Context
I recently bought a Switch 2 and decided to replay The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom, and I ended up getting completely hooked on it all over again. The game's improvements made it feel like I was playing it for the very first time. However, certain UX issues became glaringly obvious during my playthrough. Therefore, drawing on my UX/UI background, I decided to propose solutions for three user flows in the game that I believe can be improved.
The Changes
These are the three user flows I selected for this redesign:
Fusing Arrows and Throwing Materials: The extensive list to find a desired material disrupts combat pacing and stifles creativity, as it takes too much time to locate rarely used materials.
Ability Wheel and Sage Usage: Many abilities on the wheel should be accessed elsewhere or merged with other game mechanics, freeing up space for more actively used abilities, such as the Sages.
Fusing Melee Weapons and Shields: Currently, to Fuse weapons and shields, the player must drop the item from their inventory, walk up to it on the ground, and then perform the fusion. This is a convoluted and confusing flow that adds friction, decreasing the likelihood of players using Fuse with items they already have in their inventory.
Flow Redesign 1: Fusing Arrows and Throwing Materials
In TOTK, players can press Up on the D-pad at any time to select a material to throw, or, if aiming with the bow, fuse it to an arrow. The problem is that the selection UI relies on an excessively long scroll with no easy way to filter items. This tedious process increases the likelihood that players will simply default to using the same few materials.
The proposed solution was to categorize materials into smaller, more manageable lists within both the main menu and the quick-throw menu. To achieve this, I organized all materials into four groups: 'Monster Parts' for combat-oriented items, 'Ores' for minerals, 'Ingredients' for cooking resources like meat and vegetables, and 'Miscellaneous' for situational utility items like Bomb Flowers and Muddle Buds. This allows players to find what they are looking for much more easily, whether in the main pause menu or the quick-access list.
Additionally, to further optimize the scrolling experience, items that share an evolutionary tier (such as Horriblin Horns) were grouped into a vertical sub-menu. This drastically reduces the length of the horizontal scroll while allowing the player to quickly swap between different item tiers. Finally, a dedicated tab for Zonai Devices was also added to the quick menu.
Flow 2: Ability Wheel and Sage Usage
By holding the L button, players can pull up the ability wheel at any time and select a skill using the right control stick. However, this menu currently includes redundant or low-priority features:
Redundant access: The Map can easily be opened via other inputs.
Low moment-to-moment utility: The amiibo function takes up valuable primary real estate.
Consolidation opportunities: The Camera could be mapped to the right stick button (R3) alongside the Scope, while Autobuild could be integrated directly into Ultrahand, as it essentially acts as an extension of that mechanic.
Implementing these changes frees up four slots on the wheel, which I repurposed for the Sage abilities. Currently, players must physically approach and interact with a Sage's avatar to trigger their power—a flow that feels notoriously clunky during fast-paced combat. The only exception I maintained is Mineru; since the player must be in close proximity to board the construct, physical interaction makes sense. Ultimately, this redesign allows players to activate Sage abilities much faster and with significantly less friction during combat encounters.
Flow 3: Fusing Melee Weapons and Shields
In TOTK, players can use the Fuse ability to attach materials to their melee weapons and shields. This mechanic encourages creative problem-solving by letting users craft gear for specific contexts—such as fusing a Ruby to a weapon to generate heat in freezing environments.
However, the game currently restricts Fusing to items placed on the ground. If a player wants to Fuse a material from their inventory, they must open the menu, drop the item, exit the UI, and then trigger the Fuse ability in the overworld. This is a counterintuitive, multi-step flow that unnecessarily bogs down moment-to-moment gameplay.
My solution introduces a direct "Fuse" action within the inventory. When selecting a material or Zonai Device, players can choose to Fuse it instantly, opening a sub-menu to apply it to either their equipped weapon or shield. During this interaction, Link's 3D model in the UI dynamically assists the player by clearly displaying the currently equipped gear, ensuring visual confirmation before the action is completed.
Final Thoughts
Working on this Tears of the Kingdom redesign was an incredibly rewarding experience, both because it is a game I hold close to my heart, and because it allowed me to reflect on how much I have grown in my UX/UI journey. I believe these proposed solutions successfully improve the user flow without breaking the visual language and aesthetic of the game's original UI. The next step in the design process would be to conduct usability testing with actual players to validate if the new flows are intuitive, if they genuinely enhance moment-to-moment gameplay, and if they successfully reduce player friction.
I would also like to give a special shoutout to Hunter Paramore, creator of the Breath of the Wild Figma UI kit, which served as the foundation for my screens (subsequently adapted to match TOTK's UI), as well as risograph#0, who created a fantastic Figma template featuring several TOTK icons!