Hey everybody. I haven't had a chance to play Skyrim myself yet, but I have heard some complaints about the UI. There were some grumblings during the Greg Kasavin stream, and just now I was reading this article from Rock Paper Shotgun:

http://www.rockpapershotgun.com/2011/11/14/user-interfarce-skyrims-silly-choices/

So I'm curious to know what you guys think. Is it a big deal, or not so much?

The only thing that bothers me is the inventory. It totally sucks. 

For controllers the interface works great.

But for keyboard and mouse, they could have done a better job. But there will probably be mods to change the hotkeys and UI.

Like the OP, I haven't played the game to form a reasoned opinion for disliking/liking it. However, from what I've seen of it, it looks nice. The UI is more elegant and refined than the UI in Oblivion, as much as I enjoyed that game. I can't really fault the design that Bethesda chose to use since it looks good and (from what I've seen) also handles really nicely. However, one thing I've always liked about the PC community is that they do try and tweak things to satisfy themselves as well as others. If it's possible to mod the UI (of course it probably is, what with it being a Bethesda title), then I imagine a more traditional Elder Scrolls UI will appear within a matter of time.

Some sorting options, maybe icons next to the item names would go a long ways. The PC could have used an exclusive UI tailored to the way a Kb/M works. I would have prefered a classic mmo UI myself. Something along the lines of Star Wars Galaxies (hitting alt to bring up the mouse to access the menu options).

But I'm not complaining. I think the default UI works and isn't too frustrating to use. I think the Favorites menu really helps.

Looks nice, functions terribly.

Skyrim UI is your pretty ex-girlfriend. Great to look at, total bitch to handle.

On 360 it works great

I think it's both, it looks good and they finally have visual representation of items. But it can be unresponsive and the key configuration when it comes to the interface on the PC is nightmarish. Why can't i just select whatever i want with my mouse? I will eventually pick up a mod. 
@Lunar_Aura said:

Skyrim UI is your pretty ex-girlfriend. Great to look at, total bitch to handle.

I'm using the controller, and it's fantastic save for some tiny annoyances.

Its great for controllers, not so much for mouse and keyboard. Took me a while to get used to 'B' quitting the menu altogether, the favourites menu is great. Also more sorting options would have been welcome.

Playing with a controller, it's alight. Would like more sorting options, but it's useable enough as is.

The UI is better than the 2 layer tab abomination that Oblivion and Fallout 3 had. The list menus are elegant and do have some redeeming qualities, like the icons to indicate whether a piece of gear has better stats than the one you have equipped. There are some issues in the PC version, which I consider bugs: Mouse navigation can feel sluggish and imprecise, especially if you combine keyboard, mousewheel and direct click interaction, the on screen key prompts don't change if you rebind keys, the right hand and left hand actions have a little (R) and (L) next to them, but confusingly bind to the left mouse and right mouse respectively ( Changing the terminology to LMB And RMB would help with that). 
 
Overall I think RPS is right, but a little overzealous. The one screen that I agree is broken beyond salvaging is the skill constellations. This may be the only thing I can say this for, but Dragon Age II did their skill tree page right by designing a significantly different UI for the console and PC versions of that page. The PC version showed an overview of all the trees on one page, and then zoomed in to show the entire tree one one page. You could mouse over each item in the tree without having to scroll or navigate. The skill carousel in Skyrim is bad because it doesn't work 100% well with either the mouse or the keyboard, You can't reliably scroll the carousel left or right with the mouse, but when you pick a skill you have this zoomed in view with limited visibility that you have to navigate through where some of the stars seem impossible to navigate through using only the 4 way navigation on the keyboard. To make matters worse, you can be trying to navigate to the star you passed on the right but end up rolling over to the next skill over! Why is this possible?

So far on the PC its pretty rage inducing. Why the hell is it so hard to A) Go up the perk tree and B) GET SOMETHING IN/OUT of main hand.

Save for lack of options for sorting, it's fantastic (at least on the 360). I don't know how it is on the PC.

I dislike the stupid skill screen (it's annoying to navigate even with a 360 controller) and the useless 3D map. The item and magic menus are great except for the lack of sorting options.

I love the interface. The only complaint I have about it is the D-Pad should be able to swap weapons/powers/spells on your left and right hand by pressing left or right on the d-pad. Currently you can press up on the D-pad and access a favorites list that you can us the triggers to assign your abilities to. It's faster, but I think you should have two weapon sets for each hand and the left and right dpad should swap them out one at a time.

It'd also be nice to have the dpad down button be a 3rd set that forces you to swap both hands out. (as in press down and you equip Shield/sword)

(there might be stuff like this possible and I just don't know it, I didn't get a manual with my redbox rental)

A bit clunky, but all right when you get used to it on console. Horrible on PC.

And as others have mentioned, scrolling between a couple of different things with the D-pad left and right would be nice.

I'm holding a mouse in my hand, i should be able to hover it over what i want and click. 
 
using WASD to scroll through everything like an idiot really sucks.

I really want a way to group similar weapons and armor together to compare and contrast the stats.

wow I can't believe people don't like the interface. I think it's pretty great and intuitive with both mouse/keyboard and gamepad... and that's coming from someone who makes a living by making website user interfaces...

It's mostly fine. I think it puts the old Oblivion interface to shame. I just wish there were a few more options, especially item sorting.

@Tumbler said:

I love the interface. The only complaint I have about it is the D-Pad should be able to swap weapons/powers/spells on your left and right hand by pressing left or right on the d-pad. Currently you can press up on the D-pad and access a favorites list that you can us the triggers to assign your abilities to. It's faster, but I think you should have two weapon sets for each hand and the left and right dpad should swap them out one at a time.

It'd also be nice to have the dpad down button be a 3rd set that forces you to swap both hands out. (as in press down and you equip Shield/sword)

(there might be stuff like this possible and I just don't know it, I didn't get a manual with my redbox rental)

Pretty much this. It's a great interface, but making sure you have the item equipped in the hand you want can be really frustrating. I've died I don't how many times because I'll hit a trigger a little too quickly before exiting the favorites menu and have my dude not have anything in his hands.

The favorites menu also gets pretty large if you're going a jack of all trades route, switching between swords and spells and bows can be pretty daunting with the menu getting bigger and bigger with each new item or spell you pick up and favorite.

It needs a few tweaks for easier mouse control, but for the most part it's very clean and sleak. I like it.

@Tumbler said:

I love the interface. The only complaint I have about it is the D-Pad should be able to swap weapons/powers/spells on your left and right hand by pressing left or right on the d-pad. Currently you can press up on the D-pad and access a favorites list that you can us the triggers to assign your abilities to. It's faster, but I think you should have two weapon sets for each hand and the left and right dpad should swap them out one at a time.

It'd also be nice to have the dpad down button be a 3rd set that forces you to swap both hands out. (as in press down and you equip Shield/sword)

(there might be stuff like this possible and I just don't know it, I didn't get a manual with my redbox rental)

If you hold left or right on the d-pad while in the favorites you can make a quickselect of it, accessible by hitting the respective d-pad direction.

Using the item/spell menus are quite quick and easy with wasd, but they definitely are not very mouse friendly. Also, the list format and large font size means you don't have a lot of information density on the screen and sometimes have to scroll quite a bit. The real benefit of the PC comes from being able to make a larger number of key bindings. On controller you can only bind to the left and right directional buttons.

Also, not being able to switch between KB+M and Gamepad mid game is disappointing.

There's no option to say I really like it, so I didn't vote. The only two things I would add are sorting options for chests (Weapons, Armor, etc..) and being able to sort by weight or price. Otherwise, I really quite like it.

The skill menu is a bit of a pain to use on keyboard, after about an hour the rest of the UI is OK for everything else. It's a bit clunky here and there, obviously would be nice to have a few more options, but I can live until the modders get ahold of it.

The only thing I can't rap my head around is why they would stick shields in the apparel slot.

I think it is great on a controller and mouse and keyboard. 100 times better than the oblivion UI

Works fine for me. Functional but passive. I like it.

It's bat-shit bad on PC. It's pretty amazing anyone OK'ed it.

On PC it's basically just not even finished. It's probably fairer to say it wasn't even started. Really really disappointing, because the game itself seems great. It's real simple shit too which would have taken one guy like one afternoon to fix.

Yeah I don't understand the bitching at all... Even on PC, it can't take longer for you guys to access stuff than it does on the controller, right? I mean, we're talking about a second or two here. I understand that you would expect things to move smoother on the PC, but these complaints don't really make sense to me.

Also, I understand that it was nice to have everything on one screen in Oblivion, but that led to one of the most cluttered, frustrating character/menu systems I have ever seen in a game.

I guess it's just different expectations, but I really enjoy the sleekness and visual style of all the menu screens a lot, and I haven't really had any issues with it.

What about the option that says I don't think its Adequate, I think its the best thing sense sliced bread.

Like someone else said the talent trees are a mess to navigate with a 360, it's pretty annoying. 
 
Personally my biggest problem is how an RPG can come out in the year 2011 and not realize inventories should have tabs for your shit. All of my armor being in 1 HUGE list is a nightmare and hell I'm 20 hours into the game and I am not even positive I have a piece of gear equipped to every armor slot. I figured it was just basic feet/gloves/chest/hat but now I am finding random stuff like rings and necklaces I can equip and it's like "how many of these can I equip, just 1 ring, 2, who knows?". I do not understand how hard it can be to make sub menus.

I actually really like it on my controller and my roommate likes it fine with mouse and keyboard

Only thing that annoys me is that I can't get from items to magic stuff as fast as I did in oblivion, that I have to back out of the items menu to go into the magic. But other than that, it is pretty great. Nice to look at and handle. One thing that is not annoying but wish was there is that your character model were visible when selecting clothing items. I want to see what I look like damn it.

It doesn't seem very mouse friendly. It should be fine, but I'll probably apply a mod when I can.

The UI looks great but becomes cluttered way to quickly. Also, very nice to have a button that immediately closes the UI but that button should NOT be the B/O button when the UI is mult-itiered.

I have real issues with the UI in Skyrim. It seems like it was designed for a smartphone screen or something.

The perk screen makes me feel actually sick. Since when was pressing DOWN the way you go back to the previous screen? Why is there nowhere to look at my loadout and character all at once? Why's there no way to compare different items? Why can't you re-order any of the lists? It's all so basic.

and what's wrong with the traditional list of equipment with stats beside it? Why do I have to highlight each item in an alphabetised list to see its damage and worth and defence?

Battleaxe att15 wgt17 val50

Steel Sword att12 wgt 8 val30

What was wrong with that? Why isn't it just like that? Madness.

How is it that we are in 2011 and what is arguably shaping up to be greatest game ever made (IMHO) does NOT have an option to SORT LOOT AND ITEMS? Having the ability to sort my potions alone would make things infinitely better. How fucking annoying is it that I have to scroll through 50 potions just to find the status based poisons, or the regen potions, and so on so forth. How about the ability to sort equipment? Sort by type, boom there are all of my one handed swords, or have a "junk" designation for shit like baskets or forks that accidentally get picked up when looting? It's mind boggling to me that agme that is this good, this detailed does not have a more efficient UI for inventory. It's crazy.

The UI is kinda weird. I didn't even bother to try it out with mouse and keyboard, but the 360 controller has been alright. A sorting mod would be much appreciated and I'm sure is on it's way.
 
@gerrid said:

The perk screen makes me feel actually sick. Since when was pressing DOWN the way you go back to the previous screen? Why is there nowhere to look at my loadout and character all at once? Why's there no way to compare different items? Why can't you re-order any of the lists? It's all so basic.

They must have spent so many hours testing this game and surely at some point, someone must have said "look i've got 60 potions here please let me sort them in a way other than just adding them to an ever-growing favourites menu"

Surely? Surely some dev got annoyed at one point because his sword began with a V and he had to scroll all the way to the bottom of a menu to get it every time? That must hve happened?

Artistically I really like it, with the topographical map and looking to the stars for your talent trees. In practice certain things are a little clumsy, but nothing that takes away any enjoyment of the game. As has been stated multiple times some better sort options would be nice too.

Oh yeah and the unsortable alphabetised menus?

they don't scroll wrap

wtf

I like it a lot. My only problem with it is the inability to sort the inventory. It would help greatly.

it's great

It's odd at first but adequate on the PC. My only problem is that it's a little fiddly with the mouse and some buttons don't work like you would expect them to. e.g. The 'E' and 'Tab' keys are Yes and No respectively but when it comes to crafting I've got to use the mouse manually to confirm things. Lack of sorting option makes a cluttered inventory difficult to sort through as well. For the most part it's fine. A little disappointing on the PC but otherwise I've got no qualms with it.

i'm sure the interface seems fine for console gamers.   It's slightly inconvenient on PC at least for me...   I just prefer an easy to use drag and drop system for inventory management.