Dungeonomics' user interface is simultaneously small and informative. It maximizes visible playspace while still giving the player all the information they need at a glance.
This is the main screen of the game. Top-left are the six main navigation buttons: Hiring, Staff List, Construction, Departments, Stats, and Pause. At center is the Clock, which tracks how many time units are left in the current workday. Top-right is the Gold counter: the black is current gold, the red is how much is spent at the end of the day. UI elements are kept in a uniform location.
When the player clicks on the Hiring button the Monster Queue appears. The Monster's icon is on the left, followed by their name, and the Clock symbol which indicates how much time is left before that monster leaves the hiring queue. Farther right is a symbol to denote if the player has interacted with that Monster: empty circles denotes already seen Monsters, the exclamation points refer to new Monsters, and the green arrow indicates an active interview.
When the player clicks on a monster in the Interview pane, a more detailed drop down menu appears. This details a Monster's base stats and an Interview button.
During an interview, the player will be presented with a series of questions, which they can ask to spend a Time Unit and gain information about the Monster. The Hire button hires the Monster. The Exit button and Minimize button (on the top right), brings the player back to the Monster Queue. Clicking on the Chat log opens up a view of previous dialogue.
When the player is looking at the chat log, the "Chat Log" button is replaced with the "Questions" button, which would bring them back to the previous list of questions.
Visually similar to the Hiring Menu, the Staff List provides the player with information about who they've hired, and where they are within the dungeon. The player would be able to click on a monster from this list to identify them within the dungeon, and get more information about them as needed.
When the player clicks on the Construction button, another side pane appears, detailing the list of available rooms to build. Similarly to the previous two panes, their is a thumbnail for the room on the left-most side, followed by name of the room, and the costs of the room in Gold and in Time Units. Beneath that information is a text description of what that room does in terms of bonuses, and how big it is. Additionally, a visual overlay displaying a grid and making the room outlines white appears to give the player the feeling that they are looking at a dungeon blueprint. The visual grid would correspond to a basic 1x1 square room, making it easier for the player to visually lay out how they want to build their dungeon. When the player has planned out what they want to build, they would hit the green "Build" button at the bottom left to finalize their construction plans, pay the costs, and start building.
This menu would would appear when the player pauses the game. The main function of this menu would be to save and load save files, as the game does not run in real time. Accessing the game's Options for graphics, volume, and such would also be here. This would also be how the player would quit the game. Resume brings them back to whatever menu they were on when the clicked the pause menu.