Starfield launched at the start of the fall of 2023, and despite its initial accolades, parts of the game felt hollow or “missing”. This lack of visual design would also be a trending theme in other game areas like shipbuilding and crafting. For this project, I’ll focus specifically on redesigning the Inventory UI for the game.
CLIENT: Personal Project
ROLE: UI/Ux, Visual Designer
TEAM: Solo Project
TIMELINE: TWO months
Create an interface that falls more in line with traditional RPG UI designs
Make usability similar if not the same between PC and Console
Simplify navigation between different menu screens
If we evaluate the past twenty years of UI design in BGS games, we’ll see a common theme: progressive simplification. Item details and visual designs were drastically simplified for mass appeal, often at the expense of different usability experiences between console and PC game versions. As such, the problems to tackle are the following:
REDDIT
The best way to get the opinions of the people who play Starfield religiously is to go places where they complain about it constantly. The Starfield subreddit yielded plenty of “constructive criticism” in the way of some of the UI choices Bethesda made
NexusMods
Going to the modding archiving site NexusMod, I came across one mod that improves the usability of the inventory system called StarUI. There are clear takeaways that can give insight into what kind of usability players want out of their inventory interface.
Redesigned User Flow
The user flow of navigating through the main menu to the inventory is straightforward. The important feature to implement is the seamless transition between all the submenus within the Inventory.
Visual Inspiration
The visual inspiration comes from popular RPG titles with extensive inventories. The pros and cons of each will serve as a starting point for my iterations while retaining as much of Starfield’s art direction.
Design Iterations
I made three separate mockups of the initial inventory screen with various layouts.
Inspired by The Witcher, Destiny, and Baldur'S Gate 3
"Middleground" - Witcher/Destiny Mix
"Minimalist" - Destiny Inspired
"Full Functionality" - Witcher/BG3 Inspired
Community Feedback
I presented all three mockups on the Starfield subreddit with explanations of their inspirations and was immediately flooded with a few hundred comments of feedback.
The takeaways from my designs were the following:
“Middleground” and “Full Functionality” proved to be the most popular because they appeared management-focused. However, the layouts also felt cluttered.
“Minimalist” liked the clean look and layout and intuitive nature.
People preferred data readouts of their items as opposed to icon/slot representations.
There’s a small minority who prefer Starfield’s stock/vanilla UI with its singular list style
After hearing the feedback on the initial designs, I decided to rethink my approach to inventory management and focus on improving the usability rather than changing the aesthetics.
Menu Landing Screen
The landing screen has been completely changed to fit with the in-game Constellation watch-face design seen on the main HUD. It gives basic character information on general stats and current location. The overall pause menu is navigable through a menu carousel to additional pages.
Inventory Submenu
The landing page for the inventory submenu is similarly designed to the base game menu interface. Each section of the navigation gives a readout of any equipped items or statuses relative to each section.
The goal is to give detailed but general information on current stats from each category upfront so players can progress to where they need to go immediately.
Equipment & Weapons Submenus: The design expanded on the list format in the vanilla game but made more orderly use of organization and information. When an item is highlighted, it’s previewed to the side, with expanded item information below the lists.
Supplies Submenu: The supplies submenu keeps track of any consumables and crafting materials, organizing them into four areas: Aid, Food, Resources, and Trade. The Trade area automatically collects any items in the overall inventory marked for Junk or items that are generally unusable by the player, like clutter items or non-usable contraband, which can all be sold in one go.
In formulating what I wanted out of Starfield’s UI versus what people wanted, I’ve learned that designs are INCREDIBLY subjective. Finding a middle ground that meets simplicity, clear item information, and inventory management seemed to be drastically challenging. The endgame is usability and design with the user in mind. But somehow, the diversity of needs between players makes this more difficult. Maybe ignoring much of the wants and focusing only on the needs is the only recourse. My takeaway is that this is all subjective, and without hands-on testing, rather than the polling that I’ve done thus far on Reddit, the process is only marginally helpful in practice.
