Why are games so afraid of using colored button prompts in their UIs?

[Dolce]

Knowing that the A button is also green on an XBOX game or that X is also blue on a PlayStation game makes it so much easier to tell at a glance what button you're being asked to press. But for years now, no matter the console, I've noticed more and more games just making the UI black and white with no colors to indicate what button you're even pressing.

Are developers so afraid of colors that they think showing some colored button prompts is suddenly going to make their UI "childish" or "not slick" or something?

Good:

Bad:

 

[Deimos]

Colors are for babies.

 

[BionicDreamer]

Afraid? I'd say that the majority of games still use coloured ones.

 

[ghostcrew]

Big shout out to Yakuza: Like a Dragon button prompts that, not only are they coloured the right colours for the buttons, but they changed the action names to spell out SEGA for the western release.

 

[Maximus Odinson]

Misguided attempts at minimalism.

 

[TechnoSyndrome]

I assume it's part of the constant march towards minimalism in UI design in order to be more "cinematic". The PS5 controller doesn't even have colored buttons anymore so that's just what every prompt on PS5 is gonna look like.

 

[Redcrayon]

Perhaps it's something to do with awareness of red/green colourblindness which is why they prefer to prioritise the graphic icons on buttons and the positions of the buttons for tutorials. Either that or graphic designers with a preference for minimalism (something I find a bit annoying when squinting at yet more tiny text in a barely-legible thin san-serif font).

 

[Jaded Alyx]

Yeh well..

 

[Taco_Human]

I don't need more indicators for just 4 buttons thanks

 

[jaffaro]

Also. Why are console makers afraid of using colored buttons on their controllers?

 

[Zemst]

It's ugly I'm glad the people with taste took over.

 

[MaxAugust]

Because designers are sometimes more committed to their sleek modern A E S T H E T I C than to making things easier for the player. This is the kind of thing that helps a ton for people who don't plays games that much.

 

[nsilvias]

to please the i dont see color crowd.

 

[OzBoz]

I don't associate buttons with colors. I couldn't tell you what the Playstation button colors were.

I think it would be better if the buttons were labeled after their placement, like N W E S or U L R D. I don't look at my controller very often.

 

[Phoenix Splash]

I agree. It seems like they take it too seriously these days, even for a dang UI. I think about it each time they show button prompts when playing.

 

[ThereAreFourNaan]

Readability is for small, weak infants.

 

[xendless]

I mean it's pretty worthless for colourblind people
and at this point almost every controller type
Other than that I'd say Silent Hill Homecoming killed it dead, truly hideous

 

[SpoonyBob]

I just want PC games to be able to use PS Shapes button prompts... I never have been able to internalize the way Xbox's X/Y and A/B buttons are swapped from the SNES after playing that for so long as a kid.

 

[RockmanBN]

Minimalism is for dorks

 

[trashbandit]

Because it can mess with the overall presentation the developers were going for. However you feel about visual ui design, the popular direction over the last gen was to have the ui be as out of the way as possible, and not using button colors is probably part of that overall push.

 

[GamerJM]

I think part of it is accessibility for colorblind people, which makes sense, though I imagine still including the letters would mitigate that problem.

 

[I KILL PXLS]

It's purely an aesthetic choice. I get it, but no doubt it makes it less readable.

 

[KDR_11k]

Because the colors of the Playstation buttons are weird. It's like they wanted to avoid the SNES's primary colors at all costs and came up with weird shit.

 

[J75]

Honestly, the face buttons of the Dualsense themselves lacking color this time around is one of my biggest pet peeves of the controller.

 

[MegaRockEXE]

Perhaps it's something to do with awareness of red/green colourblindness which is why they prefer to prioritise the graphic icons on buttons and the positions of the buttons for tutorials. Either that or graphic designers with a preference for minimalism (something I find a bit annoying when squinting at yet more tiny text in a barely-legible thin san-serif font).

Click to shrink...

This here is the answer. I've seen position of buttons more and that is more clear because it doesn't require looking down at the controller to figure it out. They're all in a diamond shape now. Just tell me if it's the left or top button.

 

[Uzupedro]

It's probably better in some way? Not saying that designers or whoever decides this can't be wrong, but I don't think this choice is just for the lulz.
(correct me if I am wrong, designers or whoever decides this)

 

[Deleted member 679]

Xbox buttons are ugly as hell, so as a primarily PC player, I definitely prefer the white buttons.

I've never once went after Playstation button mods for games that don't have colored prompts.

 

[leng jai]

How about no giant controller buttons on the screen at all?

 

[Drayco21]

It looks really tacky and garish in some games. I think God of War was really smart to change button prompts in 3 to the side of the screen the button is oriented on; seems just as intuitive but less aesthetic clashing

 

[Combichristoffersen]

What self-respecting adult would be seen within a mile's radius of colour? Colours are for toddlers.

Probably just an aesthetic choice.

It looks really tacky and garish in some games. I think God of War was really smart to change button prompts in 3 to the side of the screen the button is oriented on; seems just as intuitive but less aesthetic clashing

Click to shrink...

I hated that shit. Made the QTEs unnecessarily hard compared to GoW 1 and 2 when you had to keep looking at the edges of the screen rather than what was happening in the middle. Shit sucked.

 

[lunarworks]

Perhaps it's something to do with awareness of red/green colourblindness which is why they prefer to prioritise the graphic icons on buttons and the positions of the buttons for tutorials. Either that or graphic designers with a preference for minimalism (something I find a bit annoying when squinting at yet more tiny text in a barely-legible thin san-serif font).

Click to shrink...

I like coloured prompts, but yes, this is the reason.

 

[Kent]

Considering that modern controllers all have a uniform face-button layout, highlighting the relative position in addition to this seems like the right call for the purposes of accessibility.

A lot of Nintendo games do this now for the Switch - though it's probably due to the ability to rotate the Joy-Cons - they highlight button prompts with the four buttons (unlabeled) with the one you should press being highlighted.

This can, of course, be adapted well to the game's UI. Bayonetta, as an example, has a very stylized representation of this for QTEs, even going so far back as the original game's first release in 2009.

For accessibility purposes, it sidesteps any issues regarding colorblind-accessibility, while also making the physical relation of the button's position relative to other buttons apparent.

 

[Hasney]

I just want PC games to be able to use PS Shapes button prompts... I never have been able to internalize the way Xbox's X/Y and A/B buttons are swapped from the SNES after playing that for so long as a kid.

Click to shrink...

More and more games are doing this. A ton are getting user mods too, so always have a Google if this is something you're interested in.

 

[Jaded Alyx]

I just want PC games to be able to use PS Shapes button prompts... I never have been able to internalize the way Xbox's X/Y and A/B buttons are swapped from the SNES after playing that for so long as a kid.

Click to shrink...

Some do natively. For others, mods are your friend.

Considering that modern controllers all have a uniform face-button layout, highlighting the relative position in addition to this seems like the right call for the purposes of accessibility.

A lot of Nintendo games do this now for the Switch - though it's probably due to the ability to rotate the Joy-Cons - they highlight button prompts with the four buttons (unlabeled) with the one you should press being highlighted.

This can, of course, be adapted well to the game's UI. Bayonetta, as an example, has a very stylized representation of this for QTEs, even going so far back as the original game's first release in 2009.

For accessibility purposes, it sidesteps any issues regarding colorblind-accessibility, while also making the physical relation of the button's position relative to other buttons apparent.

Click to shrink...

Yep, always thought this was the best way.

 

[Jimnymebob]

It looks really tacky and garish in some games. I think God of War was really smart to change button prompts in 3 to the side of the screen the button is oriented on; seems just as intuitive but less aesthetic clashing

Click to shrink...

I was just coming into this thread purely to complain about that nonsense lol.
If the dev wants me to press a button, just put it in my face, don't have me look around a screen to find it.

 

[IDreamOfHime]

There are no colour buttons on my dualsense or joycons. 🤷‍♂️

 

[zeuanimals]

I was just coming into this thread purely to complain about that nonsense lol.
If the dev wants me to press a button, just put it in my face, don't have me look around a screen to find it.

Click to shrink...

To each their own then. I found GOW 3's prompts to be just as quick and easy to read as an in your face prompt, and much less off putting.

 

[Duffking]

Positional is better than colour imo. Platinum are good for this, show if it's the left/right/top/bottom button.

 

[ClickyCal']

The Mario Odyssey UI is pretty jarring and ugly compared to the game it's a part of. All of the other mario UI's looked fun.

 

[Feep]

The Mario Odyssey UI is pretty jarring and ugly compared to the game it's a part of. All of the other mario UI's looked fun.

Click to shrink...

JoyCons do not have associated button colors and this would have been confusing. I actually think the Super Mario Odyssey UI is pretty good, if not particularly ambitious.

 

[RomanticHeroX]

I've owned every Xbox system since the original in 2001 and I don't think I could tell you with certainty what color each button is. Shapes are much easier to discern and distinguish, I think.

 

[jelly]

I absolutely hate non coloured controller buttons and this too OP.

 

[julia crawford]

because they are uggo

 

[Enduin]

Hate colored button prompts. During the PS3/360 days it was the worst since every game used the same generic button prompt icons it seemed. Especially bad PC when Xbox 360 controller became the standard and compatible with everything sucked since nearly every game would feature those same garish realistic copies of the Xbox buttons on screen no matter how much they clashed or didn't work with the overall style and UI of that game. Even now many games still used the same kind of generic generic Xbox One icons and I hate it.

Fine if you want to maintain the color association and element, but do it tastefully and don't use the same generic icons and create custom ones that match you UI and rest of the game's style. I vastly prefer the Diamond box approach with the button's position though. It's way way more useful than colors ever could be.

 

[Green]

Because skeuomorphism is in general bad/ugly UI. Especially when colour-coded because it's not accessible - a lot of men are colour blind, like 1 in 10 or something. Prompts are best when they're representing the function or location on the controller, not the colour of the button imo. Do most controllers even have coloured buttons anymore? Doesn't mean you can't have good neo/skeuomorphic UI, or that automatically doing it the other way is gonna give you good UI, though. I've seen plenty of games where I'm like, "wait... press... what?"

 

[Opposable]

The Mario Odyssey UI is pretty jarring and ugly compared to the game it's a part of. All of the other mario UI's looked fun.

Click to shrink...

I've no idea why the coins isn't gold/yellow and the purple currency isn't...purple

I swear I remember that was the case in the game

 

[IronFalcon1997]

Considering that modern controllers all have a uniform face-button layout, highlighting the relative position in addition to this seems like the right call for the purposes of accessibility.

A lot of Nintendo games do this now for the Switch - though it's probably due to the ability to rotate the Joy-Cons - they highlight button prompts with the four buttons (unlabeled) with the one you should press being highlighted.

Click to shrink...

I think this is the way to do it. Colors like that often get in the way of the visual cohesion of the game, and relative positioning eliminates any need to look at the controller, something color doesn't really do.

 

[YukiroCTX]

Dualsense has done away with colour so that was disappointing but I don't think colour is needed if the UI is done correctly. For example, I think Breath of the Wild is one of the few games which nails this. It's no colour, it's minimal but it shows all 4 faces but the highlight button necessary standout so you know which button you're meant to press. It doesn't necessarily work for all scenarios but I think it shows there's ways to mitigate and make things easier, Not everyone is able to associate colour with button faces I'm guessing either.

 

[Dogo Mojo]

I would think non colored buttons would be more accessible, I see a lot more people these days referencing being Colorblind, but I admit I don't know how much non colored button prompts help in cases like that.

 

[jelly]

Wouldn't putting more UI on screen instead of one visual/coloured prompt be worse though, like four face buttons, highlighting one?

As for being colourblind, they are still visually accessible with or without colour.