The team behind Diablo IV have released the first in a series of quarterly blog posts taking a look at some of the changes coming to the series, particularly in the UI department.
As part of the game's darker art direction, Blizzard has rejiggered the inventory system to make the individual parts more visible during hectic play, primarily by changing the color spread and contrast levels of the UI. In terms of general UI design, the PC version of Diablo IV will allow players to choose either a center or left-corner configuration for their status bar, while the console version will use the corner option.
According to the post, all items in Diablo IV will take up the same number of inventory slots, as the team feels that they don't want to interrupt gameplay with "pockets of inventory management." Diablo IV will also allow the player to bind any skill to any key, including left-click, which was a feature that many fans requested. The game supports either controller or mouse and keyboard on PC, which required the team to unify the UI for ease of use on either control setup.
The blog post also discusses the monster design of the upcoming game in detail. No word on a release date yet, though.