10 Things You Didn’t Know About Video Game UI
2. Legibility First, Aesthetics Second
They say there’s a real overlap between graphic design and UI creation, which is absolutely true in one key area - legibility always comes first.
It sounds so simple, yet bad UI is quite often bad because it forgets this fundamental principle. A player should be able to read the UI’s information with the most rapid of glimpses. If the player has to stop to ask, “is that a one, or a seven?” for even a second, the UI designer has failed.
Have you ever played a game with UI that’s just... bloated, overly-ornate, and draws your attention in the wrong way?
Maybe it’s a gothic game where the HUD has beautifully-painted gargoyles on it, and you can’t stop ogling at their fantastically-rendered claws, even as your character is getting absolutely slaughtered in-game. Or maybe it’s just outrageously large or gaudy.
UI is in service of the player, and good UI doesn’t need to be invisible, it should merely feel invisible.
In that regard, it should be graphically subtle, practical, and elegant, and the more you can strip it back to its essence - the essential elements - the higher chance you have of having a readable, clear, efficient UI.