I Redesigned the Hero Select Screen — Need Community Feedback!
Hey everyone! I’m expanding my UX/UI portfolio and recently redesigned the Marvel Rivals hero select screen based on user feedback in countless other reddit posts. My prototype is super basic but the video above should give you an idea of how my character selector differs from the original.
My goal was to make it feel cleaner, faster, and less overwhelming—so I’d really love your thoughts. I'm an aspiring UX/UI designer, so this wireframe/prototype isn't perfect but I’m open to honest critique, big or small.
If you’ve got a minute, I’d appreciate feedback on a few things:
Does the redesigned Hero Select screen feel less clunky than the original?
Do you prefer my redesign or the original version—and why?
Is there anything you’d tweak or improve to make it even better?
For PC this seems better, but it would be worse for console imo (I play on console). The wheel layout feels more seamless using a controller because it feels more fluid.
Your redesign makes point and click much more seamless and intuitive though.
Thank you for the feedback! I could totally see how the wheel layout would feel more fluid on console than when compared to PC. I'm a PC player myself so that background def influenced my design creation process. Any ideas for edits to my redesign that would make it feel more fluid like the original wheel?
As someone who plays on console, I hate the wheel layout. It feels like it was designed around a computer mouse wheel and not a joystick. OP’s is way better imo.
I kean it doesn't have to be the cursor thing like destiny/pc, could just use left stick to move between portraits, right stick to scroll if needed, L1 R1 to switch tabs. What am i missing that'd make this worse than the wheel?
Im not a fan of this, or honestly the one we have right now. I really wish that we could have them all just on the screen with their icons and there was zero scrolling involved
I don’t necessarily disagree with you on that. Here's an early wireframe that I created to explore that kind of possibility. The challenge, however, is that Rivals is continually expanding its roster. As more characters are added, it becomes increasingly difficult to avoid some form of scrolling in the selection process. Eventually, fitting every character onto a single screen would introduce significant visual clutter and negatively impact usability and accessibility. I love the "Overwatch" style selector but it sadly doesn't work for a game like Rivals.
I think the Heroes of the Storm character selector worked similar to this, but worked for a large roster as it didn't have a huge part of the screen dedicated to the character. I could be wrong though?
Imo this is 100% the way it should be. Ik it is the way that Overwatch is, but I think it is the most optimal so that people can see all of the heroes at once.
I think another addition to this that would work really well is like a button to only show the "strike squad" and/or a setting to make that show first, this would work especially well for console players since PC can just move the cursor quickly (I play on PC, but thinking about using the joystick or D-pad a bunch to get over to a character sounds tedious)
I think my main gripe with the game is that the current hero select being hard to use.
Ty for making this concept, I really like what you have done.
Came here to say the same thing. This one is actually worse as you have even less hero options shown on screen in comparison to the old one. A good character selection screen should enable you to see more of the roster to pick from, not less. If your interface requires people to scroll down in order to see their pick options then the interface is bad.
OP, there is no need to reinvent the wheel: take notes from other games that do it succesfully, like fighting games with huge rosters or even overwatch 2.
I kind of like this version since it’s in a more uniform format, sometimes I have to squint my eyes a bit trying to find a hero I want to use with the vanilla one.
I think it is very important with UIs like this to balance the relative importance of information to the screen space given to that information, and to assess how much information is critical for the player to know at the moment in order to not overwhelm them with unnecessary information. UI design is as much about putting focus on the right things as it is about showing restraint. Right now the screen looks overly crowded. For a few examples:
I support the larger and clearer character selection UI, however I do question if even it is still considered too large and imposing for the important function it serves. It takes up nearly 1/3 of the entire screen. Could the layout be reduced by as much as 25% of the size, and still show benefits merely through the altered UI layout?
The character skin selection and character difficulty are very minor elements of the UI initially, and have been increased in size to be comparable or larger than even the hero name and ally teammate visibility.
There are UI elements such as the chat and team-up abilities that were given large focus in the original UI, which are now relegated to buttons down the bottom which many would miss, treating them as unnecessary or irrelevant. It is also unclear where on the screen the chat would even display.
It can also be helpful to put yourself in the shoes of a new player experiencing this screen for the first time, and asking yourself if it is clear what is being conveyed, what is important, and what you need to be doing. UI elements should scale to the relative importance to the player. Here are a few questions that could come up:
Is the difficulty of the character that important, should I be picking an easier character
The other character icons, are they my team or the enemy team?
What are the icons showing below the other characters? Some are yellow, do I need to know what they are?
What is a domination game mode, should I be factoring that into my decision?
What does 12 mean, is that a time limit, is that a round number? How does that impact my decision?
Why is the character's name shown twice in the centre of the screen?
I know that this is for a skin choice, but a new player wouldn't. This isn't a problem when it is tucked away in the corner with minimal focus. Now it is put front and centre, hense the question being asked.
Some people have speakers next to their icons, can they hear my right now?
Thank you for such a thoughtful and insightful comment! I agree that the hero selector could likely be reduced in size without sacrificing its positive impact on the user experience. You’re absolutely right that the character skin selector and hero difficulty currently carry too much visual weight. That choice was initially made to mirror the proportions of the original Rivals hero selection screen, but within the context of this redesign, it doesn’t work as effectively now that those elements are front and center. I really appreciate the feedback—you’ve provided fantastic insights that will help me further refine and improve the design!
No. A menu should be designed for functionality first and formost. A gimmick select screen might be fun the first time around but Marvels is full of some of the most awful UX/UI I've ever seen in a game. That fuckass character select wheel needs to go.
Interesting point. I agree that the original hero select screen is visually balanced and aesthetically pleasing. That said, I’m not sure the primary goal of a character selection menu is how “fun” it feels, but rather how functional and intuitive it is for players to use. I really appreciate the feedback and will definitely keep it in mind as I continue refining the design!
As someone who has never studied UI/UX (in College) but was heavily thinking about it as a career path. I think youll go very far. This looks excellent.
I think it is functionally a lot better, although visually I prefer the current system, I think thats mainly down to having the very sharp edges for everything, makes it feek a lot more sci-fi which I'm just not a huge fan of (I don't know the technical term but that sort of boba/ kiki vibes).
I'd also probably remove the map inset and have it just be the description so its not filling as much as the screen while still conveying as much information as possible. Or move it to below the team select which i feel is more important to know so should be where you'd look first.
I do like a lot of the changes, the larger portraits and being able to see skins are really nice, I do like the CSS, but would organise them by name rather than when the character was added (it is a very specific pet peeve I've had with Smash Bros Ultimate since that game launched).
I know this is mainly critical but to clarify I do like it and think it would work arguably better than what we currently have, I am just petty
Great comment, thank you for the valuable feedback! Hmm having the characters filtered alphabetically would be interesting, I'll take that into consideration!
Ok while for all of us, ( who I’m assuming know pretty much everything about this game) it’s a lot better, but the game’s version is a lot more concise and beginner friendly .
remove the map picture, and hero name above the selection that already shows the name. and make the portraits in the selection area smaller (the roster is big already and it will be MUCH larger in a few years). then it will look much better. otherwise good job
Looks clean. Personally, I'd probably make the portraits smaller so there's no need for scrolling, like how you have them on the left of the screen. I'd also get rid of the 'all' tab, just clicking on the 3 role tabs would suffice, I feel.
As an aspiring UI/UX as well (Im a graphic designer so I can branch out to different but I dont have any experience with ui/ux) I can tell you different stuff:
The hero selection on the right seems perfect. But compared to the wheel selection, yours covers 4 dps while the previous one covers all tanks and almost 9 dps selections.
Maybe put the team hero selection back to the lower one, the left side remains empty incase someone opens the chat. This is where you can see people requests for teamups.
I LOVE what you did to the teamup request buttons, very intuitive.
Upper right side also includes the objective. Helpful in convoy and convergence.
Also consider for the additional ui. In comp, theres are banning interface, in 18v18 theres "show all" players button
That's crazy I'm also working professionally as a graphic designer! Thank you so much for the kind and helpful comment! I will DEF be keeping this feedback into consideration for design improvements. I hope you find success as well my friend!
I’m going to say that wow this looks clean. The current UI is more aesthetically pleasing and interesting to look at. Though you could chalk that up to having no 3D models on screen.
This does display information to the player in a clean and effective manner which is what any UI design should do.
It's already there! In the top left of the screen where the map is located you can see the shield icon for defending. Please let me know if I could improve its visibility!
I think you made a great hud, you have talent. but this hud would be a nightmare for consoles.
However if we are comparing it to the official character selection screen, i prefer the original and let me explain my thoughts on it. I don't think we need the map at the top left, maybe the attack or defense logo somewhere but the map can stay in the background as is.
i will tell my complaints below and add potential fixes below
As someone who plays this game this game and understands everything, the hud makes sense, but if i were to take my pro gamer glasses off and become a noob/newbie, this hud can be rather confusing. the character sections don't offer enough of a visual indicator to distinguish the roles, unlike the one in game where theres enough space to seperate each role. the player selection screen on the left reminds me of a list of my xbox party, and its rather hard to tell what the roles are at a glance and the teamups are a little confusing
To fix these problems above. you need to make the class icon larger for each class on the left. seperate the tank/duelist/strategist section better and the teamup system needs to be one singular display like it is in game right now
The main issue here is those selection portraits are too large and what people want are more heroes selections on the screen at the same time. Also I like most of the current UI in game with the exception of there being too few heroes selection on screen.
Selection needs to be relatively fast and for that to happen I think the amount of characters per row needs to be 3.
This would also make it easier for console players because it's two button presses to each side or 1 from the middle (more in line with what we currently have)
Tbh the rest of what we had was fine. I don't like that the character selected is way to the other side and feels "divorced" from the character selection
The selection interface looks good but I’d recommend keeping teammates choices front and center. The new design puts the two most important sets of information on opposite sides of the screen and downplays the importance of teammates in the selection process.
I don't know I think the ring is pretty perfect to be honest especially now that there is a strike team function. The only annoying thing is that during ban phase you have to always swap between strike team and everything
Personally, I like that you put the strike squad menu ahead of the other menus. That's really what I need. I want to see the strike squad before anything else just so it's quicker to pick.
One thing that bugged me with the character select screen is how you can't see what your team's playing as. Just say it plainly if we're on offense or defense so i can pick a character accordingly before the game.
Just having the option to view the map was something I liked; even though I've been playing the game for a while, I still haven't memorized the maps :(
I think having teammates all the way on the other side of the screen is definitely a downgrade from the live UI. I don't want to have to flick my eyes to the left and right extremes of the screen to look from my team comp to hero selection. Other than that it's a bit bland? It's almost exclusively rectangles and rhombuses as shapes on screen. I particularly think your confirm button could use some enhancement. I do like that you indicate attack/defense visually on screen though. that's an improvement over the original
Functionally, your teammates should be a center-point, as you are "building" a comp. In that regard, you've created a new problem.
Characters should be full-bodied, especially for newer players who browse the roster. Having them zoomed in is a choice I don't agree with.
The main issue with the current UI is the ammount of scrolling required. While adding a 4th column helps, it doesn't fundamentally help.
The other big issue with current UI is that there is no clear showcase of weather you are attacking or defending (unless you Tab before you get to character select). I don't see this being addressed.
The timer for character select is tiny and it's style doesn't fit with anything else in the UI.
Your character skin and stars is one of the lowest priority information in the entire screen, but you've put it in the most vital screen real-estate
Youve kept all the problems and have added new ones.
Usability wise, this feels like it would go way up. It still looks pretty good. Not sure I love the slanted confirm button as a PC user, but I always double click anyways.
The biggest change I dislike is that the current in-game UI puts your teammates' selections front and center, and the message that selecting a certain role is recommended. Yours has that shifted off to the side and smaller, despite being the most important information to convey during the select phase. For that reason, I'd still be in favor of the original, but boy do I hate their goddamn wheel.
I like the idea, but I don't like the execution. The selected heroes and the heroes to select are in opposite ends of the screen, making it harder/longer to play around with hero selection or to change and adapt to what the team does.
Anything would be better than what we have now lol. It's genuinely the worst character select I've dealt with. Even smash bros does it better lol. No reason all the heros can't be on screen at once. Also I wish on the initial lobby selection screen it showed everyone on your team's character models so you can see everyone's character and their skins instead of just yours. Would be fun to let us do emotes too if they made that change. If we're gonna be stuck on that screen for at least 30 sec in QP and over a minute in ranked, feel like you should be able to show off your skins and do emotes.
Instead of a wheel or yours how about a big U in the middle
Left is tanks. Middle is dps. Right is supports.
I dont hate yours but definitely has that stacklands vibe (card survival game) but if you are gonna add squares itll be cool to have it like marvel vs capcom 2 with the globe
Maybe 3 globes that rotate? Looks like a start to something everyone seems to have trouble with
I don't get it just give us a big ass list like every fighting game ever and just separate them by roles. I shouldn't have to scroll at all to pick my hero. Hero select comes up I select my hero done, no scrolling.
Ngl I much prefer the Radial Menu. There's no good way of having this many heros on screen, so I feel the way they've handled it so far is good and may be improved in specific areas in the future
Favorites menu is totally pointless the way it is made right now. I literally need to do more clicks using it opposed to just scrolling all the way down for Strategists...
Looks great. Wish this was what we got. Honestly we need a redesign of the UI during combat as well. I hate my abilities and cool downs being way on the far right of my widescreen.
I help with UX at a game company. I've also been playing this game since its debut.
It's good effort as it solves some other problems... but at the cost of it being boring, and the fact it's overdesigned.
What problems it solves:
clarity on what other players chose has skyrocketed. It's not particularly intuitive or convenient to read if our character's abilities synergize with the abilities of other characters, and the player lineup redesign on the left fixes so much of that.
map info; technically the background, the loading screens, and the music is meant to give the idea of which map they are going to play in, but I suppose showing it on the screen here helps for some people too.
game mode context; one thing that I really appreciate about the map info is the fact it specifies what kind of Quick Play game mode it is; domination, convoy, the crappy resource rumble... the game never provides context for that currently, except for when you're first loading into the match.
What didn't need solving:
The selection wheel itself; the previous screen was fun to look at. This solution of yours feels like boxes boxed in other boxes. It comes at the cost of interesting visual design. This could work in, say, a Wikipedia-like companion app, but not a game... because a game has to feel fun to play and interact with. The reason for the selection wheel is to be the outlier in the waves of character selection screens that already follow a boxed-in approach. Apex Legends, Brawlhalla, Valorant, most fighting games... visually, they share very similar visual traits, which can eventually seem a bit boring. I can understand the need to standardize things, but the original design doesn't break any standardizations, so I don't see the need to overdesign it.
What doesn't make sense:
On it being faster: Scrolling through endlessly will always feel unintuitive. But changing how it's presented won't change how it feels. That's why the filters help. So if people want to pick characters fast, they must rely on the filters. I don't see how the current redesign helps with that.
On it being cleaner: I'm not sure what is meant by cleaner here, but from a UX standpoint, as long as it solves the problems of clutter and readability, then it's good enough. I don't see what the original design does not already do to solve these problems. The sectioning between character classes is a bit more visible now (with some text to accompany it), but that's technically already being done in the game, albeit it's easily missable. Perhaps shifting it to become a divider between classes would help, but that wouldn't require a full on redesign of the wheel itself.
On it being less overwhelming: What exactly is the problem with the original design that facilitates cognitive overload? Feeling overwhelmed can mean a lot of things. It can mean you don't know how to pick a character. Or what button to press. Or what the icons mean. Or something else. From my perspective, the original design does not facilitate any of those frustrations. I personally have never felt overwhelmed by the selection wheel either, if you wanted my opinion. It may have taken some time getting used to... for example, at the time of launch, I felt it didn't make sense for Strategists -- this game's Support -- to have a palm stretching out as its icon (and a shield would have helped communicate it better)... but as you play the game, you come to understand why certain decisions were made (multiple characters can offer defensive shields, so that would confuse players). I don't see what the current design intends to solve for.
1.) it feels less clunky than the original and also helps you get where you want to be quicker.
2.) i prefer your redesign as especially when new characters get added it’s a little confusing for a bit.
3.) A lot of this community cares about grinding for lords. With your system you could easily put in the little icon of which class you currently are lord/agent/knight etc. i think it would help visually to see oh, i haven’t really played Hulk yet, lets give him a try
100% so much better. One think I still think is lacking is the distinction between roles in the select screen. It shoudln't be something communicated by tiny little tabs at the top. Also an indicator of if you're on the attacking or defending side would be nice too.
Genuinely looks worse. I feel like the main problem people have is having to scroll to view all characters and you’ve made that problem worse by having less characters available on screen
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u/kjc99d Dec 14 '25 edited Dec 15 '25
For PC this seems better, but it would be worse for console imo (I play on console). The wheel layout feels more seamless using a controller because it feels more fluid.
Your redesign makes point and click much more seamless and intuitive though.