#majorproject

Major Project: The Arcadia Report

All Major Project Posts

Final Prototype

Final Alpha Prototype: Welcome to Arcadia

Promotional Website

Research & Summary Booklets

Iterative Prototyping

All Prototype Posts

Gameplay Paper Prototype

Prototype

User Testing

Style Test

Iterations

Final Visual Test

HTML Prototype

Version 1

User Testing

Version 2

Location Test

Marvel Version

Figma Version: Part 1 & Part 2

Complete Wireframes

Initial

Wireflows

Full Clue Flow

Onboarding (final alpha prototype)

Full onboarding

Secrets

Product Concept

Project Ideation and Concepts

Week 1: Three Ideas

Week 3: Mini-Pitch

Project Planning

Research & Development

Market Research

All Competitive Reviews

Her Story

Heavy Rain

Device 6

Hunt a Killer: Review & Brand Audit & User Feedback

HiddenCity

Sherlock Holmes: Consulting Detective

User Research

Survey Analysis

User Personas

Empathy Maps

Customer Journey Maps

Game Design & Research

Narrative & Content Design

Narrative Research

Content Design

Branding & Visual Grammar

Branding

Visual Grammar

Moodboard

Promotional Website

------------------------------------------------------------------------------------

RSA Brief

All RSA research & development posts

Brainstorming

RSA One-Day Workshop

System Research & Design

Branding

User Research

Survey Analysis

Vending Machine Stakeout: Part 1 & Part 2

Product Design

GIVE CHILDREN A SPACE AND FRESH AIR.

Shoot 3 - Location; Russia 

Axel Hutte

The Visual Grammar of MS-DOS

MS-DOS, an acronym for the Microsoft Disk Operating System, was an operating system released in 1981. Based off the command line, it began to diminish thanks once Windows 3.0 released with a GUI and the rise of graphical user interfaces on personal computers.

However, MS-DOS was still packaged with the operating systems for troubleshooting and launching old software. Even though it no longer exists, the modern command line interface is still from the same roots and aesthetically not worlds apart.

Key Elements of the Aesthetic

Text Driven - Hierarchy is determined mainly by colour, capitalisation, and spacing.

Dark UI - That old school terminal haze dominates, with a dark background and light text (normally white).

High Contrast - Matching the dark theme, if there is colour it tends to come in a bright white, blue, green, or orange which stands out on the dark background. Different colours are generally used sparingly and only for clearly defined meanings (such as errors).

Narrative:

Arcadia should feel timeless so that it can feel real and modern while rooted in the mystery of its past. MS-DOS and command line interfaces are perfect for this, capturing the 80s-90s tech aesthetic but also still underlying in most tech today.

The fact that MS-DOS still released with later software and was used for bootstrapping or troubleshooting when the GUI failed makes this kind of aesthetic the perfect narrative fit for Arcadia: capturing the idea that the software is broken and maybe had a GUI portion which you are trying to restore.

This gives me all sorts of ideas for how it might be presented: potentially even glitching to show the GUI at different points as you restore parts of the database.