While I was working on StarCraft II, my buddy, Ryan Schutter, and I starting thinking about doing a full UI revamp. Of course we were CRAZY to even think about it. It was going to be so much work! And there was little room on the schedule for it. BlizzCon was approaching, so we were going to be even busier in the very near term. Somehow none of that stopped us.

Ryan wanted to do a big cleanup like this for a long time, but never had the time or the help. But here I was, and I was excited to do it too! We’re odd people, honestly. If memory serves, this is how we reacted to our hair-brained idea:

So what did we actually do? Well, we scrubbed the menu UI and set about making every screen consistent with the others, using math to make them orderly, and presenting the art in a pleasing way.

Each thing we made or fixed seemed inconsequential on its own, but in aggregate, it made it easier to breath and experience the presentation. But it was more than fixing gutters and margins, I made new art, button states, containers, backgrounds, and new cinematic shots. It took us a few months to get through it all.

Here’s a sample of the new UI states I made. The basic aesthetic was already established in StarCraft II. Special shout out to Junho Kim and Elaine Yang. The UI they created for Legacy of the Void is beautiful. What I attempted to do was to take the look and expand on it. Hopefully I did it justice.

A few before and after shots of the revamp work we did.

We did many more screens than this. But that’s enough! You get the idea. 😆

Overall this was a fun endeavor. Surprisingly satisfying to clean up the UI in a game that I have long admired. And in doing so, I believe we gave players new delights and experiences. A fully redesigned Profile Summary, Custom Arcade section, and a new way to interact with Versus (aka Multiplayer).

Special thanks to Chris “Crash” Reed and Chris Fugate for their help and support in achieving all this. Crash’s designs were a big help when I went to “artify” the new screens. And of course, thank you to the engineers for their behind the scenes tech. Couldn’t have done it without them. Looking at you, Jason Boyle, Chris Lee, Robbie McMahon, and Chris Chen!

All images and videos of the artwork are owned by Blizzard Entertainment.

❤