One of the things we have been struggling with has been the UI design. Mainly because we had conflicting opinions on whether it should be diegetic or non-diegetic. So instead, we made a strange attempt at a mix between diegetic and non-diegetic.
Above we have the Bulletin Board. It provides the player with updates to how their villagers are doing. It also allows the player to post gossip which may increase or decrease villager relations, and it also acts as a quest tracker.
One of the things that came up was whether there should be an on-screen shortcut to the Bulletin Board versus only accessing it through interaction. We concluded that providing the player with this ability became a little too convenient, considering that we want to encourage villager interaction. We didn't want discourage the players from interacting with the villagers if they could just pull up the Bulletin Board on demand. However, we still wanted to provide a way to help the player manage their villagers hence why it exists at all.
Technically, this Bulletin HUD is non-diegetic. I used a screenshot of the asset in an attempt to give it a pseudo-diegetic feel. The above result is reminiscent of detective point-and-click games. Initially, we spoke about having all the posts on the board at once, but it was chaotic and I didn't want the player to have to search for the information they wanted. Sections were created for a cleaner, more organized look.
For the other UI, we just kind of went for a classic non-diegetic design. For the Build Menu, there was no specific asset to summon it like the Bulletin Board but the player could only use it in their village.
Above is the initial placeholder for the layout we wanted. A mentor suggested that we should flip the layout because, culturally, the west reads from left to right. This led to its current design.
Button icons were added to help guide the player in case they forget the control mapping. We didn't want the player wasting time trying to remember buttons when they only have a short amount of time to play at showcasing events.
Currently, the UI still needs to be tested and refined.