Final Fantasy
Role: UI/UX Designer
Tools: Adobe Creative Suite
A personal UI/UX redesign exploring how the core interfaces of Final Fantasy XIII could be simplified while maintaining the visual identity and functionality of the original game.
The original interface has a strong visual style, but I found that some elements prioritized decoration over clarity. Dense layouts, inconsistent hierarchy, and heavily stylized components could make important information harder to scan.
My goal was to retain the personality of the Final Fantasy XIII aesthetic while creating a cleaner, more readable interface that puts player information first.
How can the UI feel distinctly Final Fantasy without letting the visual style get in the way of usability?
Re-Design Approach
01 — Establish clearer hierarchy
I reduced visual competition between UI elements by creating more deliberate levels of hierarchy.
Primary information was given stronger visual weight, while supporting information was reduced so players could quickly identify what mattered most.
02 — Simplify the visual language
I removed or reduced decorative treatments that weren't contributing to comprehension and used simpler shapes and grouping to communicate relationships between information.
This allowed the interface to feel more modern and readable while still retaining recognizable elements from the original game's aesthetic.
03 — Improve information density
Rather than simply removing information, I looked at how information was grouped and presented.
Related values were brought together, spacing was used to establish relationships, and secondary information was given less visual emphasis.
The goal was to make the interface feel less cluttered without making it feel empty.
04 — Preserve the game's identity
The redesign wasn't intended to make Final Fantasy XIII look like a completely different game.
I retained elements of its futuristic visual language and experimented with ways to carry those characteristics into a more restrained UI system.
This created a balance between recognition and usability: familiar enough to feel like the original game, but structured enough to improve readability.
Final Result
The redesign explores a more restrained approach to Final Fantasy XIII's interface, one that prioritizes clarity and hierarchy while still feeling grounded in the game's visual identity.
Rather than removing the personality from the original UI, I focused on using that personality more intentionally: visual style became a tool for communicating information rather than competing with it.