UX & Level Designer
Minecraft Inventory Challenge
UX/UI Redesign
Minecraft is an amazing game that has evolved over time, but its simple inventory system has not scaled well alongside the game’s success. For this project, I was given 1.5 weeks to identify pain points in the current inventory system and use those insights to develop a more intuitive and future-facing solution.
Through further research and testing, I aimed to address issues such as item organization, ease of access, and overall user experience, while ensuring the new design could scale with the game's growing complexity. The result is a refined inventory system that enhances usability and supports future game expansions.
Background
I’ve been playing Minecraft since I was young, and over the years, I’ve explored countless mods that expand the game’s inventory system to handle new and more complex items. These experiences gave me a deep appreciation for the need for better inventory management. This assignment was a great challenge for me, but it was also incredibly interesting to learn about the needs and behaviors of Minecraft players. It pushed me to think creatively about improving the system while keeping it simple and intuitive.
Tools & Skills Applied​
Skills:
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UX/UI Design
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User Testing
Tools:
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Unity
- Figma
Developed:
November 2024
Role:
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User Experience Designer
Problem Statement
Minecraft’s inventory system is confusing and inefficient, with limited sorting options, unclear recipe navigation, and poor visual cues, making it hard to manage the game’s growing item list effectively.
Goal
To develop a future-ready, flexible, and player-friendly inventory system that helps all player types.
​These are the questions I asked:
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What do you find most frustrating about the current inventory system?
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What features would you want in an improved inventory system?
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How do you feel about managing items between your inventory and chests?
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How do you typically manage and access your resources (e.g., blocks, tools, food)?
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Have you ever used any third-party tools to improve inventory management? If so, what features did you like?
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Do you find the crafting book easy to navigate? Why or why not?
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How do you feel about the current organization of recipes in the crafting book (e.g., tabs, categories)?
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Do you feel the crafting book helps you craft items faster? Why or why not?
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User Research
For my research, I interviewed ten users who play casually play and avidly play Minecraft.
Image of current inventory
User Interview Results
Summary
I found that the current inventory system has some benefits. It’s simple and easy for new players to use, and the layout is familiar to long-time players, making it comfortable to navigate.
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However, there are some issues with the system. There aren’t many options to organize items, which can lead to clutter. There are also no tools to sort or filter items quickly. The recipe book is page-based, which makes it slow to navigate, and only shows twenty items at a time, making crafting less efficient.
"I wish I had more control over organizing my inventory and chests. Especially, with a game with growing items." - User
User Analysis
Different types of Minecraft Players
I created four common types of players based on user feedback.
Similar Game Inventory Systems
After combing through the results, I decided to do further research by finding games that I can reference to find solutions to these issues.
Diablo IV:
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Uses a grid to organize items, making them easy to manage.
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Items do not stack.
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Frequently used items are easily accessible by filtered and sorted tabs
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Limited inventory encourages strategic item management.
Rust:
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Has a dynamic toolbar for easy item switching, more flexible than Minecraft's fixed hotbar.
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Hover-over tooltips for detailed item info, improving usability.
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Easier item transfer between containers, reducing tedious inventory management.
ARK: Survival Evolved:
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Allows item sorting by type, helping organize inventory more efficiently.
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It features item filtering by category, making it easier to find specific items.
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Quick access slots allow faster item retrieval.
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Larger storage containers help manage bigger inventories and group items better.
Pain Point Analysis
Limited Organization Options:
Challenges for players with different needs
Accessibility:
Hard to find items, especially for new players or specialized tasks.
Scalability Issues:
Minecraft's inventory was originally designed to hold a fixed set of items.
From observations through my user studies, I found that players tend to ground things together that makes sense to them.
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This is an example of how a player may set up their inventory for survival.
Proposed Design
Wireframes
In this proposed redesign, I focused on improving the overall quality of life for players, making both the inventory and crafting book more intuitive, efficient, and customizable. The key areas of improvement include:
Quality of Life Features
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Searching
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Filtering
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Streamlined Inventory and Recipe Book
I came up with a custom filtering button, called Smart Select. That works in the inventory and in chests.
Smart Select
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The Smart Select feature is a customizable filtering tool that allows players to organize their inventory based on their preferences. Players can filter items by type or group together items using tags.
Redesign Recipe Book
​The crafting book was redesigned to improve clarity and accessibility. Users often struggled to understand the purpose of the crafting book, so I made several adjustments to make it more intuitive:
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The craftable button now turns green when active and red when inactive, making it clear whether a player can craft an item or not.
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The first page now includes Recently Crafted and Suggested sections to make it easier for players to quickly access items they've recently used or items they might need next.
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I replaced the axe to a pickaxe icon on the tools tab.
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Added a scrollbar instead of flipping pages.
User Results from Wireframes
What I Learned
This redesign challenge taught me a lot about how players use inventory and crafting systems. One important lesson was realizing that even simple features like the sort and smart select buttons need to be clearly explained, especially for new players. Some users suggested adding tooltips or short tutorials to make these features easier to understand. I also learned that the recipe book needs more flexibility.
As the game grows, having just five categories can make it hard to find specific items. Players would appreciate having more categories or ways to customize the organization. This experience showed me how important it is to keep testing and adjusting designs to make sure they work well for all players, no matter how experienced they are.