The Battle HUD served as the primary entry point for the UX work and required the most iteration.
Early explorations considered retaining card-based interactions, later discarded in favor of a layout better suited to tactical combat.

Early wireframes explored a horizontal combat layout while retaining cards, allowing us to validate information grouping, spatial priorities, and how much decision-making could realistically happen around a card-driven model in a positional context.

As combat mechanics evolved, the game design moved away from cards in favor of a summonable team of soulkin. In response, the interface was restructured to surface the team as an always-visible element, while redistributing abilities, items, and turn controls to reduce vertical congestion and improve readability during combat.

At this stage, UX decisions focused on hierarchy and affordances: distinguishing allies from enemies through color, clearly indicating selection states, and ensuring that critical information remained visible without competing with the battlefield.

Due to production constraints, later iterations were tested directly in-engine using Unity, in close collaboration with developers. This allowed UX decisions to be validated under real gameplay conditions, particularly around action feedback, ability usage, and the growing number of on-screen elements.

Following player feedback from the demo, several mechanics and interface elements were refined or simplified. The focus shifted from accommodating new systems to improving clarity, consistency, and decision confidence during combat. Additional work was done on element readability and micro-interactions, refining visual states, feedback timing, and interaction responses to make the HUD feel more reliable and easier to parse during critical moments.