After joining Firaxis in August 2025, I was initially tasked with overseeing UX design for future exapansion and DLC content (more on that later). Following Civilization 7's launch my role was shifted to instead focus on identifying and addressing high impact issues in the base game's UX and UI. While this effort is ongoing we are beginning to see positive returns to player sentiment and the overall player experience.
One of the first areas targeted by this UX initiative is Settlement Management. Growing and structuring your settlements is a key part of Civilization’s core loop. What buildings the user selects and (often more importantly) where they are placed result in massive impacts to the overall campaign. At launch this system was riddled with UX issues which either obstructed key information or, in the worst cases, displayed incorrect information. The goal of this redesign is to educate and empower the user to understand the choices they are making.
Please see below for a series of before and after comparison images.