Some questions about game ui design

SweeTing

Hello! I am now a college student, and recently I have been studying the design of game UI. At the beginning of the design, I have a lot of ideas in my head, which allows me to make drawings very quickly. However, recently when I tried to make new work, my mind went blank and I felt that the work I made was very bad. I'd like to ask you for help. Thank you! (Attached recent movement chart, some data from the Internet)

Pinkfox

Hey @SweeTing !

I realize you asked this quite a bit ago so apologies if it isn't still relevant, but I wanted to chime in to provide some insight on this. I've been where you are now. At times the ideas are flowing and other times the well runs dry, it can be hard to overcome!

When it comes to UI, the easiest place to gain inspiration is to think of a problem and then look to solve. That's the essence of UI for games after all, there is a communication problem between the game and the player that needs to be solved. Thinking of a problem you'd like to solve, even a simple one, will give you a point to start at. For instance, here are some extremely common ones for a HUD:

• How do we communicate the character's health to the player?
• How do we direct the player to where they need to go? Minimap, in-world marker, something else?
• How do we inform the player their character has leveled up?

Every part of UI has a question like this behind it. Once you have a problem you'd like to pursue you then just need to consider the style of the game you're wanting to look at. Is it a third person shooter like The Division? A first person shooter like Valorant? Perhaps a side scroller like Megaman? These give you perspective on how to approach the design while also providing the constraints to what types of solutions will work.

Another beneficial thing to attempt is to create some UI that matches the style of an existing game. For example, how might you approach solving the problems I listed above in Cyberpunk 2077's style? That game has an existing styleguide which can make for some interesting challenges in how you create something compelling while staying cohesive with other UI elements that already exist.

Hopefully that helps a little and you keep up the awesome work! Always love seeing others venture into game UI.