Back again! Although I was happy with my first design, it was a bit safe and actually very similar to Polyphony's work. I tried to distance myself from that the second time around.
The idea here is that the screen is bookended by two panes on each side of the screen. Sliding out the panes is controlled with L1/R1, and the panes show menu options when revealed. Both panes cannot be viewed at the same time - pressing R1 when the left pane is already open closes that pane. You can close both panes, at which point you're left with a nice little demo reel of your garage, or a wallpaper you've chosen, or a photo travel location somewhere, etc.
The left pane I've titled "GT World," and deals with everything in the game that doesn't relate to racing. The right pane is all racing related, and next I'll make a mockup where that pane is open.
GARAGE: Allows you to change cars, sell cars, post cars to your online garage, gift cars, tune, edit liveries, paint, manage your B-Spec team, and view photos.
GT AUTO: Your one stop shop for everything from oil changes to engine swaps. Not just for maintenance, but also purchasing parts.
TRAVEL: Travel allows you to visit any circuit or photo mode location in the game. Conduct max speed tests, go on a track day, and take shots of your new ride.
DEALERSHIP: Self-explanatory, although there isn't a centralized used car dealership as in GT4 and GT5. Used cars are sold via each individual manufacturer, like in GT1 and GT2.
COMMUNITY: This is the hub for all non-racing online activities. View your friends' progress, view leaderboards, purchase cars, liveries and car setups from an online marketplace, receive and send gifts, post photos, view other people's photos, and test drive cars in your friends' online garages.
PROFILE: Here you can change profile settings such as the color and theme of the GT Life menu, the wallpaper/screen saver, and your profile picture. You can also view your progress.
OPTIONS: Are options.
The picture above the menu options changes depending on which option is being highlighted. Since Garage is highlighted in this screenshot, the player is shown a picture of his HSV-010, the car he's currently in. Highlighting GT Auto might show you new items on sale, or highlighting Community might show you a new gift waiting to be received, etc.
To the right of the GT Auto option, there's a scrolling marquee that basically just gives you new, relevant information about one of the menu items. In this case, here it's telling us there are new wheels on sale at GT Auto. The Travel option might say that a new photo mode location has become available. Again, this is just another way of integrating notifications into the menu system.
Phew. I'll do more variations on this UI in the future, because I'm really, really happy with the way it turned out. The time in the right corner of the screen is the time when I finally decided to go to bed last night. It was just too much fun to work on