Oregon Trail refers to the main road for American immigration to the west from Missouri to Oregon during the pioneering period of the western United States in the 1980s. The game revolves around this background. The interesting part of this game is that users can not only play the game but also learn some American…
Classic continuation and innovation of GUI
Graphical user interfaces appeared on personal computers in the 1980s. This is a huge change from the text-only computer shown in the movie The Mother of All Demos we watched before. It shows that human beings have entered the icon era at this time. Here, I made some comparisons to show the changes and similarities…
Oregon Trail – The Game of 1990s
Oregon Trail 1990 version It was a fun strategy game that brings you back to the 1840s life style. There were a lot of things that I didn’t familiar with like the geography and lifestyle of those in the 1840s. As a result, I made some bad decisions along the trip. That’s the same with…
Why Role-Playing Games are(were) So Popular
As a gamer, I play RPG(role-playing game) every day. When I say every day, I literally meant seven days a week nonstop. There is a reason why RPG is so addicting because it gives you the first-person perspective to manipulate your character in the game. When you are playing these games, you would slowly feel…
Some thought of Oregon Trail
When I clicked on the game page, I was attracted by the pixel design. It’s retro, but I don’t have the empathy to feel the childhood memories. After I use the keyboard to control the game, interacting with him is still very interesting. This reminds me of the storytelling course last semester. We used “Twinery…
Can We Predict the Future of Technology Base On What We Have Today?
Xerox introduced the Xerox 8010 Star Information System in 1982. This groundbreaking development was the game-changer for the new era of personal computing. Xerox Star was revolutionary; it had the capability to integrate technologies and innovations that have since become standard in personal computers. In the demo video, many hardware and software showed to be…
GUI: don’t change what isn’t broken
In 1981, Xerox introduced the 8010 “Star” Information System. Star’s introduction was an important event in the history of personal computing because it changed how interactive systems should be designed from now on. Today, windows, mice, and icons are the norm, but Star’s bitmapped screen, mouse-driven interface, and icons were unique at that time. The…
First PCs to Now
The first personal computers with graphical capabilities were Xerox Star (1982) and the Apple Macintosh (1984). They were revolutionary, in the way that they were computers meant for one individual, more graphical visual, and easier to use. When comparing the user interface and features of the personal computer from then to the ones used today,…
How do you stop?
Organ Trail is such an iconic game. I’ve never had the chance to play it (until this week) but had always heard people talk about how great and terrible it is. Most people actually love the game it’s the feeling of defeat that hits even harder with this game’s required time investment. Immediately starting the…
Cooperation with Computers
The Xerox Star was a fascinating intro to user interfaces. The use of icons to create familiarity and the ability to control and organize your electronic space is huge to the field of personal computers. I also thought the keys with specific functions were a notable aspect of the Xerox Star experience. More commonly now…
Joy Mountford
Her impact continues through the International Design Expo, which she created over 20 years ago to challenge the next generation of interdisciplinary graduates. Joy Mountford is a leading designer who is in human-computer interface, user experience, and interaction design. She had work in a lot of big companies before like Honeywell, Apple, Yahoo….. and a…
Life Is Hard, But We Still Need to Move On.
After playing the 1990 version of Oregon Trail, the first thought that comes to my mind is ” So Boring.” I am not a person who likes to play the game with too much text content and a lack of visual interest.But I suddenly realize that this game was designed in 1990, so I think…
From Early UI Design To Now
Looking at the graphical user interfaces of the Xerox Star (1982) and the Macintosh (1984) and comparing them to modern computers and devices, we can see what has changed and what has remained largely the same.The first thing that has changed is the computer keyboard. We can see designers simplify the keyboard by removing some…
Wisdom Behind The Oregon Trail
When playing the game “Oregon Trail” I was having a hard time deciding which role I wanted to play, so I picked the “find out the difference” option and read about the role descriptions. From that time on, I was dragging into the character that I picked. I was thinking in that position, actually calculating…
Oregon Trail – The most popular educational game for kids in the 80s and 90s
After playing the 1990 version of Oregon Trail, I feel that although the game was lack of visual images and a bit overwhelmed with the text contents, the background story and the overall-flow of the game was interesting to interact with. During the 80s and 90s, it was hard to find a game that satisfied…
UI in 80’s vs today
The Xerox Star, the pioneer of the graphical digital interface, which was introduced in 1982, had shown lots of similarities compared to today’s UI. Lots of important UI design principles were developed based on the creation of Xerox Star and the first generation of the Macintosh. The idea of signifier, affordance, and feedback was demonstrated…
Root Words In Computer UI Design
We can see shadows from the Xerox Star and the Machintosh in today’s computer UI design. Many features are sharing the same principle and are continually evolving. Especially on Xerox Star – Apple (1982) compares to today’s Apple computers (2020), We can see that the folder’s name is now showing under the icon, not directly…
Christopher Alexander’s Patterns till Today
Christopher Alexander had created many different patterns. Those claim an idea of how to structure a community, and different patterns can work in different types of situations. And those are still a really important resource for designing software or apps. For example structure of the pattern #41 “Work Community” can still find in today’s app….
How far We’ve Gotten with GUI’s and Modern Interaction Designs
Looking at the graphical user interface for the Xerox Star (1982) and the Macintosh (1984) and comparing it to modern day computers and devices, we can see what aspects changed and which stayed pretty much the same. First, we need to understand that the Xerox Star was designed for office professionals which handled storage, transfer…
Life is tough but so are you!
Oregon Trail is a very educational game. It takes you on a Westward journey, follows the footsteps of many Americans in the 1840s. Life was tough back then and so does this game. The user interface is really simple but the game demands a great amount of attention and skills. The characters keep hurting themselves,…