DESTINY 2: UI ICONS

The Guardians in Destiny 2 wield a fearsome suite of skills and abilities, and boast a nearly bottomless arsenal of weapons and armor. The UI of Destiny 2 leverages iconography to give visual indicators to players of the abilities they have to choose from when buildcrafting, and the perks that enhance the capabilites of their armor and weapons. The icons aim to visually communicate to the player what the effect of an ability or perk in gameplay will be, while maintaining consistency with similar icons elsewhere in the game.

SUPER ABILITIES

The ultmate expression of a Guardian's power is their Super Ability. Outshining all other combat abilities in sheer power and utility, Supers represent a core element of the player fantasy. From flaming hammers to shadow-wreathed swords or colossal beams of destructive energy, each Super carries a unique theme. A Super Ability icon must convey that power fantasy at a glance and must also lean on established elemental visual language in order to give the player a clear read on the Super and it's effects.

Gathering Storm, Twilight Arsenal, Song of Flame, and Storm's Edge

PRISMATIC

A climactic moment in Destiny 2: The Final Shape occurs when our Guardian, at the peak of their power is able to harness the five elements simultaneously and break down the barriers that had previously stood between subclasses. Being able to combine solar, arc, void, stasis, and strand into one ultra subclass experience was for many players the ultimate power fantasy. To brand this new system, I created a unifying visual language which used circular forms interrupted by triangular silhouettes to communicate the confluence of Light and Dark energy. The rays emitting from the shapes denote the unified power cast by this union of cosmic forces.

Additionally, the Prismatic system incorporated a new grenade ability icon for each player class, each of which combined the effects of two different damage types. Each damage type his it's own unique iconographic visual language, and this project presented an opportunity to try combining two of those differing styles into a single icon (ex: solar + stasis).

Prismatic affinity icon + abilities

Prismatic Subclass in the Destiny 2 live experience.

EXOTIC ARMOR + WEAPON PERKS

Exotic armor and weapons are the rarest and most powerful gear pieces in Destiny 2. Each exotic weapon or armor piece carries a unique exotic perk which pushes the boundaries of the Guardian's power. When designing these icons it is important to create a shape which aligns to the theme of that gear or expressly communicates the power fantasy which that gear unlocks for the player.

Exotic armor and weapon perks.

WEAPON TRAITS

What makes my weapon different from another player's version of the same weapon? One of the primary ways this is achieved is via the weapon trait system. Each weapon has set number of traits, each of which alters the behavior of the gun in different ways. Speeding up ability recharge on enemy kills, providing damage resistance when at low health, giving rounds the ability to heal allied players; there are many weapon traits in Destiny 2 and each has it's own special uses.

When designing a trait icon, the goal is to balance communication of the trait's effects with easy visual recognition for the player. This became increasingly challenging as more and more traits were added to Destiny 2 throughout it's lifespan. The key is to focus on the theme/fantasy of a trait first and design from that square one.

ARMOR SET BONUSES

In Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate, we added Armor Set Bonuses as a new system to aid in player buildcrafting. A two-step system, Armor Set Bonuses come into effect when a player is wearing two pieces of armor from a single set. A more powerful bonus kicks in when a player is wearing four pieces from a single set.

These icons were designed for the reprised Raid and Dungeon armor which released with Monument of Triumph, Destiny 2's final update. The icons are each meant to communicate the themes of the Raid or Dungeon and also to tell the story of those activities in a shortform way.

ARMOR MODS

During Episode 2: Revenant, I underwent a facelift of our entire suite of armor mods. These mods grant buffs to certain player behaviors (ex: extra handling for arc weapons, extra aim-assist for solar weapons) and are a key component of buildcrafting.

The primary goal was to clearly denote the associated damage type of each icon. The damage type icons are instantly recognizable to players, however the challenge was to add design elements around those which were communicative of the gameplay effects while staying within our minimal-yet-elegant approach to UI iconography.

Armor mods in Destiny 2.

RENEGADE ABILITIES

In Destiny 2: Renegades players entered the Lawless Frontier, a combat zone inspired by locales from a galaxy far, far away. While in the Lawless Frontier players had access to a powerful suite of combat modifiers called Renegade Abilities. Whether summoning an armored walker or calling in an orbital strike, these abilities were a fun departure from classic Destiny mechanics.

For this icon suite I started with the primary logo which was used to brand the system and was visible on the main Renegade Abilities vendor. Each ability icon needed to be descriptive of it's effects while also being readable as a HUD icon, all while staying couched in both Destiny design principles and paying homage to the semiotic approach of Star Wars.

Renegade Abilities primary logo and ability icons.

Applied Renegade Abilities in the live game.

PLAYLIST CATEGORY ICONS

In Destiny 2: The Edge of Fate we introduced a system called The Portal for quick activity selection. At the top of each Portal screen was a row of playlist icons which dropped players into a curated set of activities. For these icons I leaned on my illustrative experience and went with an approach which was heavily inspired by classic Destiny concept art.

For the PvE cards, I decided to focus on increasingly dangerous groups of enemies as a quick viusal indicator of difficulty. For PvP it was most important to communicate the fantasy of the Crucible modes which were contained in each playlist and to represent the awesome power of Guardians in combat against Guardians.