Ask HN: Minecraft's UI element style (vs. modern flat glass interface) | Hacker News Reader

Ask HN: Minecraft's UI element style (vs. modern flat glass interface)

20 pointsxeonmc17 comments

Given the recent WWDC announcement of Apple’s Liquid Glass design language and the subsequent discussion on their functional usefulness in conveying visual hierarchy of affordances, I’m wondering if some lessons could also be taken from an environment that had evolved in parallel -- that of video game interfaces, whose trend initially started out being a vehicle to facilitate immersion via stylized decorations (see: Warcraft and StarCraft), then underwent a phase of minimalism (reflector sight-esq monochromatic HUD overlays) before finally settling on something that is a mixture of stylized and functional thanks to a design pressure of needing to convey glanceable information during fast-paced gameplay without getting in the way.

For a specific case study I’d like to ask what HN thinks of the UI design language of Minecraft, specifically the semi-3D button and slider looks motivated by a need to convey visual hierarchy given a constrained pixel-art granularity budget.

It utilizes different shades of grey borders to convey a sort of faux surface-normal highlight on beveled edges to indicate whether the element is raised or sunken.

I think this is an interesting innovation of min-maxing the visual complexity budget, perhaps the modern beveled-glass design language could draw some inspirations from here?

> It utilizes different shades of grey borders to convey a sort of faux surface-normal highlight on beveled edges to indicate whether the element is raised or sunken.

You mean this? https://feedback.minecraft.net/hc/user_images/01HQQV8HYE6GKB...

That's the Windows 9x style ported to a low resolution UI, probably with some shaders because computers today are fancier than 1995. It's not interesting innovation, though I agree it's much better (and feels better) than the flat UI boring aesthetic.

Behold the peak of desktop UIs: https://blogs.ubc.ca/nancyhuang/files/2015/10/Windows95.png

See also SerenityOS with an Office 2000 look which added some flatter UI concepts, yet it still is tastefully tactile and three-dimensional: https://raw.githubusercontent.com/SerenityOS/serenity/refs/h...

I like windows 95/98/2000 era ui. One thing that is never discussed is how will such interfaces adapt to newer settings which are offered in modern softwares?

UI of 98 era had minimal controls. Even open source alternatives like photopea which are less bloated than photoshop, give more controls and as such those softwares can’t adopt a 98 style skin, unless it wants to be messy with controls all over the place.

"Newer settings", huh? Did you mean controls? New kinds of control that are incompatible with the style? I can't think of any.

Do you think the Photoshop of the era was messy with too many controls visible at once, and that a more modern UI solves that? How, what do you mean?

I don't understand this question. Is it about the "ribbon"/toolbox type UI? Could you link a screenshot of what you mean?

Important to highlight that Minecraft on consoles, Windows 10/11 and mobile have a different UI.

https://minecraft.wiki/images/thumb/Ore_UI_Design_System.png...

https://minecraft.wiki/images/New_UI_-_Achievements_Screen_M...

And this UI looks way, way worse and doesn't fit the pixely style of Minecraft at all.

That look reminds me so much of Steam's original UI from the time when it was very Windows 95-inspired, too, but used different color palettes, especially a lot more greens. There's not much of Steam left that will show up with that original UI style (but it still feels like there's some lesser known dialogs that still can show up in that style), so these days it is better known as the "Counter-Strike 1 UI".

https://cs16.samke.me/

See also Motif: https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Motif_(software)

Apple is absolutely into the mature company phase if what they are coming up with is essentially a different bevel on buttons that "makes apps and system experiences more expressive and delightful". They are the IBM of the 90's at this point, way overvalued stock, not much room there for growth.

Setting that aside, video game visuals serve a different purpose than application UI widgets for menus, forms, buttons, etc. In a video game there are different reasons to highlight objects in a game world and relative to other objects and their movement or ability to move/interact with them. Objects in a game world might have their own light source, move in different ways so that the player knows its something they can interact with. If you look at open world games there are a lot of things happening visually in varying degrees of grabbing the gamers attention.

In a UI that is task oriented, like operating systems for PCs or phones, there needs to be less visual clutter, its not a game. It should be obvious to massive numbers of the population what function a UI element serves and accessibility standards come into play because often these OSes are used in corporate environments which should allow for people with different visual abilities to do their work.

notch was a programmer first, so i believe he made something programmers love - an intuitive and minimal interface. when microsoft took over minecraft, they hired designers and marketers to do interface for the bedrock edition which is cluttered with flashy annoying popups, drawn-out and "smooth" transitions and constant attempts to sell you something that's free. every person i've talked to who doesn't like bedrock cites this exact reason for why they don't like it - it feels janky and "too corporate". same goes for the electron-based launcher i'm really glad that the community had time to establish their expectations for java which forced the 1.14's texture update to only improve on what was already there (like smoothing out painful color combinations and adding a white border to hovered elements)

Definitely also consider the old Windows 3.0 to Aero era. Informed by UX design, accessibility features and accelerators everywhere, and a limited pixel budget (down to 640x480).

> given a constrained pixel-art granularity budget.

That is the key point. If your app has such a constraint, then copying their techniques might make sense. But if it doesn't, you would be pulling in a solution to a problem you do not have.

The UI in a game like Minecraft doesn't have to be overly pixelated just because the game is, Vintage Story has a much denser complex UI although it's still pixel-esque it's not constrained by the aesthetic of the game and yet feels wholly part of it.

minecraft ui shows how much you can do when you actually have limits. pixel art forces clever shading tricks to make buttons pop and show depth without wasting pixels. meanwhile modern “glass” ui just slaps on blur and calls it a day. games need info fast and clear or you’re dead, apps could learn a lot by stealing from this “do more with less” mindset instead of making everything look like a soap opera.

Factorio has the best game UI widgets. It is a result of long development effort, as explained in their dev blog.

Type size would convey hierarchy much better than most graphic decoration.

If you want to dive into how to design for glance. Recommend Stephen Few's books.

Apple should have called it Liquid Vista.

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