Game UI/UX Framework

Methodology reference for designing and implementing game UI that makes play easier and turns the front-end into a design opportunity, not just a layer of friction. Use when you need a structured decision tool — where a UI element should live relative to the fiction, which UI technology fits the goal, how UI should be wired to game state, what accessibility actually requires, and what to study next.

This reference is engine-agnostic in its principles and names real systems only as a landscape. The actual per-project engine choice belongs in the consuming project's CLAUDE.md, not here.

1. The UI design space

Game UI is not a single layer. The most useful model places every element on two axes (after Fagerholt & Lorentzon, Beyond the HUD, popularised by Marcus Andrews):

• Fiction — does the element exist within the game's story/world, or is it for the player only?
• Space (geometry) — is the element rendered in the game's 3D space, or drawn flat on the screen?

This yields four categories: