: Here, there are locally created online/LAN events you can join or make. These can be hosted by anyone and the flag will change with region. (duh)
Free Run: Here you can drive on famous or randomly generated or created roads. Get in one of your cars and DRIVE!!!!
GT Online: Here, you can go to just a general online, get into parties (that should really be in this game) and create rooms. This would not be for events though. Just free runs, drifts, of just hanging.
My Garage: Well, DUH! Look at your cars, select them, free rotate them, take pics.
Dealerships: Here you can go to either a online dealer(will expand in a minute), new dealer, or used dealer. In the new dealer, all cars will be there with 0/0/0. In the used dealer, all the cars will be there, but will have miles, sometimes after-market parts on them, and will be cheaper. In the online dealer, people can put their cars for trade or sale. They will put an in-game money price, and people can buy it. If they want to trade, they put what they want and people can make offers. Not just for the car they requested though.
Test-a-Car: Here, you test a dealer car. ANYWHERE.
Camera Button: Here you view pics and vids.
Music button: Here you manage Music
Gear button: Options
X: Exit, will ask if you want to save before though.

That is all, if you read it all, thanks! Vote for Me!!! Also, please excuse any typos on the menu.

Forgot to Metion, you can choose your own pic for the backround

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^ Thank you very much!

I found some time and cleaned up / enhanced a few things, added oil change warning light next to car name. I hated not knowing whether my car needed one or not. This will probably be my final entry but i guess I will wait a bit more just in case I change my mind about anything. Thank you all for the comments! 👍

F I N A L – E N T R Y

Photo Credit: Old Tiger

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Hello everyone

I am sure most of yous have seen my earlier designs. So here is somthing new

gt-life

Still early but i think its coming along well to post and i have other game menus to post but below is a rough idea about the layout.

RACE---

A SPEC - BEGINNER - INTERMEDIATE - PRO - EXPERT - ENDURANCE -CUSTOM EVENTS

B SPEC - BEGINNER - INTERMEDIATE - PRO - EXPERT - ENDURANCE -CUSTOM EVENTS

ONLINE---

RANKED -INVITE- RACE- TEAM RACE - SEARCH -> 1000PP * - 850PP* - 750PP* - 650PP* - 550PP* -450PP* - 350PP* - 250PP*
PLAYER - CREATE -SERVER LIST
PRIVATE - CUSTOM SETUP

CARS ---

Similar layout to gt5 new car showroom. So all cars bought will be put under their manufacturer or there will be a option to switch car manufacter layout to show PP INDEX. Example |150pp| - suzuki swift, nissan micra, |250pp| citroen c4, ford focus etc. Also you can modify your car setup here.

NEW/USED CARS--- (used text will flash when the garage has been updated)

Again similar layout to GT5 new car showroom. Used car showroom will be similar to GT2.


GT AUTO--- (oil and cars wash warning wil appear on the icon itself)

BUY PARTS - OIL CHANGE - CAR SERVICE - CAR WASH - PAINT ROOM

BUY PARTS - MODS(ie turbos, tyres, aero) - RIMS - RACE MOD

PAINT ROOM - Rim Paint - Apply Image 0/1000 - Apply Window Image 0/50


OPTIONS--- (all normal game settings)

COMMUNITY---

Community STORE ( buy sell cars from players using credits )
Photos ( view or upload photos )
Replays (view or upload replay)
Friend list ( view friends on GT6. Join game option, view friends photos and replays, friends cars currently on communtiy store)
Edit profile (manage your photo uploads/replays/avatar)
PD EVENTS (like GT5 online SP events)

PS sorry if there is any grammer or spelling mistakes . Also please tll me if the picture is too dark as my laptop screen is wierd lol.

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Here is a quick concept I tossed together. The icons are just really quick stuff I grabbed from the internet so some of them look a bit cheap...

The concept is a chequered flag grid of icons. The active icon is coloured and expands with the icon name. The top row of icons are driving related, "A-spec", "B-spec", "C-spec" (curious?), "Online", "Time trial/Test Track", "Free run/Free roam/Whatever..."
The second row is "Car dealership", "Garage/Home" (which contains all tuning, maintenance and customization options - no more menu hopping!), "Licence/Special Events/GT Academy", "Photo travel", "Social stuff", "Options"

The square grid makes it easy to navigate with the arrows: up = up, down = down, left = left, right = right. Why make it any more complicated than that?

I've probably missed a few important features, but this is the basic concept.

Edit: I guess the background picture could change accordingly with the icon that's selected. So for "Garage" the background could be a garage scenery etc.

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​

So, here's my take...
Ended up not "feeling" like GT at all, but maybe that's not such a bad thing.

I see you guys are opting for some kind of selectable grid, I kind of agree that the grid thing might be the best option for a console.

but anyway... the left column on "my" menu is basically a list with every option. From Garage to photo travel.
Selecting that option a new board appears on the right side (which would be a map for the racing events).
That's pretty much it. I would also change this map, but it was the best I could get.

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Hey everyone, been following this thread closely over the past month. And wow what can I say, GREAT WORK EVERYONE! I'm just loving all the designs you guys submitted and thank you for putting the time & effort in to keep us all in discussion.👍

Since I've been following this thread for a while, you guys have inspired me to throw something together of my own menu design concept.

It may look a little rough around the edges but here are some of my ideas. As I am almost back at University, I'm not going to have as much free time to polish this design up (As much as i want to!).

However I am going to try my hardest to find some time, to add some more of my ideas to this thread.

Finally, this is a WIP, so critique is very very welcome.:tup:And I will listen to you guys and try to improve upon it.

Ok, so here goes:

CLICK TO VIEW LARGER IMAGE 1920X1080

GT6 Menu Concept by braderzf50, on Flickr​

So as you can see, it's quite a simple design with a large portion of the background image exposed.

The main buttons run along the top half of the screen where you can gain access to races, your garage and GT Auto etc. Once clicked on one of these buttons, the remaining screen space will be filled with the corresponding screen menu. I was thinking the menus could slide in from the sides (along with other small but polished transitions) of the screen as I can only assume that GT6 (hopefully) will be on the next generation of console. I only mention this because I'm not sure what kind of power that would require from the PS3 as I'm not that clued up on that kind of thing.

Anyway, carrying on...

Along the very top of the screen, we have the current A & B Spec levels, credit count and the current weather for the track you will race next in the career mode. The weather would link to the real life circuit and the current weather conditions (e.g. Nurburgring, lets say its raining there in real life. It will have rain forecasted on here too ) with the option to refresh via the triangle button on the control pad. As you can also see, I have made use of some of the other buttons on the control pad to activate other various functions, in which I was thinking these could be customisable to a user preferred shortcut.

Also the current car that the user is in, is placed to the right of the screen inside its own tab in which we can press a button on the control pad to gain access to more details about the current vehicle the user is driving, along with an image maybe.

The background image would definitely be customisable to the users required photograph.

I also added a function to Hide/Show the main interface elements to have a full screen of your favourite background image, maybe the function to have a slideshow of the users photo mode pics playing through.

Well thats as much as I can explain right now, I just hope you understand what I was trying to explain.

I will try and create more menu screenshots to fully explain what I mean, hopefully sometime in the near future.


Many thanks everyone!👍

Brad.

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Okay, I'll say this first, quality isn't best because I used Paint to do it.

So my idea is that this is main menu, GT life and Pre-Race menu combined and you are all the time at some race track's pit garage. Best thing in this is that you can easily tune your car in your garage and go quickly to the track.

I tried to made it simple as possible and I just wanted it to be a bit like GT5's main menu and current GT life combined.

Mainly my point wasn't make it cool looking, I wanted to show this idea of ''Pre-race menu-GT life-Main menu-combination''

Events
Special events, seasonals, GT series, (real racing series's?).

Dealerships
Online, old and new.

GT Auto
Tuning parts shop and car service (oil change, aero parts etc.)

Online
Access to friends' profiles and lobby list, (auction hall?)

Editor
Track editor, (event editor?), (livery editor?)

Travel
Travelling to different countries; visit places to take photos and maybe cruise around, also access to special events/tuning parts/items

I had to show you this ''My garage'' screen because it's big part of this menu idea

''Test on track'' means that you can go immediately to the track where you currently are.

I'm not here for the contest, I wanted to only show you this.

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"Youtube" style GT6 Life Menu v 1.1

The idea with this was to reduce the amount of menus you have to go through to get to where you want to be as much as possible. So I went for a GT4 style approach and added almost everything to the GT Life Menu. You can join a race with 2 presses of the X button. License requirements for the races and how many you have complete are both easily visible.

Icons are ordered neatly for easy navigation with a DS3's D-pad or analog stick

 

[karelpipa]

i Like the map of zero6's. It feels like its full of information.

 

[avens]

To be honest all of them seem bland and boring, dull. Where's the excitement of the previous games of the franchise.

Also none addresses my biggest gripes with GT5 menus, which are the unnecessary complexity and overall time wasting (changing oil before a online race sums it up. Like 4 minutes gone).

 

[Capp96100]

Mmmm, I choose absolutely zero6

 

[Phoenix]

From the ones listed, I really like the ones shawtyoner and Scuderia Paul made.

glassjaw gets a +1 too, due to the SLS AMG as background image.


But im voting for shawtyoner's one. 👍

 

[Samus]

To be honest all of them seem bland and boring, dull. Where's the excitement of the previous games of the franchise.

Also none addresses my biggest gripes with GT5 menus, which are the unnecessary complexity and overall time wasting (changing oil before a online race sums it up. Like 4 minutes gone).

These are only the GT Home though, how can you know what they would do in other sub menus?

 

[avens]

These are only the GT Home though, how can you know what they would do in other sub menus?

They have GT Auto in (I suggest removing it entirely), Garage could be accessible with one button at all times instead of a top menu, millions of unnecessary choices.

Clusterfest and GT5 clones. The only one I kind of like is the first one, but it's too bland (looking at the menus only not the background photo).

 

[Samus]

I agree all of the GT Auto stuff should be easily accesible from anywhere but surely that anywhere would also include the main menu? I mean if it's not on that main menu and the first thing you want to do is go to GT Auto you'd have to go into your garage first, even if you're already in the car.

Personally I don't see a problem having it as an option on the main menu so long as it's also accessible from anywhere else at the press of a button.

 

[TokoTurismo]

I vote for @zero6's GT Life Menu Design. I just love how it has that "classic feel" to it, mix with a modern style. I really hope Kaz and PD sees it.

Everyone else's designs looks great too.

 

[red piramyd k]

ehmm... just wanted to share this one i made a long time ago

 

[Earth]

Heres my personal opinion.

zero6's layout has the most potential. I like all the information that is presented. However I believe there are some size issues. The race info should be a little big larger and some icons are really necessary to be on screen.

I voted for gt5bradgt5. His layout is similar to shawtyoner, but his icons only take up 25% of the screen, whereas shawtyoner's appear to take up aroud 33% of the screen. A bit too much if you're going to have a real time 3D backgrounnd IMO. I also like the icons up top better then down low. All of gt5bradgt5's icions, including save, options, etc, are all lined up nicely along the top, but shawtyoner has icons on the bottom AND top which confuses things a bit.

I also all the hotkeys gt5 brad gt5 has on his interface, like car info and hide/show the UI.

glassjaw's is nice, but remind me too much of GT5's meunu with the colors etc

 

[Scuderia Paul]

Seeing as though I am one of the participants I assume I cannot vote. However, if I were to do so I would in all likelihood give my vote to Shawtyoner. I also really like the work done by Glassjaw and Erran0004.

The best thing to come from this is that we had many people take part and share their ideas. It is always interesting to see how others see and approach the same challenge.

I am working on a couple of new, non GT Life, GT6 UI screens and came across an alternate version of my first attempt I had forgotten about. It was done to improve visibility of the custom background. Just thought I'd share it here...

I would stay and chat but I have to set-up about 50 fake accounts to vote for myself to stand any chance whatsoever...

 

[shawtyoner]

Heres my personal opinion.

I voted for gt5bradgt5. His layout is similar to shawtyoner, but his icons only take up 25% of the screen, whereas shawtyoner's appear to take up aroud 33% of the screen. A bit too much if you're going to have a real time 3D backgrounnd IMO. I also like the icons up top better then down low. All of gt5bradgt5's icions, including save, options, etc, are all lined up nicely along the top, but shawtyoner has icons on the bottom AND top which confuses things a bit.

Hey Earth, I appreciate the feedback, just wanted to explain some of my design choices. I wanted to split up primary functions and secondary options. The bottom row are primaries, the top are secondary with basic info and such.

Also, the icons on the bottom would disappear after a few seconds when the controller isn't touched, and pop back up once you push a button, that way you can enjoy the imagery in the BG if you wanted to more clearly 👍

 

[badger_mk2]

I prefer GT4, where everything is spread out.

Cuts down on sub menus and loading screens.

Id just rather it were more organised than GT4

 

[shawtyoner]

Thank you to everyone who voted for my design 👍 I just decided to give it a go one day when I was bored at work. I know there is a lot more I could have done to make it better, but I had fun doing this with the time I had. Thanks again for all the positive comments and suggestions.

 

[Scuderia Paul]

The comments were well deserved Shawtyoner. I would like to see you try some other screens too actually. If you do post them here.
:-)

 

[glassjaw]

Just saw this thread. Great work everyone, I've learned a lot from some of these designs and I think I'm going to give it another shot, just for fun.

My favorite has to be NISMO_GTR's. It's a wonderfully old school design, simple and beautiful. I love the font (if you're reading this Nismo, mind telling me where I can find it?). Shawtyoner, eran0004, and gt5 brad gt5 also all deserve honorable mentions.