Dragon Age: Origins
Lead UI/UX Artist
BioWare
PC / Console
2009
Project Overview
Dragon Age: Origins was my first Lead UI role at BioWare, and in a lot of ways it set the template for everything that followed on the franchise. The game was dense. Deep combat systems, branching dialogue, an enormous journal, and the UI had to carry all of that without feeling like a spreadsheet.
Visual direction
The interface was built around a single framing device: a living book. Parchment textures, aged borders, menus that unfurled like turning pages. It sounds like an obvious choice for a medieval fantasy RPG, but making it actually functional at small sizes, workable across four-player party management, and navigable under combat pressure took a lot of iteration.
Combat HUD
Four active party members with health, mana, buffs, debuffs, and ability cooldowns all competing for attention. The solution was keeping the portrait cluster tight and readable, with radial cooldown indicators for scanning ability states at a glance. Audio and VFX did a lot of the heavy lifting too. A character grunting when critically low meant the HUD didn't have to scream at you.
Typography
I worked with typographer Ray Larabie to develop and extend a custom typeface. The practical requirements were strict: legible at small HUD sizes, distinct enough to anchor the fantasy tone, and fully localized across Cyrillic, accented Latin, and extended character sets. Getting the font right affected every screen in the game.
Process & Tools
Prototyped UI flows in Flash and internal layout tools.
Collaborated with system designers, narrative leads, and engineers to align on functionality and lore tone.
Regularly iterated based on internal QA and usability feedback.
The UI/UX system for Dragon Age: Origins was widely praised for its blend of aesthetic immersion and mechanical clarity. The "book interface" became a hallmark of the franchise. Our Journal and combat HUD design laid the foundation for RPG interfaces that followed. The custom typography collaboration ensured the visual language carried across borders and screens.
