While designing HUD widgets or features for Halo Infinite, I helped surface more moment to moment combat information than any previous Halo game.

As we found more and more info to surface to the player, I would most often use Gestalt Proximity to embed the info inside its most relevant widget for a more minimalist presentation. Here is an example of a simple ‘finished charging’ state for the equipment system from the 2020 Gameplay Premier video:

This approach worked well to minimize on-screen clutter, but I would often get feedback that one thing or the other was either too distracting, or not noticeable enough during combat. This was a constant conversation that incurred many back and forth changes, and wasn’t easy to solve, as any particular widget could be signaling data and states of any level of relevance to the gameplay happening at any moment.

Here is the problem:
1. The HUD is a finite, limited space that needs to fulfill the needs of all user types during each core moment of gameplay.

2. The player can only focus on a variable, but limited number of information at any single moment.

Reflecting on that experience, I came up with an idea for a new design artifact to help mitigate this back and forth process: A Data Hierarchy/Importance chart.

This chart would be a collaboration between Game Designers and UI Designers, and would list, in order, which gameplay information is most or least important in each core moment of gameplay.

Here is a quick mock up I’ve made for an open world sandbox shooter game:

Using a well maintained chart, I would be able to determine which data and states should break out of their respective widgets, and how much attention they should attempt to take at which moments. This would not only remove much of the balancing act between many widgets involved with a single experience, but also provides a rough wireframe of which widgets are needed for each core experience.