GUI systems.

Here is a collection of links to various sites I looked at regarding HUD, GUI and Menues

Menu systems

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=QCPWd7roTNw

H.U.D Systems

http://feedgrids.com/originals/post/a_look_through_14_beautiful_video_game_hud_designs


http://devmag.org.za/2011/02/02/video-game-user-interface-design-diegesis-theory/


fourth wall

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4086/a_circular_wall_reformulating_the_.php

Ui Design - what gamers wants

http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.php

Designing Your Organism Interface

• Look at your main avatar - "the hero". Describe how it feels to be the hero
  • Example: Badass, Confident, Fearless, Aware
    • Is your hero "aware" of being an elite soldier? You have to make sure the player feels aware! How do you handle enemies outside the screen, enemies behind the player, enemies behind trees, etc.?
• List the functions you know must be present in the UI (without regard to how it will eventually be implemented)
  • Example: Crosshair, Health, Ammo, Mini-map, Weapons inventory, Objective locator
• Start designing a preliminary interface
  • Map your "must haves" to different interface methods, diegetic, HUD, etc.
• Review your preliminary design by asking: "Will this UI allow me to be aware of 1, 2, 3 and will I feel A, B, C when I do it?"
• Iterate on your UI design until you can answer the above question "yes!"
  • Remember that UI comes in many forms, Audio, Animation, HUD, effects - mix it up!

(Where 1, 2, and 3 are your must have functions and A, B, and C are how it should feel to be the hero.)
In the last step you are bringing the avatar and the organism together by designing interface solutions that will make the player actually feel and behave the part assigned by the game.
It could be argued that "feeling badass" is not mainly achieved with UI but that depend mostly on the interpretation of UI. It might not be achieved with a 1999 HUD, but with a skillful implementation of various UI components from various categories tailored to fit the experience I would argue UI has everything to do with feeling badass!

Exerpt from :
http://www.gamasutra.com/view/feature/4286/game_ui_discoveries_what_players_.phpAge Of Empires 3: UI 
 





Diagnostics on the bottom. Map, Health of Units, skills of units at the side...

Unit specifics are located in the middle.


The panel which changes the most is the right hand side panel. This panel is for Unit orders and skills.

A quick break down of the AoE3 HUD