/v/ - Modern UI design is soulless, difficult, and homogeneous. Why?

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Vidya Gaems

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Modern UI design is soulless, difficult, and homogeneous. Why? Anonymous 05/16/2025 (Fri) 16:56:43 Id: e4916b No. 1366043

Not just a video games issue, but it's the medium that's taken it the worst. Attached are the new, actual UIs for the upcoming titles Marathon and Borderlands 4. This shit is inexcusably bad. Marathon's menus look like programmer art for a game that is supposedly coming out this year. This is likely in line with nu-Marathon's art style of simplistic bright colors. I don't think that excuses it looking like shit, though. Halo Reach, another one of Bungie's games, had minimalist UI design that looked gorgeous and fit well with the aesthetic of the games. Borderlands was never a star in user interface, but their new attempt is disgusting, and many people have called it out for poorly copying Destiny. Compare this to it's previous titles. Borderlands 1 has a stylized, albeit cluttered menu. Borderlands 2 keeps the style but makes it cleaner, easier to read, and diegetic. Borderlands 3 makes it too clean, but keeps it diegetic and usable. The menu in Borderlands 4 is disgusting. It's incredibly generic, it turns the stats into mysterious icons, turns the gun selection into a radial menu (???) and overall does not fit stylistically.

Anonymous 05/17/2025 (Sat) 18:44:52 Id: d92568 No. 1370194

I remember seeing this and similarly comparable UI's and it angered me on a primordial level. Obviously its devoid of creativity, but its such a huge departure from the ones shown in prior games whether they be from this franchise or from other ones. Skyrims another game that just looked corporate driven and that was 2011.

Anonymous 05/17/2025 (Sat) 19:42:01 Id: 15ac4a No. 1370448

>>1370194 Outside of aesthetics and music Skyrim is by committee garbage. It's so fucking bad I regret ever playing it and I wish I got those hours back. What an awful grind of a game.

Anonymous 05/17/2025 (Sat) 23:15:43 Id: 5f4362 No. 1371123

Older UIs were looking to further immerse you into a game and the setting. Newer UIs are more about communicating the systems and treadmills the game has. In a game like Runescape, an animal skin is an item your character is carrying in his backpack, while in a modern Far Cry game, said item is just the first step in a treadmill that ends with a larger inventory size. The problem isn't just modern UIs, but the way modern audiences and developers conceptualize what video games are and how they should be. Older games were like an adventure in a digital realm and everything about them reflected that. Newer games are just algorithms with an art direction tacked onto them, as an interchangeable wrapper, which may explain why they're often seen as soulless (which they are).

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 00:25:39 Id: a1759e No. 1371312

>>1369965 >Likely because certain groups of developers approach games as software rather than art. They are to an extent. In fact, that's how many of the "Best" early game developers in the West approached game development. As a method to push software (And on occasion hardware) evolution. >>1370183 >The stagnation of modern UI design could very well also be blamed on the stagnation of modern game design itself - everyone's just copying what's already worked, with little care for standing out or doing something new in favor of playing it safe. "Is it" working, though? I'm being dead serious. Is the industry "standard" actually working? Take something like we take for granted or is "standard" in today's industry like the concept of how FPS controls are designed in modern games: left stick for movement and right stick for camera control. Is that actually a good design choice? Because I have played many shooters from the fifth and sixth gen where that isn't the standard control scheme. Some of them operate on the principle of tank controls, occasionally with a combination of locking-on to targets. And these games turn out to be a lot of fun. So is it actually "Better" to do something that's "standard"?

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 00:51:47 Id: c58a4a No. 1371399

>>1370194 Skyrim in particular was jarring. By that time in my life, I had only played Morrowind, and only a little bit. But the entire premise of Skyrim (I pirated at launch because 'oh look famous game') was "medieval fantasy game." And then I opened up the menu and saw everything was set in fucking FUTURA, the same font used in K. A. Applegate's "Remnants" series of sci-fi teen books. It really threw me for a fucking loop.

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 01:30:51 Id: 6bbdf8 No. 1371556

>>1366087 The UI in the new Zelda games is tragic. It's so, so bad.

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 03:14:24 Id: 0056e8 No. 1371857

>>1371556 I agree. That along with this open world, no dungeon BS makes me very hesitant to play it.

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 03:49:09 Id: c58a4a No. 1371940

>>1371857 It's not that BOTW is a bad game. It's just the furthest afield Zelda game ever made, in a way.

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 04:18:21 Id: 6142fa No. 1372047

Factorio's GUI just works

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 15:04:36 Id: 6a9222 No. 1375196

>>1366043 Excessive compartmentalization, poor internal communication, horrendous leadership. Corpos not only have completely different teams working on the game proper and on the UI, but also put so many meetings and documents and formalities and managers-in-the-middle between the two it's a miracle if any coordination still manages to happen. And that's if they don't outsource the whole UI side of things.

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 17:04:10 Id: 9939d1 No. 1375584

>>1371940 I tried picking up BOTW again after putting it down during the pandemic. My first thought after about 20 minutes of play was "I forgot how boring this game was"

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 17:23:45 Id: 15ac4a No. 1375676

>>1371123 They're discardable garbage with no atmosphere or attention to detail. Systems just exist to pad out the game

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 19:15:34 Id: 3caaa1 No. 1376101

>>1370194 Skyrim is probably the first AAA example of a terrible flatshit ui

Anonymous 05/18/2025 (Sun) 23:33:54 Id: e4916b No. 1376763

>>1371123 Ehh Red Dead Redemption exists. Far Cry is just an arcadey franchise that (aside from 2) doesn't bother with immersion

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 01:37:13 Id: 433176 No. 1377023

>>1371312 >"Is it" working, though? I mean, no? That's why people are generally dissatisfied with AAA games and how homogenized they feel. It's sort of why this thread exists. >Is that actually a good design choice? I wouldn't say so, I simply think standards become standards because they're easy to copy and apply to games in lieu of creating something new. >So is it actually "Better" to do something that's "standard"? No, and I don't think so -- that's sort of the point I was getting at. Games that are classics or memorable are so because the people who made them were willing to take a chance and try something new, or keep to their ~~autistic~~ artistic vision despite pressure from the industry or their contemporaries.

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 01:50:14 Id: 15ac4a No. 1377064

>>1376763 FarCry 1 was extremely immersive

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 02:06:46 Id: 9cbe00 No. 1377106

Do you prefer games where you can just toggle UI elements fully or mostly off? There are few games that do this natively. I had a mod on Dragon's Dogma that toggled the UI layer off entirely, even menus.

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 03:10:18 Id: a1759e No. 1377256

>>1377106 >Do you prefer games where you can just toggle UI elements fully or mostly off? Just started playing Fuel, where half of the UI can be toggled on and off with the push of a button, and '''OH GOD, YES! I didn't realize how bullshit and distracting game UIs were until I realized that I could just turn the fucking things off. The only problem with a game like Fuel is that you kind of need it because of how easily you can be lost without even the damn compass (But that's also a problem that could have been solved had the mini-map had the compass attached to it).

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 06:49:28 Id: 868e40 No. 1377766

>>1370194 Seeing Skyrim UI menu makes me angry every time i see it. RPGMaker hentai games have a better looking UI than this. They put not zero, but negative effort while making this: Their goal was to normalize ugly, lazy and boring UIs and they succeeded at that. Now every single game is like this. God i hate Skyrim. I FUCKING HATE SKYRIM AND I WISH ONLY THE SLOWEST, MOST PAINFUL DEATH UPON ALL THE NORMALNIGGERS WHO ATE IT!

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 08:15:37 Id: d53bdd No. 1377864

>>1366514 I liked all the variety of Claptrap units in BL1. A shame they all got wiped out in favor of the main Claptrap we have now, but I guess it makes sense as that is the closest the series has to a mascot besides Lilith. Meanwhile, yeah the older UIs work well, although I do feel like, they have a lot more wasted space as the series goes on? I'm not sure if that's just to account for some vault hunters are going to be really big, ditto for weapons looking small on BL4's UI right now. However, I do like that they are accounting a bit better for the weapon tool tips, making them float rather than like, covering up your entire vault hunter. It's not shown in the images, but the skills screen does feel just about right given how enormous they are in 4.

Anonymous 05/19/2025 (Mon) 12:35:16 Id: 8118f1 No. 1378198

>>1370183 > you'd find generally better UI design I think using a word like "better" is a bit tricky here, because to be better means you've employed some measure to objectively categorize one over the other, which is why we are in this problem in the first place. They're using things like seconds spent, which is an objective metric, to justify their flat design decisions. >How is this UI better than the other? <Well it's easy cause user tests saw particpants spent 10% less time in menus <Feedback from participants said the UI was easier to read >Thanks Dev! Ship it to the final version If we make discussions about art, we would say that these UIs employ a flat technique the produces an unremarkable experience, but Indie UIs have a larger range of expression, some which enhance the stylistic synergy of the game with all of its elements. This sin't a criticism of your point, but I think is a common trap that people talking about games can fall into. >>1371312 > As a method to push software (And on occasion hardware) evolution. I don't doubt that, but if a game like Mario 64 used 3D acceleration to just make the same 2d style of gameplay just with a 3d model, It wouldn't be as impactful. The technology is in service of the game. This is beside the point though as UI elements rarely have innovative features that new technology needs to be utilized to make possible.

Anonymous 05/20/2025 (Tue) 01:18:05 Id: 2e8f6d No. 1380730

The only thing that matters is that the most amount of people possible can read the menus.

Anonymous 05/20/2025 (Tue) 03:13:50 Id: dab858 No. 1381043

>>1380730 They can't even do that nowadays Most normalfags can barely use the bloated menus.

Anonymous 05/22/2025 (Thu) 23:45:31 Id: 5f4362 No. 1391655

Turns out this is all just part of a bigger trend known as "refinement culture", which can be summed up as everything getting optimized to the point of sameness. https://web.archive.org/web/20250118073931/https://lindynewsletter.beehiiv.com/p/refinement-culture

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 00:03:43 Id: bb06a6 No. 1391692

>>1391655 >optimized <not cheaping out on designers because every godforsaken cent must get into shareholder ass crack

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 00:14:27 Id: b33c18 No. 1391706

Who cares? All this whining about modern games, but the best examples of SOVL UIs are from modern Persona games. Particularly Persona 5 and P3 remake.

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 01:17:19 Id: 2a5818 No. 1391797

>>1391692 Its more about readability than anything. Even for these bland ass images, They likely paid thousands in order to research, design, and comission it. If we understand that people cannot readily read cursive, or even if people have hard times reading text on their phone, it illuminates why these brands have shifted to something plainer and readable from even 1000 feet away.

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 02:40:22 Id: e4916b No. 1391931

>>1391692 >cheaping out These """designers""" get paids tens of thousands for this shit

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 02:43:48 Id: 8a869a No. 1391938

>>1391655 >all of the fonts are just varieties of Arial now What the fuck.

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 03:09:19 Id: 7712d7 No. 1391997

>>1391655 >>1391938 >single global communist government unifies all aspects of existence under its direct, centralized rule >literally print books about this centuries ago saying this is what they will do >people still act surprised when it happens Amazing. They almost deserve to win.

Anonymous 05/23/2025 (Fri) 06:50:35 Id: 086c03 No. 1392504

>>1391706 If only the Persona games were half as soulful as they were back in PSX days.

Anonymous 05/24/2025 (Sat) 02:33:41 Id: 845d12 No. 1395751

Game devs are now soulless giant machines with way too many chefs, and too many hoops to jump through to let any real artists originality shine. As a result the menus are boring and "safe"

Anonymous 05/24/2025 (Sat) 14:17:34 Id: 619ec3 No. 1397106

>>1377106 Depends on the game, but yeah this is a really nice feature if it's per-element. I really don't like auto-hiding HUDs though which is a more common trend in the industry, just takes it out of my control. One of my favorite things about Day's Gone was it's "survivor" mode tying your UI visibility to a stamina system of sorts and you having to press a button and "focus" to bring it up, getting hit or other things disrupting your focus taking you out of it. Another thing that really gets my goat is when devs make the UI worse from entry to entry when trying to modernize it, like what happened to Monster Hunter when going from GU to World and from Rise to Wilds. I don't care if I get a stupid item wheel I'll never fucking use it doesn't make up for how clunky everything else was made.

Anonymous 05/24/2025 (Sat) 21:17:55 Id: 7712d7 No. 1398256

>>1398182 >>1398192 It's a disservice to Germany to claim that they are responsible for this. It sure as shit wasn't ethnic Germans. ✡Bruno Taut✡ and ✡Erich Mendelsohn✡ were the architects responsible. They detested traditional German styles, choosing to subvert rather than imbue. Mendelsohn explicitly advocated “creative internationalism” in architecture that “dissolves borders and brings people together.” There was a conscious and purposeful movement to destroy objective beauty in art and architecture.

Anonymous 07/04/2025 (Fri) 03:39:36 Id: 15ac4a No. 1530160

>>1398256 >Mendelsohn's Einsteinturm That shit is top tier though

Anonymous 07/04/2025 (Fri) 04:45:34 Id: 1a214d No. 1530444

>>1391797 >If we understand that people cannot readily read cursive >people Well they're genus Homo at least.

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