I have been thumbing through (I don't see a forum search option) and I notice a lot of people seem to dislike the user interface.

I'm not sure who created this but I nearly totally agree with this image: http://img3.imageshack.us/img3/5679/skyriminterface.jpg

I would add to that, the level of menu indirection is ridiculous. Nearly all the menus have wasted buttons (unused controls), and they render slowly. Why does every menu need to be composited?

IMO the skills menu is the worst offender, because I will spend lots of time cursing about how slowly it cycles around, and how I can't just 'pop' out of one perk tree to the top-level.

Magic menu also gets kudos for uselessness...

Further, why can't there be active effect icons? this seems a no-brainer to me..

The map too is crap. I want a 2D easy to view map. Does the zoom actually do anything useful for someone? Seems like it moves in/out by an infinitesimal amount.

I really miss getting to see my character too. Except for the zoom on items

The whole UI seems to me like something that should be more fit for a small screen device, where touch gestures swipe stuff around and you just can't put a ton of stuff on the screen.

Does anyone like this interface? Why?

sorry I'm sure this has been raised before but I see no 'search' button on the forums..

Skyrim pretty much takes the cake for a horrible UI, yes you'll get used to it. Yes it svcks, but UI's are not why people play TES.

No, it's really that bad. I'm used to it now, but only after fighting it for 20 hours. It's great for consoles though! It seems like a UI designed for playing music, rather than playing an RPG. In RPGs, you need access to information quickly, and no part of the menu design is focused on that. Instead, they're obsessed with showing you what a carrot looks like. When it comes to menus, I guess no one really knows what they're doing over at Bethesda, but they sure know how to build worlds!

I just pray the modders can do something with this monstrosity.

The search feature is in the top right corner of the screen, on the giant grey bar that has your user name, message count and settings.


Also yes, the UI is one of the worst I have seen in years. Bethesda has made an amazing game and then crippled it with an unintuitive, uninformative and unbelievably backwards UI. I can;t wait until the mod community starts to work on it, since I doubt Beth ever will

I totally agree with the link you provided. Skyrim's UI is fancy looking, but not very effective. I really miss the character model as well. I was nice to be able to just check out what your character looks like from the menu.

Yes, definitely.

(In other words, I love it)

OK, now I also see all over this board that 'this UI must be great for consoles'

I am playing on PS3... It still svcks! I would say its probably worse than on PC since I can't just mouse over to the menu items..

You can.

Wtvr I like it, it seems like people spend more time measuring the UI instead of actually playing the game lol.

thanks, btw..

forum bar is another crappy interface.. its barely perceptible here..

I don't mind the UI at all. I find it rather slimming and simplified for streaming the process of Leveling along. As for inventory, I alos love it. Only minor, minor, MINOR gripe is they need to make seperate catergories for Poisions and potions as that list gets pretty long.

Seems to me that they worked more on shoving so much content into the game that they forgot to work on the UI. Nothing organized in containers and the Quest journal is also very disorganized IMHO.

I probably should not be asking this here; in fact, I know I shouldn't, but that image said Morrowind's user interface is not perfect. Well, what about TESIII's user interface could/should be improved? Faster response time? Ability to zoom and/or rotate objects?

I personally find Skyrim UI better then Morrowind and Fallout UI

Why yes, yes it could be worse.

I'm aware of the fact that it could be improved, but I personally haven't really had any problems with it. Like a previous poster mentioned, I don't play TES for the UI.

While I agree with the importance of good UI design, I disagree completely with those who say Skyrim's svcks. It far better than Oblivion's. Perhaps I like it because I'm using an Xbox controller on my PC, but I liked it even before I got the controller and was using the mouse and keyboard. If you don't like navigating the menus with the mouse, almost everything can be done with the keyboard, particularly the arrow keys.

For those who want to check out what their character looks like as in Oblivion, simply switch to third person view and turn the camera to your character's front before opening the UI. The UI is transparent and you can switch armor and clothing around while time is frozen, then pick what you want.

The only UI feature I really wish they included is the same one I wished Oblivion had - a line tell me not just how much something is worth and how much it weighs, a line stating how many dollars it's worth per pound without me having to do the math - because dollar value per pound is the critical figure when deciding which loot to collect and which to leave behind. I bet too many people new to the game grab their dead enemy's steel armor because of its high total value, and leave ignore somebody else's hide boots and such, until they realize that it's more profitable to carry 150 pounds of hide boots than it is to carry 150 pounds of steel armor.

But overall the UI is both attractive and functional. I navigate it much, much faster than Oblivion's.

I would like to be able to see myself when equipping things.

I have functioning eyes,functioning fingers and a small amount of patience. Its all rosy as far as im concerned.

There are a couple more things you could add to the list.

Alot of confirmation dialogs have no hotkeys.

Example: The crafting screen, you select the item you want to craft, you press "R" for craft, then a pop up menu shows that forces you to move the mouse, and click "OK". If you wan't to craft, lets say, 30 iron ingots, you will be doing 30 "OK" confirmations.

I think that if you use an Xbox controller with PC, it automatically highlights the "yes", and you can either hit A to select yes or move the stick right to select no.

Yes, it could be far worse.

Need to disregard the standard levels of forum hyperbole. (you know, where small problems become "game breaking" "horrendous" or "worst ever")

Yes, the interface isn't perfect. Yes, it has a number of small issues that add up to making it somewhat unsatisfactory overall, and annoying in specific circumstances.

But there's still a long way down that it could go.

I like it much better than Oblivion, but could have been much better, especially in regards to scrolling and wasted screen space. It was clearly designed with consoles in mind.

"Could the User Interface be any worse? "


Don't give them any ideas!

Cool story bro. The UI is perfectly fine on the Xbox version. If you're playing on the PC and you don't like it, get the stupid UI mod.

How could it be worse?

I'm not kidding, like the only way it could be worse is if they repeated mistakes the already made. Make the text on the inventory list even LARGER so there's even more scrolling, create even more categories to open up, etc. Sure, then it'd be worse, but the point I'm trying to make is....can you name a potential mistake they DIDN'T make?

This UI is pretty damn bad. There's always potential to be worse, but this may very well be the WORST UI I've ever seen from a major title ever.