Graphic design is my Achilles’ heel. I can’t think of intuitive, simplistic, and pretty designs for user interaction. I need menu set-ups and sharp visuals for everything from start-up screen to active gameplay. I don’t even know where to begin.
I’d be willing to pay for someone to work with me, of course, but I’d be more than happy to just get some design tips or strategies. (For UI design itself, and specific RBX GUI object tricks)
I personally like to design something in Photoshop and get suggestions from friends and other developers and then try to recreate it in studio. UI scaling is what bothers me more than anything though.
Yeah, that’s not a bad idea. Attempting to create something without any reference with the RBX GUI elements is a nightmare. The only problem is I completely lack artistic talent. I try to place things and quickly end up stuck. Do you lay out everything you want on a page beforehand, or use the design process itself to decide what belongs on what screen?
I lay everything out as close to what I want the real product to look like beforehand but most changes to the original design will occur in studio. Artistic talent is something that I also completely lack too so most designs I come up with would be minimalistic flat UI where there is plenty tips and advice to follow on the internet.
I like the idea of combining 2D and 3D aspects and I plan to do it in my system. But honestly, I want to stay as far away from time-consuming animations and camera pans as possible. It may look cool to new users, but it would just get annoying for experienced players who just want to edit their class or character quickly. I’m looking for all necessary interaction to be done on a 2D level. You click an inert button to equip an attachment, and the 3D model reacts separately. (Sure, you could go rotate the model and inspect it, but that will have nothing to do with changing your class)
The problem is occupying and balancing space neatly, everything I try turns into a mess.
It looks like you already understand one of the big things of UI. UI should look pretty, but UI is for function. UI needs to be practical and easy to use and learn how to use. Every element of your UI should serve a purpose, don’t just add in something or organize your UI in a way because that “looks better.” If there is a way to do something that is much more practical and functional AND it still looks good, then choose that over the thing that looks even better because it might have flashy animations and 3D objects that take away usability.
Also, looks are subjective, but functionality is not. There will always be someone who thinks your UI looks ugly, but as long as it’s functioning the best way it can, then it doesn’t matter as much if it’s ugly. I’ve seen amazing UI on ROBLOX that (IMO) looked bad, but it worked, and it worked well.
I would be willing to offer up my guidance (for free) to help you create an awesome UI. I don’t have the time right now to get my hands dirty and design you something, but I could always help you figure out placement and balance and color schemes and unity and all the other aspects to keep in mind when designing something.