The EVE Online HUD is evolving. The goal: better telegraphing, legibility, and clarity for every player. This is the first of three blogs on the project, starting with the why, the guiding principles and how players will help shape it.
Evolving capsuleers,
The ongoing commitment of EVE Forever continues through EVE Evolved. Over the next few weeks you will see a few topics discussed: the evolution of the HUD, modernizing our codebase as we prepare the move to Python 3, and some exciting lighting and VFX improvements.
This is the first post of three diving into the journey of evolving the EVE Online Heads Up Display (HUD) so make sure to check back for upcoming instalments. We want to be transparent about the reasons behind the planned changes, have a conversation, and most importantly to get your feedback to shape the development, much like we did with the 2D map and Photon UI. Over the course of the series, details will be shared about individual parts of the HUD, the thinking behind the changes being explored, and the main lessons learned throughout the design process.
This first post starts with the bigger picture, the reasons behind the HUD updates, the principles guiding that work, and how players are helping shape what comes next.
Our long-term strategy is to make it easier for new players to get into the game without sacrificing the depth that existing players value. To achieve that, we need to look closely at the first interactions players have with the game and identify where we can reduce unnecessary friction.
One of the first interfaces players engage with is the HUD, so we want to explore ways to make that initial experience clearer and more approachable for new players, while still supporting the needs and expectations of veteran players. The goal is not to make EVE simpler, but to make its complexity easier to engage with.
The HUD encompasses many different points of player interaction. For the context of this blog, and the first iteration, we are looking at a part of the HUD called the command board.
The command board is the center bottom part of the HUD and consists, for example, of the capacitor, modules, shield, and armor. For the purposes of this article, that is what is meant by “the HUD.”
The HUD has seen many small iterations throughout the years, but its general look, feel, and structure have remained remarkably consistent. Much of the foundations of its current form dates to around 2005.
For many players, this is the only HUD they have ever known. It has become an iconic part of EVE and an important part of the game’s visual identity.
Evolution of EVE's HUD
Being tried and tested does not mean it is without its faults, however.
This is particularly apparent when watching someone experience EVE for the first time. Some important features can be difficult to discover, and information that experienced players have learned to read instinctively is not always communicated as clearly as it could be.
Overheating and precise speed controls are good examples, but the challenge goes deeper than individual features. New players can struggle to understand the different states of modules, what is happening to their ship, and which pieces of information require their attention at any given moment.
Over the years, we have explored many ways the HUD could be changed or updated.
Some concepts have proposed radical changes to how the interface operates. Others have been almost entirely cosmetic, with plenty of ideas somewhere in between. Many of these explorations have been valuable, but they have remained explorations and never progressed beyond the drawing board.
Following the release of Photon UI, and with our focus now aligning around this area of the game, we believe this is the right moment to take a more deliberate look at the HUD.
The intention is not to change it simply to make it look new and shiny. The HUD has decades of history behind it, and any changes need to respect the knowledge, habits, and expectations players have built around it.
Instead, the primary goal is to improve telegraphing, legibility, and clarity.
We want moment-to-moment piloting to feel more natural and intuitive. Danger should be easier to recognize. Important features should be easier to discover. New players should be able to bring more of their existing understanding of games and interfaces into EVE, while experienced players should gain greater precision and insight from the information available to them.
At the same time, we want to preserve the identity of EVE’s iconic HUD.
The goal is not to make EVE simpler, but to make its complexity easier to engage with. Removing unnecessary UX friction, improving comprehension for new players, and at the same time providing greater control, clarity, and functionality to experienced players.
Throughout the design process, we have therefore put a great deal of emphasis on improving clarity and telegraphing without disrupting the underlying game design, removing meaningful complexity, or changing the systems players already know.
Of course, designing an interface like this cannot happen in isolation.
However much experience we bring to the problem, a design is ultimately a hypothesis about what will work best for the people using it. The best way to make that hypothesis stronger is to put it in front of players, observe how they use it, listen to where it succeeds or fails, and iterate.
Player research has therefore been a major part of the process so far.
We have conducted interviews and usability sessions with new players to better understand where the current HUD creates friction and how effectively new designs communicate important information.
We have also worked closely with the CSM, reviewing concepts and iterations with them and drawing on their breadth of experience across different areas and playstyles within EVE.
At Fanfest, we took this work directly to players. We held a dedicated workshop around the HUD and gathered feedback from players who visited the UI/UX booth, giving us another opportunity to see how people responded to the direction and to hear concerns, ideas, and perspectives we may not otherwise have encountered.
Players testing or discussing the HUD at Fanfest Image Gallery
Through these conversations we’ve seen several iterations on our work. At this point we have confidence in the direction we’re taking and believe the changes we are working toward represent an improvement to the overall EVE experience.
But confidence is not the same thing as completion.
EVE has an extraordinarily complex interface, used by players with vastly different levels of experience, activities, setups, and playstyles. Things will inevitably be overlooked. A change that improves clarity in one situation may introduce friction somewhere else. Something that appears straightforward in a usability test may feel very different after hundreds or thousands of hours of play.
That is why the next stage of this process needs to involve a much larger group of players.
The new HUD will be made available to the wider EVE community through the Feature Previews section of the client settings. The process will be similar to the rollout of Photon UI.
It will begin with an opt-in beta, allowing players to choose the new HUD, spend meaningful time with it, and provide feedback. That feedback will be used, alongside the data and observations we gather during testing, to continue iterating on the design.
As the updated HUD matures and evolves, we plan to move into an opt-out beta, continuing to refine and polish the experience in collaboration with the community before it becomes the default.
This sort of testing is an important part of the design process, not a late-stage step just before release. There are questions that can only be answered once thousands of players start hammering the HUD in their own unique EVE way.
We encourage players of every experience level and playstyle to try it. Whether you are relatively new to New Eden or have been flying for decades and whether you are running a 500 strong evacuation, a wormhole nomad or roaming with new capsuleers. We want to hear what works, what does not, what we have overlooked, and where the design can be improved.
The goal is to build a HUD that serves new and veteran players alike, while remaining unmistakably EVE.
Exactly when the HUD becomes available through Feature Previews is still being determined. There is also much more to the work than we have covered here.
In the upcoming two posts in this series, we will take a closer look at specific parts of the HUD, explain some of the design decisions behind them, share more of what we have learned from player research, and talk about ideas that extend beyond this initial release. This is just the beginning of the conversation.
We look forward to putting the HUD in your hands and continuing to shape it together.
Fly safe,
o7