FUI (fictional user interface)
The made-for-fiction interface: glowing reticles, telemetry, maps, thin rules, and dense readouts that make a machine feel futuristic.
See it
What it is
A fictional user interface, or FUI, is screen design built to tell a story inside a film, game, or imagined product. Reticles, telemetry, maps, thin rules, dense readouts, and luminous overlays make a machine feel capable before the audience understands any control. Minority Report and Iron Man made gesture-driven and holographic versions familiar, and studios such as Territory Studio, which built the screen graphics for The Martian and Blade Runner 2049, do this as a specialty.
Reach for it in title sequences, game HUDs, launch visuals, exhibits, or a marketing moment that needs instant science-fiction context. Start with one narrative task, such as acquiring a target or diagnosing a system, then let every graph and animation report progress toward it.
Gotcha: FUI is often performance graphics, not usable product UI. Tiny type, constant motion, and unlabeled symbols can look convincing for a three-second shot and fail a real operator. If people must interact with it, preserve plain labels, large targets, keyboard access, and a reduced-motion mode.
Ask AI for it
Build this as an FUI for a spacecraft diagnostic sequence. Draw the reticles, radial ticks, map paths, and segmented meters in SVG; use CSS mix-blend-mode: screen and filter: drop-shadow() for a restrained cyan phosphor glow. Animate one scan sweep and one progress trace with the Web Animations API, while every number and chart updates toward a clear diagnostic result. Keep critical labels at 14px or larger and disable nonessential motion under prefers-reduced-motion.