what is a good gui?

[Anym]

As statusbars seems to be generally liked and accepted (don't worry, I like them too, I just have a question about them), what to do about hotspots which would usually be "scenery", and for which the fact that they are a hotspot alone is like a neon sign saying "you're going to have to do something with this"?

For example in Two of a Kind which I was playing when I thought about this...

Spoiler

...there is grass behind the Gilberts' store. Of course, there is also grass everywhere else (the farm, the bar,...), but there it isn't a hotspot, as it wouldn't be in most other adventure games, so I knew that I was very likely that I would have to cut grass or fertilize grass or something during the course of the game.

[close]

That wasn't the first time I noticed something like that though, I'm sure I've seen it in commercial games before, but I can't seem to remember them. Other examples would be appreciated.

So, is this something to be worried about? Is there a way to avoid this? Making the hotspot appear only once you know you have to interact with it would proably be much worse, so that's out of the question, I think. Anything else?

[prowler]

well there is the alternative to add more 'unnecesary' hotspots, so that the player would stop thinking in terms of 'this is a hotspot so it has to be useful in the game'..

of course, this solution could become annoying if used without measure, as the screen could be invaded by hotspots

[Kikutaâ„¢]

For me , the best Gui is that kind of Gui that you show to a person who never played any kind of point and click games, and see her working with it.

My favorite kind of Gui is from the game The Longest Journey. Another gui i like was from Monkey Island 3 .

[JimmyShelter]

I like the Lucas Arts gui the best, especially with the statusbar. It feels like you control the actions if you see what's going to happen.
One problem is which verbs he include, the 'push' and 'pull' verbs are a bit redundant. Maybe a distinction between 'look' and 'examine' for the distinction between a glance, and a thorough inspection would be nice.

Coin Guis can work, but only if they work fast. In 'A Tale of Betrayal' for example had a 'slow' coin, and that bugged the hell out of me.

Another thing I like about the Lucas Arts guis is the fact that your inventory is always visible, so you can see at any moment which things you carry around.