PROJECT
Escape From Tarkov
UI Exploration
ABOUT
This project is a light rework of Escape from Tarkov’s interface, framed as an exploration rather than a full redesign. I used community feedback and player commentary to separate what makes Tarkov’s difficulty meaningful from what creates unnecessary friction.
By mapping features onto a satisfaction × importance matrix, I identified “easy wins”, places where small UI adjustments could improve clarity and immersion without undermining the game’s hardcore identity.
TYPE
Design Sprint / Case Study
LENGTH
1 week
TOOLS
Figma · Auto Layout, Variables, Component Libraries
WORK
UX Research · Game Design · Wireframing & UI Design
~40%
reduction in clicks to
load into game
~60%
reduction in third-party tools and alt-tabbing
4
reworked features to better align with game identity
What is Escape from Tarkov?
Escape from Tarkov is a hardcore, realistic first-person shooter set in a fictional post-apocalyptic Russian city.
Unlike traditional shooters, it blends tactical gunplay with RPG-style survival mechanics:
Players manage hydration, weight, injuries, and limited resources, on top of PvP.
All gear is lost on player death
No tutorials
Minimal UI, with no ammo count, crosshair, friendly indicators, or usable in-game maps.
The game is notorious for it's incredibly punishing and difficult experience.
This deliberate difficulty creates tension and immersion, but it also introduces UX challenges: not all friction feels meaningful. Some features deepen the survival experience, while others simply frustrate players by hiding information or forcing reliance on third-party tools, seemingly just for the sake of being difficult.
Community & Player Feedback
To understand where players struggle most, I reviewed community discussions on Reddit and forums.
The goal was to separate pain points caused by immersive mechanics from those caused by friction in the interface itself.
General Pain Points from the Tarkov Community
1
Third Party Reliance for Navigation and Quests
Players must depend on external tools (maps, wikis, YouTube) to learn extractions and quest locations. Difficulty here isn’t immersive, it just forces alt-tabbing instead of learning in-game.
2
Quest Visibility & Clarity
Objectives are buried in text, often unclear or poorly surfaced. There's unnecessary friction in understanding what the player is supposed to do or where to go.
3
Too Much Time in Menus, Not Enough Time in Game
Players are spending significant chunks of playtime (e.g., 30+ minutes) on inventory sorting, loadouts, and hideout management instead of raiding because of unintuitive and overly nested UI.
4
Reloading & Healing Flow
Essential actions like packing magazines or using meds often require opening the inventory. This interrupts immersion and leaves players vulnerable without a visual of their environment, turning realism into clunky friction and unecessary anxiety.
By plotting Tarkov’s systems on a satisfaction × importance matrix, I was able to distinguish between core strengths that define the game’s identity (like gunplay and inventory tetris), nice-to-haves that support immersion (menu visuals), and unnecessary frictions that add little value (post-raid info, market UI). Most importantly, the matrix reveals critical frustrations, high-importance systems such as in-game navigation, quest visibility, and reload flows that players consistently find unsatisfying. These became the focus for my light rework explorations.
Early Wireframes
These low-fidelity wireframes were used to quickly communicate layout concepts for the HUD, main menu, and in-raid inventory. At this stage, the goal wasn’t visual polish but to map key interactions, prioritize information hierarchy, and explore different interface groupings. Using simplified blocks allowed for faster iteration and stakeholder feedback without the distraction of final visuals.
Prototype Reworks
1. Lobby / Main Menu
Replaced the overnested load-in menu with an immersive backdrop that matches Tarkov’s atmosphere. As the first screen that players see before loading into a raid, the load-in menu should feel immersive and give an idea for the world they're about to step into. Simplified navigation so raid prep is quicker and more connected to the world, fitting in all previous 4 screens of options into 1.
BEFORE: Too many nested clicks. Menus give no indication of mood or gameplay themes, despite focus on immersion.
AFTER: Immersive backdrop with streamlined navigation that sets the game's tone. Other members of the party diegetically join the player's character in scene. Cuts down original 5 screens into 1.
Backdrop was generated with Google Veo 3
2. HUD Resource Clarity
Combined crouch height and limb health into a single streamlined display, clarified resource tracking by separating arm stamina and run stamina, and surfaced key states like firing mode and flashlight mode directly in the HUD. These changes reduce clutter while keeping the most important combat information immediately visible and close to the crosshair/line of fire.
BEFORE: Disconnected elements: crouch height and limb health shown separately, stamina and status resources unclear, firing/flashlight modes buried. Important combat info like arm and run stamina was cornered into the bottom left, making hard to focus on the line of fire and stamina at the same time.
BEFORE: Combined crouch + limb health into one streamlined indicator, clarified arm/run stamina close to line of fire, and surfaced firing mode + flashlight mode directly in the HUD.
3. Healing & Reload Quick Access Wheel
In the original game, players must open their inventory to heal or pack magazines, leaving them vulnerable mid-fight and breaking immersion. I introduced a radial quick-access wheel for healing items and reloading actions. This keeps the flow of combat intact, reduces unnecessary inventory use, and maintains Tarkov’s tension by still forcing players to choose the right item under pressure.
BEFORE: Healing and reloading locked to inventory, breaks combat flow.
AFTER: Radial quick-access wheel surfaces meds and reloads without leaving the HUD when holding down keybind, and without sacrificing specific item/ammo type choices.
4. Map & Mission Integration
Linked trader missions directly to the in-game map. Objectives can now be viewed and tracked without relying on external tools or digging through dialogue text.
BEFORE: Objectives buried in trader text; players alt-tab to third-party maps. Player is forced to go idle, and lose immersion and game awareness while opening external resources.
AFTER: Missions linked directly to in-game map; objectives clear without breaking immersion.
5. Quick Active Task Window
In Tarkov, players often juggle multiple quests, but objectives are buried in trader dialogue and require opening menus to reference mid-raid. I designed a quick active task window that opens on a keybind. This overlay surfaces current quest goals without forcing players out of the action, cutting down reliance on memory or alt-tabbing.
BEFORE: Task info hidden in menus, hard to reference mid-raid. Inactive tasks also show, causing an overload of task content.
AFTER: Quick keybind window surfaces active, map-relevant objectives without breaking flow.
Lessons Learned
1
Difficulty ≠ Friction
This project clarified the difference between meaningful challenge and UI-driven friction. Features like weight limits build immersion, but buried quest info and hidden HUD states just frustrate. A punishing game doesn’t need a punishing interface.
2
Player feedback reveals what heuristics can miss.
Reddit threads and community tools surfaced design gaps that typical UX checklists wouldn’t catch. Listening to actual players helped me prioritize what matters most, especially in edge-case-heavy, system-dense games like this one.
3
Small changes can unlock big shifts.
Even light interventions like quick-access wheels and overlays made core actions feel smoother. This showed me how a few clear affordances can reduce busywork without changing game balance.
4
Light reworks can shift momentum without overreach.
Using the satisfaction × importance matrix helped me focus on high-impact friction points.
I relied on lo-fi wireframes and functional prototypes to explore interaction changes without overinvesting in visual polish. The goal was clarity, not cosmetics, proving that even rough design passes can reveal where friction lives and how to ease it.