This is quite old, but since I’m on the subject of user interface design on FPS games, I was researching a little more on the thing and found a designer diary about the user interface design decisions involved in EA Games’ Medal of Honor: Pacific Assault. It’s wrote by Ed Moore, Multiplayer Design Lead on the game. Here’s a quote:
It took me a while to find a “rhythm” but once I overcame the inertia, the Interface Spec really started to evolve. Through multiple iterations of layout, review, discussion, and revision between me and my senior producer, Matt Powers, we started to hash out what this was going to be. Neither of us really had any sort of background in interface design or really knew what we were doing. Although we had consulted with interface designers, as well as people in academia studying for doctorates in human/computer interfaces, we were driving relatively blind and it was slow going at times. One paradox we faced was making the interface convenient and accessible for casual gamers, while still offering the depth and complexity advanced or “power” users demand from their multiplayer games. Another big challenge was to constantly encourage users to “authenticate” or register to create online accounts or personas (necessary in order to provide buddy list and stat-tracking services).