One big issue that I’ve been trying to tackle is that the entire game’s UI doesn’t match the tribe menu in the slightest.
Something has to be done to make it consistent. It needs to conform to the black transparent theme of the game, or some other solution has to be found.
The groups in the top left in my rough design would replace the ones in the tribe menu. clicking on each one would link to the menu the same as the existing design.
The region map and moving the time controls were just throwing it out there ideas. I do think the time and year etc bar is better than it was on alpha release, but still isnt completely intuitive.
Maybe the map icon should be more prominent if it is going to hold more value than the time/temperature?
Ideally doing a user survey with a couple of options would be the best way to gauge what is actually best.
Yes I totally agree a common design language needs to be used across the whole game!
I want to take a look at the tribe menu, but I need to collect a list of data and functions and hierarchy to be able to achieve anything worthwhile.
I have been having a little dig in the game files. We also have to consider whether seperating UI elements in certain ways is even possible with the architecture of the game.
@desol What if it only showed your favorites up in the top, instead of always groups? I don’t know if every player would want icons up there all the time. If it were done like this, you could easily just favorite your groups and they will show up there.
Also at bare minimum, I would say that the icons in the tribe menu have to come down onto a toolbar.
This leads to a space issue though, with the favorites up there, two toolbars on the screen, and the tribe menu will still show at the side. So how could these toolbars be arranged so that there’s room for the groups/favorites to be displayed?
Would it look okay if both toolbars were pushed to the right? I think then it would be odd because the toolbar buttons are all the way on the other side of the screen relative to the tribe menu.
As a minimum just favourites on a bar at the top would be great. Currently what do favourites even do other than a little star on the icon?
I think the issue with the tool icons in a seperate menu appears to be that the tools seem to be contextual based on what is selected. and toolbars don’t always make sense if they keep changing. There probably is a way to make it work but im not so sure how.
I’m okay with sacrificing real estate for usability, If you want perfect visuals, for screenshots/videos etc. most games have a UI off button, or sections of the UI toggleable in the view options.
I started drawing up a hierarchy design of the current UI so that we can find long paths to actions and make sure that new designs keep all functionality accessible.
Another massive part of the UI that needs looking at is the copy text of a lot of the menus. In my experience devs tend to skip/cheap out on this bit (and its especially hard to do right for multiple languages)
This is one of the areas where a community (wiki?) could really help.
Love the idea to make the menues pop out of the corner at the left and top edges but i like your UI design too!!
The one where the build menue etc sits on the bottom middle 
Oh and the game clearly missing an seperate Ressource Panel where you can toggle different ressources on and off ^^
Maybe the current amounts that you have could be in the box of each item in gathering groups.
yah but i dont think this game will be stuck at this ammount of different ressources i think that might be too much for that little space whats left there.
Some of the stuffs could really be seperated and toggleable like Citizens / Groups etc not have them stick at 1 Big UI panel to switch around, or better have Citizen and Groups in 1 Panel and rest seperate etc…
And a great feature would be to manualy resize them and / or move it around
One small thing that would be really useful is having a resources used/resources required part on active construction. It would really help with resource management when building multiple buildings.
Not sure about the placement of the world map either - all the other panels in the top-right are read only information but the map is a button so might sit better elsewhere. Temperature needs moving by the time of day or season too, then year after is as they’re more closely linked.
I think some sort of notifications panel would be handy. Thinking like in EU4 or CK3 where it shows events that happened or action points. I know it says when buildings are finished but these clear quite quickly and sometimes you need to action them such as choosing what a pit should store. It can easily be missed.
I’d still like a few overview screens or slightly larger views of resources, your tribe (status, what they are doing) etc.Although I am slightly opposed to having too many exact numbers of what resources are on the map, how fast they are collected, how many are needed or stored. I quite enjoy part of the discovery and the feeling the tribe doesn’t know everything - they’re ancient people learning a new location. Maybe what you have in stock and need to complete a building are exactly but the amount of mushrooms should be termed rare, plentiful, common or have icons. It makes it feel more like an organic world.
I do find the tribe menu a little clumsy to navigate at times and find everything I need. An example of an overview screen I mentioned in a previous post would be one for all the buildings showing their status, group, set priority etc. It would be great to do that from one screen with filtering by group or ordering. The same for crafting, tools, resources. I think you could then simplify the tribe menu as it doesn’t need to show so much data, it just needs to let you build things. The overall status is shown elsewhere. Combined with notifications of problems then open the correct screen it might help players?
Whilst survival is easier than first launch I’d still a little confused about my food usage and decay. Some mention of judging if I am gathering too much, how much decays or the life span of what I have would help. I know some bars have been added to some resources but I don’t know what they al mean. Maybe again this has some soft language - not your tribe eats 20 units a day and you scavenge 30 - but you are plentiful, short of food, or the use of icons to make it feel less about trying to do the maths for the perfect number that doesn’t suit the era/style of game.
So I think there are two core issues - communication of the current state of things in the game world and finding the right group, person or setting.
