Custom crosshairs: Push vs Grab

[palistov]

Hello folks. I need your thoughts on two custom crosshairs I've drawn up for my upcoming project. I need to know if it's easy to distinguish between push and grab. Push is the type you can't pick up, like large beams, beds, etc. You move them around by clicking on the item and using WASD (or your movement keys). Grab on the other hand is the type you can pick up, throw around, carry, etc (e.g. books, goblets).

As you may know it can sometimes be difficult to distinguish between the two default ones. I've seen seasoned Amnesia players desperately try to pick up a push-object to no avail.

Anyways, let me know if these two are easy to understand. "Push" is the first icon, "Grab" is the second. These will likely change in the future, but the basic look of them will remain.

[Your Computer]

Push is intuitive enough, but the one that is suppose to represent grab looks more like something you'd use for lifting.

[palistov]

Yeah I just realized that will also show up for doors Looks very odd. I'm gonna try just having the push icon have two hands (one mirrored from the other) next to each other. And the grab one will stay the same.

[Your Computer]

(10-04-2011 03:13 AM)palistov Wrote:  Yeah I just realized that will also show up for doors Looks very odd. I'm gonna try just having the push icon have two hands (one mirrored from the other) next to each other. And the grab one will stay the same.

What makes a good icon for the purpose desired is that it avoids confusion. You'll know an icon is no good for its purpose when a user has to go through trial and error to understand the icon. I do not believe adding a mirrored part to the icon would be entirely intuitive for the user, since it may imply other tasks like squeezing and similar. However, i could be understanding "mirrored from the other" wrong.

[palistov]

Well the push icon is basically a right hand pressing against an invisible object, so I just took that and mirrored it horizontally so it looks like a left hand, then positioned it so it looked like two hands pressing against an object. I'll upload a small video later probably to see if that sparks more interest in the topic. Because I too can't readily distinguish between the push and grab default icons without seeing them one after the other.

[Your Computer]

Well, instead of a hand you could have a body figure. That should definitely get the point across.

[palistov]

Hmm that's an idea. Thanks for the advice