Guild Wars 2

My eyes glittered when I saw the work. It transformed the dull ui to something exciting! Would be nice to have a new crafting ui too…

I find the PDF unreadable as it puts two panels on each page.

As someone who works with websites, i LOVE the website design
Please, Lore Journal is a must ANET!

Loved the story and lore panels.

I think you overdid on the guild and hero panels though.
It’s a cool concept, but you need to clean them a bit, its way too crowded.

Hope Anet sees this and considers potential updates to the UI.

@Pixelpumpkin.4608 @MakubeC.3026 @Malkavian.4516 @Orpheal.8263 @Zalman.8719 @The Tee Why.4807 @Incognito.3529 @sawworm.8749 @Dwaynas Avatar.1562 @DestroyerElf.5372 @Royal Hammer.7621 @Knighthonor.4061 @BenGrech.3912
Thank you guys, really glad my hard work wasn’t a waste, thanks again

@Andred.1087 We can dream, who knows they might have some UI changes done in GW2 HOT

@Farming Flats.5370 @Azzer.8137
thank you the reason why I didn’t add class restrictions is due to knowing that ANET doesn’t want to separate the playerbase, I remember when fractals were introduced and everyone was looking for warriors, that wasn’t fun especially if you had only a character.

@cheshader.5081 Yes that’s build templates you’ve noticed there, there are a lot of other hidden things scattered in the design that I knew the community wanted. Thanks for the honest feedback and yes it would require 2 clicks, I had to compromise, in order to make it more friendly for new players and yes those rectangles would be a lot easier to click then the current dungeon text

@SettusBlake.1689 Thanks for your feedback, I understand why it may be confusing for some people, however there was a a “quick fix” that I mentioned there, which would solve the main problem with the hero panel, which is going back & forth between tabs. By implementing that, they could keep the existing Hero Panel UI.

@Kuruptz.4782 If the links don’t work, try again a little bit later (might be the server although you’re the first one to report that they can’t see them ) or maybe in a different browser.

@Erick Alastor.3917 glad you liked it and don’t worry I’m passioate about design and this wasn’t a waste of time, just wanted to do something different that I haven’t done for years

@Donari.5237 exactly, it was more for fun since I mostly due web & mobile work and this was something unique in a different art style that I haven’t done in a while. I’m really passionate about design and everything I do it’s from pure passion.

@Nick.6972 thank you, I only did it to diversify my portfolio and hopefully point out some issues that I’ve noticed, which hopefully will get fixed when they have time and thus it would improve the overall day to day activities.

@leman.7682 Thank you for the kind and flattering comment

@Darketower.5218 Exactly, that’s exactly what I wanted since currently the website and the in-game are somehow different in style, although I respect ANET for wanting to keep it simple and readable (white background) I just think there are way better alternatives.

@Miltek.2104 thx for the feedback, due note that it might also feel cluttered due to all the information that’s present. I might upload the UI’s that are displayed in the actual game setting, since I’ve designed them over actual game screenshots.

@Bunnikk.2146 those are valid suggestions that I will take into consideration, unfortunately at this time I don’t have anymore free time since I’m job hunting and finishing some other projects and thus I don’t have enough free time, since I still have to pay the bills. Thank you though for your suggestions and for taking the time to point them out.

@mrauls.6519 You and all the rest made my day, thank you for that

@PeskyJNixon.8236 Sorry about that, played a lot of MMO’s in the past month until the living world finished so I could go though it from start to finish and thus forgot that they are called professions, my bad and glad you like it

Hire this man. I have no idea how the author of the current in-game UI managed to make the simplest concepts both over-complicated AND visually unappealing. Honestly it looks like someone had an odd taste for bland tables or didn’t know better.

I am curious to know something. I was told in college that my portfolio couldn’t contain copyrighted material unless I actually had permission to use it commercially. Ie say I did an ad for Coke I could use that. But I couldn’t use a mocked up ad for Coke that used their assets. Granted this is graphic design and advertising but doesn’t this field have rules for this too? As in you can only use generic names and companies for mock ups?

I can’t even open the links, they keep loading forever.

Farzo.8410:

I can’t even open the links, they keep loading forever.

Please try again later, try in a different browser or it might be a hosting issue since those links were already viewed by 5000 people and growing fast and thus it might stress the web server, hopefully it won’t go down.

Great job! But I really hope Anet won’t make anything close to this tbh. O_O
There’s way too many pictures and I’m actually got lost in Hero Panel.

This stuff looks really great!

NeHoMaR.9812:

You must know the “get used” factor it’s extremely important. If you are going to add usability to the UI, you can’t change everything radically. Also, the style of the design should make you know immediately you are in a GW2 website or ingame, being unique, and not similar at all to any other game.

Anyway, the work is good, you could even work for ArenaNet, but is easier when you design with your own tools/software than actually adding that to an existing game.

Thank you for the comment, yes I’m aware of progressively updating the UI’s in order to retain the users familiarity with it and not actually backfire and make them rage quit . However that aspect is more regarding the actual delivery of the UI elements, since as you’ve probably seen ANET has been releasing slowly updates to the UI in order to get users accustomed to it and ease the transition.

The current redesign would be delivered in phases in order to make the existing users comfortable with the UI and yes exactly, there should be a strong relationship between the look & feel of the website and the actual game, in order to keep the users familiarity and too make it more immersive, that’s what I tried to achieve with the two redesigns. I could have designed something completely different but that wouldn’t have fit the existing art style/art direction as well as made the users transition extremely difficult.

Looks super good and most important it makes things more easier and convenient!

This is incredibly well done and I love it.

My only criticism would be that it still takes a lot of clicks to switch between things in the Hero panel (e.d. Dyes, Wardrobe, Miniature, etc.)

I like the quick fix suggestion. I agree that defaulting to the equipment panel and changing the back button to a drop-down would be better for interaction. While I like the presentation that you’ve done and respect the work put into it, I disagree with doing a redesign. I think a lot of the things on the redesigned main panel don’t belong there, which is why they have their own panels, though those panels could use their own work. With the deluge of “it’s so awesome” comments I feel I’m in the minority and don’t particularly want to post my reasons why.

This looks amazing, I want it! Especially the lore tab.

I finally got the stuff to load and I looked it through. I would say it looks decent.

But it also looks very cluttered with pictures on everything. Making pictures on everything is not always good.

I disagree with the wording about “Buy Dungeon Runs”. I don’t think Anet wants to encourage that. I would change it to “Experienced”, or something along those lines.

This is amazing! Arena should really hire this guy for the job.

The concept is decent, I like the dungeon tab solution using images; makes it much more interesting. A lot of the tabs (particularly the Hero Tab) are both overcrowded and communicated poorly, I think.

If this is for your portfolio, there’s a few things you should work on. A lot of it is just the existing UI copied and pasted in a different layout. This doesn’t show off your ability to make a UI, it shows your ability to rearrange one.

It looks particularly amateurish when you can tell that the majority of UI elements are just copy and pasted.
Instead of copying and pasting bits, try recreating the style yourself. This will make it easier to design as well.

You’ve also got inconsistent button design in a lot of places; there’s about 3 or 4 different button styles. The “Back” button design, for example, doesn’t fit with the rest of the UI.

Basically, it could do with some polishing and refinement. I’d also steer very clear of super large images for presentation. You’d be better off making a webpage to link to which would showcase the work in the best way.

The website design, however, looks great. Far more interesting than the existing one.

I looked over the links, no matter what happens that Lore section is a ‘needs to happen’.
One of the biggest things that pulled some players here was the Lore.
It tends to get difficult when trying to explain all the Season 1 stuff to a new player.
That would be invaluable.

Anet do it now!

Oh the week is starting GW2 exiting. The design is very well done. Not perfect but it should be considered and done!

William C.6195:

The concept is decent, I like the dungeon tab solution using images; makes it much more interesting. A lot of the tabs (particularly the Hero Tab) are both overcrowded and communicated poorly, I think.

If this is for your portfolio, there’s a few things you should work on. A lot of it is just the existing UI copied and pasted in a different layout. This doesn’t show off your ability to make a UI, it shows your ability to rearrange one.

It looks particularly amateurish when you can tell that the majority of UI elements are just copy and pasted.
Instead of copying and pasting bits, try recreating the style yourself. This will make it easier to design as well.

You’ve also got inconsistent button design in a lot of places; there’s about 3 or 4 different button styles. The “Back” button design, for example, doesn’t fit with the rest of the UI.

Basically, it could do with some polishing and refinement. I’d also steer very clear of super large images for presentation. You’d be better off making a webpage to link to which would showcase the work in the best way.

The website design, however, looks great. Far more interesting than the existing one.

Thank you for your detailed feedback, I’m a UX UI designer, part of being a UX (user experience) designer involves rearranging the elements as well as thinking of flows, how users interact with other elements, what happens when a user clicks on a button or mouses over and so on. As a UX designer I’m not required to create any visual designs, but instead improve the flow, user interactions, users navigation and so on, thus the reason why some elements look “copy-pasted”, since I thought that those UI elements were already present and did a great job thus it would keep the users familiarity with the UI.

On the UI side, it’s where it becomes visual, this is the part of the job that involves creating new assets that blend well with the existing app or new UI’s that stand out and feel fresh. Since there was already a UI in place, thus not talking about a new product, I had to design some elements that would fit the art direction. I could have completely redesigned the entire UI, however that would have impacted the existing users, making them flee or feel lost, that’s why most major website don’t completely change the UI. This ensures that users still get the same experience as before although from time to time small changes are made.

I thought of creating a page for the presentation, however this requires coding, saving images, copy-pasting the information, tweaking the page, optimizing and so on. Plus in some cases when I send my portfolio, clients don’t have time to click on each project but prefer to browse my portfolio fast, while some require to bring the portfolio to the interview and so on, thus why I aimed for a pdf / big jpg approach.

Thank you once again for the in-depth feedback and taking the time to view my project.

Great Job man!…….

My favourite part was probably the character lore section with the pictures as it reminded me of those old dungeon rpg style games where you had a monster guide with everything you have fought with information and images so this was an instant A+.

To me i thought the whole design was nice but i felt it didn’t really fit the game, i believe the more boxed and modern style only really works for sites and ui’s on tablets or touch devices. It looked nice but personally for me, I don’t spend enough time looking at the ui’s to be bothered by their design, well except for the hero panel which i thought looked stunning.

Fellow UX & Front End Designer here. First: Amazing Job! Second, that is an amazing Interface, but it does not feel like gw2 at all.

I think, you incorporated some of your own visions for the brand. While I think this is totally fine, I also think that you transformed the brand into something that feels silent and restrained, into something bold and loud. I personally don’t like that.
The branding itself provides enough space for the player to bring their own vision and emotions into the game and to reflect a lot of their own experiences onto this blank space.

I don’t wanna write too much stuff here about the design, because I don’t want you to think of me as condescending. I think you did an amazing job, but I don’t think that it feels like GW2 at all – especially the website, because it is to chaotic. The Color Palette is very restrictive, even though the general design doesn’t seem to be too restrictive about that. You could easily replace the greyish-green with something else or make it white.

But for the Hero Panel, I think you did very well. I don’t generally agree with grouping the accessories with the armor & weapon equipment – but I see what you are intending and it is totally legit to take that route. Putting frequently used actions onto the first screen seems like a good idea, but it actually splits up familiar actions.

Old: Managing Guilds > Guild Panel [G]
New: Managing Guilds > Hero Panel [G]

That is the same for titles. Titles are acquired by completing achievements, found in the Hero Panel / Achievements. Showing the Title in the Character Panel is very convenient, but it also forces the user to discover the other panels, that he’ll need, on another route. That is an additional learning curve. You generally should try to avoid that. The same goes for the Crafting & the Order.

One thing that is also very important to mention, is that your approach brings in a very big inconsistency. All the micromanagement in guild wars 2 follows the same layout: Clicking (performing action) on the left Side of the Window, watching the result on the right side of the window. That is the same in almost any panel, that needs a lot of clicking. Story, Character, Crafting, Bank, etc. You could also say it, that you perform actions on the left side, and you can manage the result on the right side. (Crafting, Bank)
One big Inconsistency here is the Pvp-Panel, that actually lets you perform the action on the very top of the panel. But that is not a problem, because the nature of the action is different. Here, you don’t actually manage selected data or filter anything, you change your players circumstances; You change your gamemode. That is supposed to have a prominent place.

Same goes for the secondary tabs in the character panel (Wardrobe, Finishers, etc). The user defines his selection from the left to the right. Hero Panel – Character Panel – Wardrobe – Perform Action → Result. I wouldn’t break up this very big consistency, unless you do it for everything and bring another consistency in. Because the goal is, to keep the learning curve as flat as possible and avoid additional curves.

Now for the other Panels, I honestly have to say, it feels like you didn’t spend as much time on them, as you have on the Hero Panel. While the Hero Panel visually stays the same, the other Panels including the Website introduce the player to a whole new style. I don’t think that is your intention either. Suddenly there is a bold, I think Proxima Nova (?) in all caps. Where as you reused the Cronos Pro in the Hero Panel. Its a personal thing, but I don’t really like that. I think it is a little bit too messy and I honestly think, that you’d say the same thing, if you’d let it sit for a week or two.

Some of the Ideas you introduced are very interesting and would be nice to have, like the Dungeons Stats. But for these, I think you should introduce a new subpanel in the Hero Panel, after Achievements, for statistics. It doesn’t make sense, to give the user an Option to see dungeons stats in a LFG Panel. Perform familiar Actions in the same place. But “checking stats” and “finding a group / group member” are totally unrelated stats. You put them there, because it is the only place where dungeons appear in the UI, besides the achievements panel. That doesn’t actually solve the Problem, it just adds another dimension imo.

I didn’t want to write that much, because it may seem like I don’t like it. But I really think, that what you made is amazing, but that doesn’t mean that I have to agree with everything. And maybe my views inspire you to do whatever.

On another note, what is actually really needed, is a functional forum redesign. The Software is fine, but I think we need some basic functionality. Like Avatars, or setting a freaking Forum Nickname .__.

Very, very well done! I am so amazed by your great work! Your suggestions have to be seen by A.Net and they really should convert your very good ideas!

I thought the UI is good but now I have seen that it could be even more better! I most enjoy the new chronic UI and the Lore Panel! This gives me really goosebumps because I am a big fan of GW Lore and these changes would affect new players that want to take a look into the GW lore and maybe enjoy it and get a fan of it! This would be very great for the understanding of the game!

Thanks for your amazing work and I am really looking forward to see some of your amazing changes in the game!

This is killer sick. This is what I want from the UI design team in a video game that I’m truely passionate about. I must say, the Hero panel is a little too busy, like some others have mentioned. However, the LFG and espeically the Living Story tabs are so amazing I could stare at them all day. I wouldn’t assume the likelyhood of NcSoft using any of this design is anywhere above low because I can only imagine the legal issues that could come about, however it is seriously something that needs to be looked into. THIS is what a game needs to look like.

Been after them since they released the Wardrobe to straighten out the menus so we don’t have to keep going back in order to select a different screen.

The first and foremost number one thing I’d like to see is no more translucent windows! It may be “golly-gee, neat-o keen!”, but it is also confusing on a regular basis determining which X closes which window. At least make it optional to turn off.

This is SOOO MUCH BETTER. Atm most UI components looks half baked, but what you have done is great.

A brilliant, visual and practical but also decorative design that cleverly displays all the amazing art this game has to offer.

+1

Can’t +1 this enough. Incredible job.

10/10 why aren’t you hired yet?

Seriously stellar effort!

SemmlerTh.2685:

Fellow UX & Front End Designer here. First: Amazing Job! Second, that is an amazing Interface, but it does not feel like gw2 at all.

Wow, this was the lengthiest post I’ve seen, thank you for providing feedback and for taking the time to write that entire post. I had to cut parts of it out when I quoted it, so users won’t have to scroll the entire post again.

Now regarding your feedback, color palette wise sure I took some creative liberties however since you’re a fellow designer you’re familiar with conversion optimization and A/B / Split testing / MV Testing. In a live environment, you would have multiple designs with different colors, these would help identify the best colors & style that would produce the best results. This means that colors would likely be adapted/changed to fit the companies end-goal. Using a white background wouldn’t create enough contrast which creates immersion, that’s the reason why most movie & game websites use a dark color.

Regarding titles and discovering other panels, sure I understand what you mean and why you would think this is a good idea, since in most projects you encourage users to explore other UI’s and I totally agree with that. However take into consideration the fact that you assign a lower value to the importance of titles for new players who will eventually become regular players, if you group them with the achievements. The reason why, is because users in the early stages of the game are only interested in what they can equip, thus the most important information for them is the Hero Panel and all the tabs there. Once they discover the achievements panel, they don’t care since they are overwhelmed by all the information and they close the panel after browsing it for a little bit. By equipping it the Hero Panel, users would understand that’s something that has value and strive to get one. Plus having all the equipable items in one tab ensures users see all the information at a glance and are not forced to “guess” or remember how to equip titles or where they can find them. I totally understand your point of view, however this would need to be tested in a live environment since my assumptions are made on a low number of new players that I’ve played with.

Regarding inconsistencies, sure there might be some since I haven’t redesigned the entire UI found in the game and since I decided to change the approach of the existing UI in order to improve the functionality of it, keeping the existing UI consistency would limit me to create the same type of UI and thus not iterate and create a possible better one.

You probably agree with me that as a UX designer, we are aimed at creating the simplest UI or most intuitive one. Keeping the dyes,wardrobe,etc tabs although I included them as a drop down option, I also included them as “buttons” similar to the ones that you click to equip your armor, weapons,etc. Users by simply clicking on these would be able to quickly swap mini’s, outfits, finishers,etc. This ensures the fewest number of interactions/clicks, which in return results in a UI that’s familiar and has the same action present, keeping the learning curve flat rather then the existing 5 click per action necessary when it comes to dyes, wardrobe,etc.

Typography wise, agreed, I’ve used different fonts due to not having access to the original one and it was Helvetica Neue – Black. However again in a live environment this would just be used directly by the system.

The reason behind dungeon stats, to be present in the LFG was due to being able too see stats for that specific dungeon. Grouping them in another panel would just create another tab that’s filled with stats/information, it’s more easy for users who are already queud for that dungeon too see those stats. For new players these would be hidden until they reach lvl 80, to prevent confusion. The whole dungeon stats was aimed for people who solo or do speed runs as well as encourage users to become better for weekly rewards based on personal/guild/server performance, giving an extra reason to do dungeons. Putting these stats in the achievement panel would work, however having 8 dungeons + others incoming + fractals, would involve a lot of stats to be displayed in one place. This way users while they wait for the group, they could see how they rank as well as what other things they need to finish.

Hopefully this answers some of your questions & doubts and thank you again for the lengthy post.

A Lore Journal, omg yes plox!
Anet hire this guy already!!

Ok- considering there was a lot to read I didn’t read many comments other people have posted, so I’m sorry if I come off repetative!

1) I love the amount of work you put into this. The information regarding the topic is well laid out and great to read. The UI designs themselves are excellent and very professional looking!

2) The improved aesthetics and UI overall are really easy on the eyes and intriguing. There’s something about it that makes me squeal in excitement. I would love it in-game, I’d want to click ALL the buttons and investigate. So many shiny things to explore and enjoy.

3) One of my primary concerns would be regarding loading times/lag etc. I want to justify the bland UI design on Anet trying to make it simple, stream-lined and as lag-free as they can make it. Surely the increased amount of visuals (amongst other things) could impact the experience considerably for people with slower computers. I think you should consider usability- how would you overcome these problems? Would the new UI adjust with the in-game graphic settings? What would the UI look like on Best Performance opposed to Best Appearance?

3) I love the lore book idea! I recently posted on somebody who brought up the idea and I feel like the game needs it. It’s juicy for the veterans and helpful for the newbies. It would be wonderful to “collect lore” as a player goes along, fleshing out the lore book and going far afield, away from the traditional story, to discover even more tidbits. I really like how you’ve included a variety of information. It would be awesome to see multimedia clips/short montages, shorter facts (as a contrast to the lengthy paragraphs). Enemy skills and tactics to fight them would also be pretty neat. I think the lore book would be an interesting way to provide a little “guide/walkthrough/support” material to players without them having to use external resources.

4) I think the Character section under Lore could do with a little work- having some kind of organisation would be especially helpful considering there are many characters that deserve a spot in the book. Nobody wants to scroll through the whole list a few times just to find information about one character, right?

5) Another nit-picky thing is that although I understand why you put the “Buy Dungeon Runs” and AP requirement option in the Dungeon UI, I’m pretty sure that Anet would scrap this because of their general philosophy. From what I understand, Anet don’t support Dungeon Sellers or Elitism- by including something like this it would seem like they do support them. But hey, that’s just a slightly political/hypothetical view on it. I guess you created it because it’s something that you personally would like to see

6) I love the improved Guild panel! It’s exciting and inviting, it entices players to seek out other guildies for fun. This totally supports Anet’s ethos and looking at it I’m surprised they haven’t overhauled the Guild panel already to something similar to what you created. What a simple way to improve communication and co-operation! It would be nice to be able to have a similar panel for the Friends panel too. An addition to this guild panel could be a “sticky” feature where you could pin your closer/favourite guildies to the top so in larger guilds they wouldn’t be lost in the crowd. It’d be cool for higher ranked guild members to be closer to the top of the list as well.

7) I’m not a massive fan on your hero panel overhaul. Just personal preference- I find it a little too cluttered. I don’t feel like I could quickly navigate it all, but perhaps that’s just because it’s all new. My only reasonable complaint is how the equipped gear is aligned in columns- at first this gave me the notion that there were two different armour sets available to swap between. I also feel that the current trinket layout is very sensical in the positioning of rings, amulets and accessories. It also makes sense for the aquabreather to be close to the aquatic weapons.

Finally… If all of your changes were implemented tomorrow, I’d be thrilled! As most people have already said, THEY NEED TO HIRE YOU- you have some astonishing ideas! An overhaul like this keeps the game fresh in a good way. This is the kind of feature-patch material we’ve been dreaming of.

Thanks for posting- the effort and passion put into this was phenomenal. I love it

That was incredible. Nice work. If you are up for it, how about an Ascended items tab that is shared amongst all level 80 characters. So, if I have a GS on my guardian, I don’t have to unequip it from him first. If I log into my warrior, I see everything in the ascended tab and can equip that same GS.

As a programmer I feel obliged to step in.

The general opinion seems to be “this is so much better than the current state” and “hire this guy, introduce this now”. But I want to point out that many of those things you might like about that design aren’t actual UI/UX redesigns, but features you are currently missing (lore journal, build templates). And that they are missing has more reasons to it than UI designers not knowing where to place a button.

Also, don’t fully judge a design if you haven’t used it at least in a dummy application. Let’s take the proposed guild panel as an example. I wonder how it would look like when I’m standing with 70 other guildies at Tequatl. It becomes pretty useless, because I can only see 9 guild mates at once, not even able to sort by name or guild rank.

It also depicts some features imitating the LFG-tool, namely guild member activities. Where do you set your “current activity”? At least I couldn’t think of any place in the UI where where you wouldn’t constantly forget that you set your status to “looking for WvW”. Also: The argument for this feature is to “push the social aspects”. Well, I don’t know about you guys, but asking in guild chat if someone wants to do a certain activity feels much more social than using the LFG-tool. And this features is nothing but a very limited LFG-tool for guildmembers.

And, a last thing about the guild panel: The space for the guild message. It’s pretty small, much smaller than the space my guild actively uses for the message. So you’d eventually need a scroll bar. However, with a scroll bar you also need a border around the area that is scrolled (everything else would look or feel weird when using it, because you need to group elements that belong together). But now imagine that design with a scrollbar and a surrounding border. Would look pretty ugly, eh?

Another big thing software developers like me like to talk about is extensibility. The design for the LFG-tool might look pretty, but add one additional category or dungeon and the whole layout is screwed up.

So… please don’t get me wrong. I appreciate and admire the work put into this and I think it’s a cool idea to use such a thing as a project to extend the own portfolio. But in general I think you’re all pretty unfair towards ArenaNet. There’s more to these decisions than might seem obvious at the first glimpse. Just because something seems visually “more appealing” that doesn’t mean that it’s necessarily better or without downsides when considering all aspects.

A few things I have a problem with but overall really impressive work. The lore/story journal were my favorite parts and the guild tab really adds personality to each guild member.

I was going to post my thoughts on this, but fellow programmer aRestless pretty much said what I would say.

Any chance you could redesign the forums as well? I’ve been waiting for avatars forever…

Very nice panel designs, although they hardly look like they belong to the same game as one another. Sticking to the style book is a big deal. In this case, I would say either stick entirely to the existing GW2 style guide, define some specific alterations to it, or create your own new guide from scratch – and then make sure you follow whatever you pick, in every panel you design.

Aside from that, I think your Hero panel can be slimmed down.

The section headers just distract the user, and can be removed. Guild is a similar concept to an order, and they should be represented side-by-side, and in a matching style. Clicking the guild banner should open the Guild panel, and clicking the order banner should redirect to the story journal. You could even throw in a PvP rank emblem with similar functionality, if desired. Similarly, clicking the character’s title could redirect to the Achievements tab instead of directly offering a drop-down.

All the visual customization options can be moved into a single style/customization subtab; you don’t need the drop-down here. Dyes and wardrobe can share screen space. Minipets, couriers, and finishers can be wardrobe slots like equipment, and don’t need their own screens.

As for lore, ArenaNet has a strong preference for letting the wiki handle it. Instead of creating a whole new shebang that has to be re-filled with data by a writer, how about designing an in-game panel for the wiki itself? It could port in the body data from the wiki site, but use the same web display tech as the Black Lion?

Altogether, you have some nice concepts. Keep it up.

I do really like the lore journal. I feel like it’s missing feature.

However, I find your UI to be pretty inconsistent, You complain about lack of hierarchy in the LFG tool, but the rest of your work has absolutely no consistent hierarchy. The current interface follows a strict left to right navigation templating that makes all of the tools easy to learn. Your typography also completely contradicts existing conventions, and feels bland and generic. and a lot of the more visually impactful UI elements seem to be out of touch with arenanet’s visual language. I also think supporting AP requirements for PUGs is unhealthy for the game.

The thing that I find really puzzling though is the dissonant explanation for your website re-design. You claim that the tab-based navigation structure is problematic, and then don’t solve the problem. You claim that there is no clear call to action: apparently “find out more” is much more compelling than “learn more”. You point out a lot of problems that you don’t attempt to solve. And in the end, this proposal feels like a lot of masturbatory work seen on dribbble and behance: superficial. You are designing for visual impact instead of good structure.

This is the most amazing fanmade feedback i ever seen, Anet should really take some notes from your masterpiece. I believe this would make the game much more spectacular!!

Thanks for your time and for sharing this with the community.

aRestless.6213:

As a programmer I feel obliged to step in.
The general opinion seems to be “this is so much better than the current state” and “hire this guy, introduce this now”. But I want to point out that many of those things you might like about that design aren’t actual UI/UX redesigns, but features you are currently missing (lore journal, build templates). And that they are missing has more reasons to it than UI designers not knowing where to place a button.

I had to shorten the quoted text to avoid users having to scroll so much, here’s a copy-paste from my Reddit answer since I’ve noticed you posted it there also.
——————————————————-
Thank you for posting this, it’s true what you’ve said about the features part, that shows how much people want to actually get those in-game. Also just because I didn’t tackle each UI element in the game, doesn’t mean it’s not important or I haven’t thought about it, it’s just I choose to tackle some of the UI panels that were more interesting to me. Tackling the entire UI would take weeks of work to fine tune everything, time that I don’t have since as any other person I have bills and other projects and clients that need my attention.

Since you brought up the guild panel and 70 main raids, I actually answered this question for WvW raids, but currently there’s another tab in the GUILD tab that showcases the entire guild player list, their level, professions and so on. That tab would be used in raids since in raids you need a list type of view and not grid as stated, currently both the home/main guild panel and the mentioned tab act similar in functionality. With the redesign I wanted to use the home/main guild panel tab for users activity thus making users actually use it, not just for looking who is online but to encourage guild member activities. Also just because I displayed 9 guild mates, doesn’t mean that only 9 will be there. This was done in order to cut down presentation material and compact the information so the general idea of tabs would be seen.

When users would list a post on the LFG they would have an option to choose to what type of users to join: guild members only, all players. When such a post is posted on LFG, it automatically shows in the guilds tab so when new users just come online they can see which guild activities he can join. Regarding your “push the social aspects” statement, please read the explanations since there was a statement that this feature was also developed for users who come online after a certain user just posted in guild chat that he is looking for 3 more for a dungeon and thus he posts again the same thing. This is just an example , there are a lot more scenarios like a user asking for a dungeon group, then going afk and another guild group gets filled just because he was afk and wasn’t able to post in guild chat.

Regarding your concerns of guild message scrolling, there’s actually a scroll bar present, unfortunately it seams I cut it out when I did the layouts. Border wise, I don’t feel like you need an actual border since there’s an actual “border” around the entire guild message area, if you really want a border, one could be implemented on mouse hover so it would be displayed only when a user moves his mouse over that area.

Regarding the LFG tool and possible additions to it when new dungeons are added, yes I took that into consideration. Since there’s no news if the upcoming expansion would divide the community or not, there are two ways… if they choose to divide the community that new content could be accessed via a different tab/button found above the current dungeons or maybe not even been displayed if that content would be locked. Another option would to make it scrollable or act as a slider.

I’m aware that developers are more hands on and want to know all the data and analyze information based on what they can see or know and thus I appreciate your feedback, but remember just because it’s not there it doesn’t mean it hasn’t been thought off or just because user Y doesn’t like it, doesn’t mean user X won’t like it, everything when it comes to design is subjective and as long as the majority likes it, your job as a designer is complete.

WOOOW thats soo good looking, especially the LFG tool and the LS journal

Sweet Baby Jesus. This UI redesign is amazing. The only thing I disliked was the main web-page. Top navigation + big picture of something GW2 related, seems to be a very common thing in web design for MMOs. I’d love if this was different.

Anyhow, again, amazing job. It’s stunning that you took your time to do this. I hope that the team at Anet take a cold hard look at this and use some, if not all these parts to improve the UX. (For all the UI/UX changes they’ve made, it’s always been minor. They need to drastically change it up)

@amax: I’m not here to discuss about the pros and cons of your design. This is something I prefer getting paid for. I just noticed that there’s a subtle, toxic atmosphere here among the players that basically says: “ArenaNet’s UI designers are bad at their job, hire this guy instead.” The thing I wanted to point out is that these decisions aren’t that simple or one-dimensional and that many of your concepts are indeed debatable.

So although I might have criticized your work, my critique isn’t directed at you. It’s directed at all those players here that are judging way too fast, with way too few information at hand.