Goal
Provide players with clear and consistent UI navigation experiences throughout the entirety of a game. This helps players who are neurodiverse, have learning disabilities, are new to gaming, or navigate the experience with assistive technologies.Overview
The UI should be consistent and intuitive. Inconsistent layouts or interaction mechanics can easily disorient players using screen readers, voice commands, eye gaze, or digital-only inputs. Ensure that layout and interaction mechanisms use similar orders and structures across all UIs so players can find what they need and configure options. Focus movement should always be predictable. Non-traditional input users (keyboard-only, mouth-operated joysticks, etc.) can be blocked from gameplay if focus doesn’t move in a clear, consistent way.Scoping questions
- Does your game contain multiple UI screens or pages?
- Are UI elements consistently located across each screen (e.g., page title always at the top and read first in narration order)?
- Are interaction methods consistent across the UI for elements appearing in multiple locations (e.g., “Press A to select”)?
Implementation guidelines
Accessible pathway to accessibility settings
From initial launch, ensure all pathways to the accessibility features/settings menu are fully accessible. Options include:- Prompting players to configure accessibility settings as the first screen on launch (e.g., Minecraft Dungeons).
- Meeting all XAGs by default when the game initially launches (proper text/contrast, narration and subtitles enabled by default, visual distractions disabled by default).
- Meeting all XAGs by default but using platform settings (e.g., “Let Games Read to Me”) to disable certain items based on the player’s current platform preferences.
Consistent, logical order
- UI navigation order is logical and consistent across the full game.
- Components repeated across pages should appear in the same relative order each time.
- Interaction prompts (select, back, LT/RT for pages, LB/RB for tabs) stay consistent.
Multiple input support
- The UI is fully navigable by keyboard and by controller digital input alone.
- All aspects of the game — menus and gameplay — are navigable by multiple inputs (mouse, eye gaze, voice, keyboard, controller) where the platform supports them.
Focus order
- Focusable components receive focus in an order that’s logical and preserves meaning and purpose.
- Focus order aligns with the meaning/operation of the UI. If independent of meaning, align with the visual design flow.
- Example: Forza Horizon 4’s tile-based main menu doesn’t follow a linear path, but pressing down from “Settings” lands on “Drone Mode” — matching the visual flow.
Menu looping
- After navigating to the last item in a linear UI/menu, focus should return to the first item (and vice versa).
This applies to linear menu structures (focus moves only up/down OR only left/right). Multidirectional grid menus (e.g., 4x4 tile arrangements) should not loop. We encourage providing an option to enable/disable menu looping for all menus.
Finding content in complex sets
- Provide more than one way to locate content in complex sets spanning multiple screens (bestiaries, quest logs, large inventories). Example: Minecraft’s crafting menu uses filtered tabs plus a search tab with on-screen keyboard.
Reflow and scaling
- If visual layout changes (UI scaling or resolution change), navigation order updates to match the visual layout.
- Text/UI scaling shouldn’t require scrolling in two directions to reveal all content (see The Outer Worlds text scaling).
- When a game map UI is scaled or zoomed, provide an alternative navigation method that doesn’t require scrolling — e.g., Halo Infinite’s Tacmap missions list, where selecting a mission auto-centers the map on it.
Persistent way back
- Provide persistent links back to the main menu or the initial interactive screen on all submenus (e.g., Sea of Thieves’ consistent “Press B to go back”).
Moving focus away
- If focus can be moved to a UI element by a given input, focus can be moved away using the same input.
- If moving focus away requires an inconsistent method (e.g., remapping mode requires pressing Esc rather than clicking), the UI must clearly prompt how to do so.